PAGE FILE!!!!!

[Cuzzin Chizzy]

My system is:

ASUS Rampage iii Formula Motherboard
Intel i7 960 @ 3.2 GHz
12GB of Corsair Dominator RAM
EVGA GTX 570 HD 2.5GB

Corsair 64GB SSD

I am running Windows 7 and had only 2GB of free space on my C: os/programs drive.

I have been reading a lot of different things online about the page file and found out it was taking up 12GB of hard drive space.

If I have 12GB of RAM is it okay to disable the page file if I usually only run one application at a time? I do have media editing programs; Cubase 6, Adobe After Effects, Photoshop, so I don't know if I'd ever end up using more than 12GB of RAM while running any of these programs.

What I've done for the mean time is turned the page file size down to 800MB on my SSD and created a 1GB page file on my 500GB HDD's partition.

Can having a page file on your SSD shorten the life of the drive?

Should I completely disable the page file on the SSD, maybe create larger page file on HDD?

I was thinking about just leaving it how I have it now, but don't want to if the page file is bad for SSD drives.

 

[Jim_L9]

Create the pagefile just on your HDD. With the amount of RAM you have there shouldn't be much swapping going on.

 

[Xenturion]

Now, from what I've heard, disabling the Page File is ill-advisable. Despite the fact that modern computers often have a surplus of memory, some programs still utilize the page file.

I do, however, have a solution you can consider. With 12GB of RAM, what I would do is download and use a RAMDisk. Essentially what a RAMDisk does is use your spare memory as a virtual hard drive. If you run one and set it to 2-4GB, you can move the PageFile there and still have plenty of memory left for just about any application. The PageFile on a RAMDisk will be significantly quicker as well. (Largely theoretical, you probably wouldn't notice the performance difference)

http://memory.dataram.com/__downloads/memory/ramdisk/Dataram_RAMDisk_v3.5.130R23.msi

This free software allows you to create a drive up to 4GB in size - plenty enough for the PageFile.

 

[J_E_D_70]

I have 8GB, no pagefile, and no problems (to date). Worst case you disable it, find that a certain program crashes without it, then have to turn it back on.

Do you use the hibernate function? If not, turning that off saves SSD space equal to your amount of RAM (http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?63273-*-Windows-7-Ultimate-Tweaks-Utilities-*&p=442158&viewfull=1#post442158)

 

[Hawkeye22]

I usually have my page file at 1/2 of my memory or less. With 12 gig, I'd make the page file 1 gig if even. Be sure to use the same minimum and maximum size to keep it from becoming fragmented. Old school rules were 1.5 times the physical memory but most computers then were lucky to have 2 gig in them.

 

[Guest]

Can having a page file on your SSD shorten the life of the drive?

Should I completely disable the page file on the SSD, maybe create larger page file on HDD?

I was thinking about just leaving it how I have it now, but don't want to if the page file is bad for SSD drives.

yes, you should move the WHOLE pagefile to the platter because it will help increase the life of your SSD.

 

[djscribbles]

Check out this article:
http://thessdreview.com/ssd-guides/optimization-guides/the-ssd-optimization-guide-2/

System restore, pagefile, hibernate are all covered. These can save a bunch of space.
Also, you can move your temp directories by changing windows environment variables

You can move your user directory off drive as well:
http://lifehacker.com/5467758/move-the-users-directory-in-windows-7

Using mklink you can move other things as well. Google "Steam mover" it's a great tool for managing steam game locations.

Edit: It's also a good idea to keep 10% of your SSD unused, this improves performance and lifetime.

I have disabled my pagefile entirely in the past, and I had it that way for a while until one game was incompatible (It actually told me not enough room in pagefile).
I always disable it on my SSD, however the opposing argument is that an SSD is a very fast cache for your pagefile as opposed to an HDD; however with the limited space you have, I personally would turn it off.

 

[Cuzzin Chizzy]

Ok, that gave me a better idea. What do you guys think about indexing? what's it's exact function?
With it off will I still be able to do a search on C if I need to?

 

[djscribbles]

Ok, that gave me a better idea. What do you guys think about indexing? what's it's exact function?
With it off will I still be able to do a search on C if I need to?

Indexing is a search optimization, it stores file information in a method that's easier and faster to search. If you search frequently, it's nice to have it on, if you don't search frequently (and don't mind waiting for the results of searches) you can turn it off.

It's worth noting that all drives search indexing is stored in your C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Search ... folder, that means you'd want to turn it off for all your drives. If you want to leave indexing enabled, you can use the method described for moving your users directory to also move your ProgramData directory to a platter drive; then it doesn't really matter, as the space consumed by indexing for both drives is actually on you storage drive. (my source for this info is from the first comment on the ssdreview article, it seems logical but there's no source for the info)


edit: I did a little research, and am no longer as sure that disabling indexing on both drives will actually leave the search function intact. I haven't gotten around to checking myself. If it does disable search though, just migrate your program data folder to your HDD and re-enable indexing
Also keep in mind that disabling system restore and hibernate are probably going to save a lot more space than indexing, if you are comfortable disabling them.

 

[Guest]

go to the control panel - indexing options and set the path(s)/folders to index your HD since that is were your data is at.

 

[Cuzzin Chizzy]

Best answer selected by cuzzin chizzy.