How big should XP's swap file be?

[Culvin]

I used to hear that you should always make the swap file static by setting the min and max values to the same amount. Is this still recommended?

I also remember hearing that your swap file should be 2.5 times as large as your physical memory. This always seem'd odd to me -- I don't understand why you'd need such huge swap files as you add more ram.

Btw, I see a lot of people lately putting XP on its own partition and using the other partition for programs. Does this really help improve performance?

I have an 80gig 7200rpm HD and 512mb of PC3200 RAM if it matters. Thanks!

 

[WingDing]

The default is normally that the swap file is 1.5 times the size of the amount of physical memory installed. Unless there are specific issues, this usually works fine.

Having an o/s on a seperate partition can help. The o/s gets less fragmented as it is not sitting amongst thousands of other program and gaming files across the disk, and there are speed advantages if your disk has good cache memory (say 8MB), particularly if you place the o/s on that parition.

My CPU runs so hot it creates a quark-gluon plasma

 

[kinetic_tw]

The main advantage to having your OS on a different partition from your programs, is that if something goes wrong and you end up with a corrupt or malfunctioning OS, your data is still in tact on the other partition. Makes for less of a hassle when reformatting.

As for the swap file; 1.5 times your memory has always been my rule of thumb to a point. Obviously if you've got 2 or 3 gigs of memory that isnt quite practical. But for those of us normal folk who run on 512mb, 768 is plenty for the swap file.

If you're not sure about swap file useage, do a ctrl alt del and let task manager run in the background for a while. You can monitor your swap file usage from there.

 

[DCB_AU]

If you can, I would instal games and programs on a separate partition from your OS.

However note that "some" games will not run for some reason in a separate partition.

Keep in mind that if you do a OS repair using the WinXP CD, it will not alter your personal files and game programs, it will only repair the OS, so in actual fact you can instal everything in the WinXP OS partition.

<font color=red>DCB</font color=red><font color=white>_</font color=white><font color=blue>AU</font color=blue>

 

[goblinking]

True, but I'd still recommend separating the partitions.

If a repair isn't possible (and even sometimes when it is), the easiest and best thing to do is a reformat. I usually delete the primary partition and let WinXP installer recreate it.

Also the OS tends to get very fragmented very quickly, at least on my own machine, whereas other partitions remain relatively unfragmented. It's a lot quicker to defrag a 3-gig OS partition than a 200-gig partition with all your programs, games, and music!

 

[XBarbarian]

this is my latest and greatest set up..works very well..and Im finally happy

hardware: 1g ddr333
2 x 40 gb maxtor 7200 ata133
c:\os (6 gb) on dev 1
d:\swap (3 gb) on dev 2 (gave it up to 3 gb..but choose "system control "so its as big as it wants to be..and yes..at 1gb ram..it wants at least 1.5 gb of swap, tho it never uses more than 200mb..weird..but happier
e:\ programs on dev 1
f:\ data on dev2

<i>Benjamin Franklin</i>, <b>" Those who give up liberty for the sake of security deserve neither liberty nor security."</b>