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Thread: Hard Drive Memory

  1. #1
    HI.. Someone was telling me about how the hdd is often used for extra memory.. I think I got a grasp of what they were saying...I got a 80gig maxtor hdd and two op systems. I am using xp proffesional and a 700mhz Duron with 159 or so memory. I was considering using a partition just for the cache or paging or whatever it is called... I was told its best to have it set to use one portion of the drive so that it does not "thrash" I was thinking of creating a hidden partion for this... I do a fair bit of video editing and its an old system so anything would help.
    If anyone knows anything about this I would be gratefull...
    Thanks

  2. Software & Hardware   -   #2
    Livy's Avatar Simpleton
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    its better to have a seperate harddrive to put the swapfile on. so if u have a small hdd lying around, use that, if not, just set the swapfile, to a resonabile size, and put this as the min and max values, so its not constantly resizing

  3. Software & Hardware   -   #3
    Cheers.. That makes sense. Also I heard that it is good to change the role of the pc from "home Comp" to Network or something, Just wondered if that was poss with xp.. Thanks again.. Did just occurr to me though what a reasonable size might be ? Guess it depends on the system though

  4. Software & Hardware   -   #4
    Livy's Avatar Simpleton
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    i really dont know enough to say what a resonable size for your system would be.
    but from the ammount of memory u say u have i would turn of all the graphical stuff in xp, like the fancy skins, and shadow effects.

  5. Software & Hardware   -   #5
    all version of windows are shite at managing the page file(virtual memory) and although xp is better than previous versions it aint that much better at it and it gets fragmented all over ya drive, so try this........ right click "my computer", click properties, advanced, performance, advanced, now in virtual memory click "no paging file" and then set, you will be asked to restart, do so, then hit f8 on startup (before you get to xp screen) and select safe mode, ignore restore option. now defrag ya hardrive at least a couple of times, now repeat the above but this time select custom size for paging file and put in a figure in the initial size box that will be plenty to deal with all needs, rule of thumb is 2.5x installed memory (i use 1000mb, you may need more if you run intensive programs) and repeat same figure in max size and then set and restart, this will keep page file the same size and all in one place and it wont fragment and therefore much more stable. i say to defrag first so page is put towards end of drive after ya apps but its not essential.

  6. Software & Hardware   -   #6
    Livy's Avatar Simpleton
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    the best plce for the swapfile is at the start of the drive though, with a constant size.

  7. Software & Hardware   -   #7
    yeh i agree but he has already installed everything so thats gonna be difficult to achieve, it wont make to much difference where it is as long as it is all together, best place would be a separate drive altogether as long as it same speed or faster than master drive, putting it in a separate partition on same drive would mean it constantly switching partitions to access page file which will reduce performance. also ive just noticed he only got 159mb ram, so 2.5x will only give 398mb page, i would put in 1000mb and increase physical memory to at least 256mb for xp.

  8. Software & Hardware   -   #8
    Cheers I will try that later on this evening... One small prob though I will run into.. I go Me one one partitition an ex on another.... ME is fat 32 and xp is nfts ..
    I can never boot into safe mode with xp... I get to the options screen but no matter what I choose It just hangs on installing drivers... I will have a go though cheers

  9. Software & Hardware   -   #9
    you dont need to do in safe mode, my reason for saying it was because you have very little memory, switching off pagefile may cause your system to hang if you got to much running at start up. try just defraggin and then set page to custom size and then reboot. if your hardrive speed is 5200rpm you may as well get an old 1 or 2 gig drive and put it as slave and put pagefile there.

  10. Software & Hardware   -   #10
    Hey cool. Xp booted into safe mode ok.. I just reinstalled xp earlier today, So that is promising.

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