I've spent more time than I care to remember - fighting with pagefile.sys's.
Specifically getting, and keeping, the ****ed things contigous, (offline
defrags' etc), and trying to keep them that way, ...i.e. tinkering with
"fixed size" pagefile.sys's. I think it was on aumha.org where one
described strategy was to set a fixed 60mb swap-file on the XP boot drive,
(because XP does not like there to be no swap-file at all on its'
boot-drive), and the larger, (1.5 x's the amount of memory in the box / XP
default size), (2nd) main swapfile on the 1st drive on 2nd hard disk.

Across the years, I've found this strategy does "smooth" things out a
little, and under some conditions there is a small but noticeable
performance benefit e.g. XP can be skittering around doing what it want's
with its' swap-file on 2nd hd, whilst the boot-drive is simultaneosly doing
other things - .... - depending of course on what you're doing on your PC !

regards, Richard


"Gerry" <gerry@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:OpyVNDguIHA.1220@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> Twayne or Whoever
>
> Twayne wrote:
>>> Twayne
>>
>> I am Twayne: I did not write what's below. It is misquoted by
>> someone apparently ignorant of such things.
>
> That's irrelevant so far as I am concened.
>
>>
>> Since the dummy trying to pose as me knows so much, I wonder why he
>> didn't post a solution? 3rd party apps are the easiest, but it CAN be
>> done without them by basically turning off/moving the PF, starting in
>> Safe Mode, and defrag the hard drive, then turn the page file back on
>> and set it up. Once the files are defragged and contiguous, then the
>> PF will have to be the same and will be the same; contiguous.
>
> Not necessarily true. It depends on the way the pagefile is managed. If
> managed by Windows it will not stay contiguous. A fixed ie.
> minimum=maximum pagefile will be immovable and if contiguous it will stay
> contiguous, unless or until you change the pagefile setting.
>
>
>> Caveat: If you're not familiar with how to do this effectively and
>> moving the swap file around, don't do it; you'll have less than
>> satisfactory results.
>
> I presently have a contiguous pagefile created without using a third party
> utility.
>
>>Better to use a trusted 3rd party app.
>
> If you have money to burn.
>
>>
>> HTH
>>
>> Twayne, the real one.
>>
>>>
>>> That's why you should ignore "MS's defrag will tell you it's not
>>> needed."
>>
>> Untrue: MS's defrag will indeed tell you a defrag is needed, when it
>> is needed and is causing too many waits during accesses.
>>
>
> My statement was true just as your one is; because we are referring to
> opposite sides of the same coin.
>
>
>> You should select View Report and look at the real situation.
>>
>> Yes, assuming you're talking about Defrag's report. BUT, you will
>> still need to be experienced enough to know whether the fragmented
>> files are a problem yet or not.
>
> It really does not matter if you run Disk Defragmenter more often than
> might be absolutely necessary. Besides it's running Disk CleanUp or the
> like before running Disk Deframenter, which when carried out together,
> combine to bring benefits..
>
>>
>> Depding on what I'm doing, I defrag monthly. But, if I'm doing
>> something that creates zillions of temporary files such as design
>> work, or especially video editing and rendering, I do so more often.
>> Video work in fact requires a defrag every day, sometimes more often,
>> depending on what's going on with any particular drive. Those are
>> good reasons to keep a separate working partition for design/video
>> etc. types of work; they defrag faster and don't mess with the boot
>> drive much.
>
> I would agree with this line of thought. Benefits can accrue if you remove
> files that fragment rapidly from the windows partition.
>
>>It's a matter of learning your machine and experience,
>> mostly.
>>> However, it's not just a matter of frequently accessed files. You
>>> will normally not need to access System Restore restore points but
>>> if left fragmented their size, will on a disk with limited free disk
>>> space, cause fragmentation of other files, which are in active use.
>>
>> Existing Restore Points will have zero impact on fragmentation.
>
> Incorrect.
>
>> Fragmentation only happens when data is written TO the drive.
>
> True.
>
>> The
>> total space used for restore points, although excessive IMO, is
>> limited and they do not grow uncontrollably.
>
> Restore points can be of some size. They are created automatically daily
> and if you install Windows Update. Their impact on fragmentation will be
> more significant when there is limited free disk space.
>
>>>
>>> It's questionable whether you want any Norton product on your
>>> computer. Perfect Disk is I suspect more highly rated but there is
>>> really no need to pay for a third party defragmenter.
>>
>> It's none of your business to comment on what anyone else had decided
>> to use on their computers.
>
> Irrelevant.
>
>>I'm sure I could say the same about some
>> of the apps you use too, but even if the opportunity arose and you
>> asked for assistance, I wouldn't tell you to trash it unless it was
>> actually rogue or malicious somehow.
>
> I did not suggest trashing Diskeeper.
>
>> Norton, BTW, has an excellent ability to open up the area where a PF
>> wants to live, and makes it easy to create a continguous PF. Norton's
>> defrag app is also far form the only feature provided by their
>> software package; in fact, it's a small part of it. Symantec's
>> Norton Ghost is pretty decent as is their firewall app. But you
>> don't know that because you allowed Norton to slow down your computer
>> by bad setups and probably have no idea what it's capable of.
>
> A lot of users have dumped Norton when they realised the way it adversely
> impacts on system performance.
>
>>That's
>> fine with me. The only app I'm using right now is Ghost, but it's a
>> great app with True Image running a very close second. But you won't
>> know that either because of your parrot/misattribution mentality.
>>
>> Learn to quote properly. Flame away; I won't be wasting ether on you
>> for awhile to come.
>
> I am only interested in correcting what I see as incorect statements made
> in the last post. I am not interested in trading personal abuse.
>
>
> --
>
>
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> Gerry
> ~~~~
> FCA
> Stourport, England
> Enquire, plan and execute
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>