Windows operating system is using part of your hard drive as a virtual memory. When Windows runs out of physical memory it starts to swap out data to virtual memory, which is a file on hard disk (pagefile.sys). Hard disk is much slower than physical memory, so when Windows start using virtual memory everything slows down. Remember those moments when Windows stops responding and hard disk light is always on…
One solution is to add more physical memory; other is to optimize virtual memory.
Optimizing virtual memory
1. Right click on “My Computer” icon on your desktop and select “Properties”
2. In “System Properties” select “Advanced” tab and click Performance “Settings” button
3. In “Performance Options” select “Advanced” tab and click Virtual Memory “Change” button
4. “Virtual Memory” settings dialog will appear
By default virtual memory is located on drive where Windows operating system is installed. If you have more than one partition or disk, you can enable virtual memory on each one independently.
Possible settings are:
Custom – you specify manually minimum and maximum paging file size
System managed size – system determines best size depending on memory requirements
No paging file – paging file is disabled
Best paging file size is three times amount of physical memory (e.g. if you have 512 MB ram, paging file should be 1536 MB), and you should make it fixed size. You can do that by selecting “Custom size” and entering for both minimum and maximum the same size (3 x ram) and click “Set” button.
If minimum and maximum is different size or “System managed size” is selected, paging file can shrink and grow. This is a bad thing, because paging file will become fragmented. More the paging file is fragmented, system will access it slower.
Defragmenting the paging file
If you have defragmentation application like Norton Utilities or Diskkeeper you can use it to defragment paging file. Disk Defragmenter that is included with windows cannot defragment paging file.
You can defragment paging file even if you don’t have necessary application. First, you disable paging file or move it to another partition or disk. Then defragment disk ([how do I do that->how-to-defragment-a-hard-disk-in-windows]) where paging file used to be. After defragmentation is finished, reenable paging file on that defragmented disk.
To summarize:
– Best paging file size is fixed size three times amount of ram (“Custom size” option with same minimum and maximum)
– If you have two physical hard disks put paging file on the one that does not have Windows installed on it
– Defragment your paging file
Thats Nice to hear about good pagefile optimization comments . but there is one more thing consider page file in windows xp . Windows Xp Pages its Some of Process By default . It is Necessory to Mention about how to disable that if you have more than 512 mb of ram .
This does not entirely makes sense.
Say you have a newer system with 2/4/8gb of ram (which many these days do) are you saying that 16gb of page file is necessary?
Even with my own experimentation I have found that excessively large min sizes causes excess HDD activity, and that an ultra-low min is good to keep things faster.
On my current system the best I could manage was a 100-2000mb file located on a separate partition on my OS install drive, and a 100-4000mb file on an independent partition on an independent HDD. This gives me blisteringly fast startup times, and relatively fast OS operation. The only downside is that, when running very large games, many files are paged to the second HDD, and the OS has a hard time on termination of the game as there are large amounts of data that have to be erased and re written across separate drives.
However I wonder if this is still not faster overall than a single file on the OS install drive.
Aren\’t there any better page file guides than this??? RAM x3 formula sucks, there is so much much much more that can be played around with to get page files working faster.
can any body give answer for these ( swaping is part of virtual memory or physical memory)
good info as for Disable mic say no i have 1 PC with XP & 2000MB Ram Page off it say 500mb some times will go to 1300mb set at 4000mb Page file 2 Hard disks Page on #2 fat 16 * 4000mb just for Page file only. looks like more ram window just take it all & go look for more. you can change settihg in reg to help it used ram still like page fist Hard drive min is 2mb for event viewer
with this pc Page file is set min 500mb max 4000mb as for PC with 512 mb I now set to 1536 mb.
i have 256 mb DDR2 533 Mhz ram. I am going to add 512 mb ram to it. my current initial size is 336 mb and maximum size is 672 mb in custom size in virtual memory dialog box. To which value should i set it now and after buying 512 mb ram? please help.