How exactly does one move the paging files?

Aladdad · Oct 26, 2015

Okay so today i installed more RAM from 8GB to 16GB and noticed that my SSD has lost like 10GB of space so i looked into it, apparently the more ram you have the more space paging files need....so i kind of want the most out of my SSD since its only a 120GB. After searching i ended up with most people saying you can either limit the space or move it to another HDD so i have a WD blue on my PC i would like to "move" the paging files to there...So what do i exactly do to move?
Do i Set the 1TB Drive to "system managed sized" and set the SSD to "No Paging file" ? currently the SSD is set to "system managed sized"
Thanks in advaned

lothdk · Oct 26, 2015

Short and sweet, that is exactly how you would do that =)

USAFRet · Oct 26, 2015

For 16GB RAM, you really don't need much of a page file at all.
I have mine set to 1GB min/max, for over 3 years. Still living on the SSD. Zero problems.

Solandri · Oct 26, 2015

Aladdad :

If this is a laptop, DO NOT DO THIS.

The laptop WD Green and Blue drives (and maybe some/all of the Black) have really short head parking timeouts. Like 5-8 sec. That is, after 5-8 sec of inactivity, the drive automatically parks the heads.
https://community.wdc.com/t/nasty-intelli-park-on-wd-scorpio-blue-1t-2-5/15519

If your pagefile is on the SSD, the head parking on the HDD doesn't matter. But when you put the pagefile on the HDD, every time Windows accesses or writes to the pagefile, it will freeze while it waits for the heads to unpark. I tried this on my laptop (16GB RAM, SSD + WD HDD). After moving the pagefile to the HDD, I got 1 sec freezes every 10-30 sec. Apparently even when Windows isn't using the pagefile, it still accesses it now and then. In particular, this made games unplayable.

You can "fix" it with a program called wdidle3.exe that WD put out. But they recently redesigned their website and the link to download the program disappeared. You can also fix it by modifying the HDD APM settings via a program like CrystalDiskInfo. But it will occasionally reset after a reboot and you have to do it again.

I don't know if desktop WD Blue drives are also affected by this problem. I know the desktop WD Green drives are affected.

I would just do what USAFRet did, and set a custom pagefile on the SSD with a 1GB min size. A 1GB max size will probably work, but if you're paranoid you can set it to a 8GB max size. Preallocating the maximum pagefile size was important on HDDs, where the pagefile had to be contiguous for maximum speed. But SSDs don't care if the file is contiguous, so you can just set it to grow in size if needed without repercussions.

Aladdad · Oct 27, 2015

Solandri :

Aladdad :

If this is a laptop, DO NOT DO THIS.

The laptop WD Green and Blue drives (and maybe some/all of the Black) have really short head parking timeouts. Like 5-8 sec. That is, after 5-8 sec of inactivity, the drive automatically parks the heads.
https://community.wdc.com/t/nasty-intelli-park-on-wd-scorpio-blue-1t-2-5/15519

If your pagefile is on the SSD, the head parking on the HDD doesn't matter. But when you put the pagefile on the HDD, every time Windows accesses or writes to the pagefile, it will freeze while it waits for the heads to unpark. I tried this on my laptop (16GB RAM, SSD + WD HDD). After moving the pagefile to the HDD, I got 1 sec freezes every 10-30 sec. Apparently even when Windows isn't using the pagefile, it still accesses it now and then. In particular, this made games unplayable.

You can "fix" it with a program called wdidle3.exe that WD put out. But they recently redesigned their website and the link to download the program disappeared. You can also fix it by modifying the HDD APM settings via a program like CrystalDiskInfo. But it will occasionally reset after a reboot and you have to do it again.

I don't know if desktop WD Blue drives are also affected by this problem. I know the desktop WD Green drives are affected.

I would just do what USAFRet did, and set a custom pagefile on the SSD with a 1GB min size. A 1GB max size will probably work, but if you're paranoid you can set it to a 8GB max size. Preallocating the maximum pagefile size was important on HDDs, where the pagefile had to be contiguous for maximum speed. But SSDs don't care if the file is contiguous, so you can just set it to grow in size if needed without repercussions.

I'm using a Desktop PC, Okay so if i were to set a custom pagefile on the SSD 3GB min/max would be enough?

USAFRet · Oct 27, 2015

Aladdad :

Yes. And if it isn't, you can always change it up/down. It's not a perm setting.

Search

How exactly does one move the paging files?

Aladdad

Reputable

USAFRet

lothdk

Distinguished

USAFRet

Titan

Solandri

Illustrious

Aladdad

Reputable

USAFRet

Titan

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page