Windows 7 Dual-boot pagefile Question

[Cellophane Dream]

Ok, I looked, I googled, I came up empty. I have 2 hdd's. I have a Dual-Boot set up of windows 7 32bit on My first hdd. Windows 7 64bit on my second. Now, pagefile...I know it's best to put the page file on a seperate hdd on the first partition, right? Well...I have OS (a) on HDD 1 and OS (B) on HDD 2. Would I be able to put the pagefile of (a) on HDD 2 and OS (b) on HDD 1.?

Each HDD has 3 partitions, but to put the pagefile on the FIRST partition...I'd have to put it on the OS's partitions. Is this a good idea?

 

[The_Prophecy]

Since you have operating systems installed to the primary partitions on both drives, keep separate paging files for each OS, and put them on any partition on their same respective drives (i.e. you said 7 32 bit was installed to your first drive and 64 bit installed to the second drive, so put the pagefile for 32 bit on the first drive, and the one for 64 bit on the second drive).

The partition you choose to put them on is entirely up to you though.

 

[Cellophane Dream]

Putting the pagefile on a seperate HDD than it's respective OS is overall better for performance though. So basically I'm asking if I could put the swapfile from win7 64bit on the First partition of the second HDD which contains win7 32bit and vise versa...

 

[The_Prophecy]

So basically I'm asking if I could put the swapfile from win7 64bit on the First partition of the second HDD which contains win7 32bit and vise versa...

Neither install of 7 should have a problem with you doing that...

 

[Cellophane Dream]

Worth a try then. I figure it should work out well considering when using one OS I'm not using the other so if the page file is in the same partition of the OS i'm not using then there is no read/write going on except the pagefile.

 

[Cellophane Dream]

Thanks BTW for the quick response.

 

[Ijack]

To play Devil's Advocate, this means making the OS partitions visible to the other OS. I would prefer not to do this, just to avoid potential problems.

TBH I don't think the location of the swapfile is nearly as important nowadays as it used to be; if you're hitting the swapfile that often then you probably need more RAM. (It might be different in a server running heavy database applications, but I'm guessing that you're not talking about a dual-boot setup on a server.)

I would put it on neither of the OS partitions but on a data partition visible to both OSes. As a bonus, both will use the same file, so you'll save a bit of disk space.

 

[Cellophane Dream]

To play Devil's Advocate, this means making the OS partitions visible to the other OS. I would prefer not to do this, just to avoid potential problems.

TBH I don't think the location of the swapfile is nearly as important nowadays as it used to be; if you're hitting the swapfile that often then you probably need more RAM. (It might be different in a server running heavy database applications, but I'm guessing that you're not talking about a dual-boot setup on a server.)

I would put it on neither of the OS partitions but on a data partition visible to both OSes. As a bonus, both will use the same file, so you'll save a bit of disk space.

Hummm.....good point. Sometimes I get so anal about having everything "perfect" especially if I popped an adderall. So I ask you this...

Ok, so I have both OS's share a swap file on a data partition. Well, one OS will have the benifit of having the swapfile on a sepreate HDD. Which would benifit more..64bit or 32bit?
Btw, I only have 4 GB Ram. The reason I am doing the dual-boot is to give the 64bit a try before deciding on buying more RAM.

Speaking of RAM, would you say 4 GB of pc2-5300 is better than 2 GB pc2-8500? I have a e8400 wolfdale fsb 1333Mhz Gigabyte mobo that supports DDR2 1200 (O.C.)/1066/800/667.
I threw in 2 gigs of pc5300 just to try out the 64bit which of course slowed my pc8500 down to 333

 

[MRFS]

Get Partition Commander from Avanquest
(good product: worked perfectly the first time for us),
and reduce your C: partitions to 30-50 GB on both HDDs.

Then, format the remainders as data partitions.

Then, you should be able to maintain 2 swap files, and
configure each OS to swap using the secondary HDD.


Also, the CONTIG freeware software will permit you to
create a perfectly contiguous "pagefile.sys":

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897428.aspx

Don't forget to change the attributes to +A +S +H
(easy to remember "ASH"


MRFS

 

[Cellophane Dream]

Get Partition Commander from Avanquest

Thanks, will try this. Funny thing about CONTIG...I have had this program for a few weeks and forgot about it. Never used it yet, Thanks again.