This guide shows you how to optimize Windows Vista’s paging file by moving it to a separate hard drive or by using 2 page files for maximum performance.
Introduction
Windows Vista has what is called a Paging File that is located on the hard drive. The paging file acts like additional RAM. If your computer runs out of RAM Windows Vista uses it’s paging file as an alternative to the RAM.
Since a computer’s hard drive controller can read and write from more than one hard drive at one time moving the paging file to a separate hard drive than Windows Vista is installed on improves your computers performance.
Instead of reading and writing system, program files, and your paging file on one hard drive you can move your paging file to a separate hard drive. With your paging file on a second hard drive the load is split between reading and writing system and program files and reading and writing the paging file.
This guide shows you how to optimize the paging file for maximum performance.
Want to speedup Windows Vista? Check out my guide on how to Speedup Windows Vista without Losing Functionality for more tips on speeding up Windows Vista.
Things to Know
Before you start messing with your computer’s paging file there are things you need to understand so you don’t break your computer.
- Your computer must have a paging file. Windows Vista and most software rely on the paging file even though your computer has plenty or memory.
- The recommended size of the paging file is 1.5 to 3 times the amount of RAM you have.
- If you move the paging file, it should always be moved to a different physical hard drive. Never use a separate partition on the same hard drive as the C: drive. This will slow your computer down.
- You can have 2 paging files. Each paging file must be on different physical hard drives though. An example would be a paging file on your C: and E: drives.
Move Windows Vista’s Paging File
In this example I’m going to move the paging file from its original location on the C: drive to a separate hard drive called the E: drive.
- Right-click Computer in the Start Menu.
- Select Properties.
- Click Advanced system settings on the left side of the System window.
- Click the Settings button in the Performance section of the Advanced tab.
- Select the Advanced tab in the Performance Options window.
- Click the Change button in the Virtual memory section.
- Uncheck Automatically manage paging file size for all drives.
- Highlight the C drive, select No paging file, and then click the Set button. Ignore any warnings you receive.
- Select the drive you want to move the paging file to, select system managed size, and then click the Set button.
- Click OK and then restart your computer to apply the changes.
Use 2 Paging Files for Maximum Performance
Since the hard drive controller on your computer can read and write to more than one hard drive at a time it’s possible to have 2 paging files. It’s very important that the two paging files are on separate hard drives and not different partitions on the same hard drive.
In this example I’m going to setup a paging file on both the C: and E: drives for maximum page file performance.
- Right-click Computer in the Start Menu.
- Select Properties.
- Click Advanced system settings on the left side of the System window.
- Click the Settings button in the Performance section of the Advanced tab.
- Select the Advanced tab in the Performance Options window.
- Click the Change button in the Virtual memory section.
- Uncheck Automatically manage paging file size for all drives.
- Highlight the C drive, select system managed size, and then click the Set button.
- Highlight the second drive, select system managed size, and then click the Set button.
- Click OK and then restart your computer to apply the changes.
Want to speedup Windows Vista? Check out my guide on how to Speedup Windows Vista without Losing Functionality for more tips on speeding up Windows Vista.
Still need help? Ask Your Computer Question Now.
Explore other guides about: All • Customization • Vista • Windows.
Doesn’t it speed up performance to move the paging file to a different partition, even if that partition is on the same physical drive?
ava – have you read this page? Well the answer is no, it will slow things down as the read/write head has to move all over the place on the drive.
If your page file is system managed and on the same partition (C:\), then the swap file may become fragmented, decreasing performance. It’s not all black and white.
I have two partitions on the same hard drive. I use the D: drive for storing games and the C: drive for other things. I have a user managed paging file on both drives. How can I remedy this only giving high performance to the D: drive?
What about 3 paging files? I have 2 10k RPM 150Gb WD Raptors in a hardware raid 0 for my OS and installed applications, as well as 2 500Gb 7200.10 Seagate Barracuda’s. As I don’t have Vista Ultimate, no striping the 2 500Gb drives. My mobo uses a SiliconImage Sil4723 chip with a jumper for the hardware SATA raid, but NVRAID supports up to 7 drives in RAID mode (5 additional SATA and 2 IDE). I may look into using that for striping my 2nd two drives, but… in the meantime would it be more beneficial to have 2 paging files on the barracudas, or 3 total paging files?
I also have 4Gb of memory and 4Gb ReadyBoost, so the swap isn’t really that needed I guess.
Also, the Raptors are not SATA II, so they only run a 1.5GBs, but they are much faster in terms of RPM. Would it still be better to keep then swap files off the main OS/apps drive? Or am I just pondering minor improvements.
Sorry this belongs in the forum, but I started it here, was not meant to be this long.
Wow, that’s one hell of a setup Jon. 3 paging files wouldn’t hurt but I think you won’t notice a difference with all of the horsepower you already have.
Yeah, I like tweaking things though. The more performance I can get with my hardware, the better.
Is it still recommended to set the paging file to a static number? Back in XP era, to avoid fragmentation issues, it was recommended that the paging file’s min and max limits were set to be the same to avoid having the paging file constantly shrink and grow. Is it still recommended to keep the paging file’s size static in Vista also?
Thanks.
It’s best to leave the page file size up to Windows. It’s been programmed to configure the page file at its optimal settings based on your computer.
Sorry to butt in here with a burst of know-it-all-ness, but Aakash is absolutely correct. If you set the min and max size of your pagefile.sys the same, it will never be fragmented (that’s if you put it in a non-fragmented spot to begin with) therefore increasing load time (because it decreases the amount of times the physical reading head [almost like on a record player] needs to jump around the hard drive).
I defragmented both my hard drives, in fact C drive just finished then, and now I’m going to put my pagefile on both hard drives (making the min and max size the same) and Windows will automatically create them the closest to the outer ring of the HD’s as possible (defragmenting gets files that are already where I want my pagefile and moves them so they’re next to their respective folders for faster loading). Once I’ve set them and I restart the computer, it’ll delete the old ones at shutdown and boot up with 2 new optimized (NON resizing and fragmenting) pagefiles! Try it and see if you notice a difference, but it’s highly reccomended.
page files suck
the random access time of hard drives suck
so Y would u want
USB has fastest random seek other then ram is y flash drives are made
anytime your computer has to read info from your harddrive and not your ram its going really slow dont kid yaself lol even in 20 years HD will be lucky to have that sort of random access time.
What speeds up a computer a bigger processor and more ram not a bloody pageing file LOL
USB rdy drives store info on them in small parts like 4kb max when your computer need to access that info it can get it from either the USB or the HD,if it gets it from the USB would take about 0.08sec to find and caopy on an average rdy drive where as your HD would take at least 2 secs moving the head to the point of the disc + spin up the disc and read it, now think if your computer has to read alot of those kind of files, what is your HD is doing ill tell u a hell of alot of random seeking it cant handel
and dont come back with but my HD runs at 3GB and a USB can only run at 12-25Mb theres no way its faster ill laugh my arse off 
Setting your page file to a static size is much better than letting Windows manage the size. For one there are extra resources used to resize the page file (Disk and CPU), if the pagefile needs to grow there is a slight delay in the process. IF you have a 500GB HD, why not set the pagefile to 16GB and not concern yourself ever again with fragmentation or size issues? 16GB on a 500GB disk is a small price to pay.
As for using a second drive, it will obviously be better in many aspects. But, if they are IDE on the same cable you are not going to see a huge performance gain, perhaps even a hit. Also, I could use a second drive though – if the second drive is slower than the first drive I may be defeating myself!
Set the page file to a fixed size on a separate partition, or a separate disk from your programs and OS. Set your OS on a seperate drive or partition from your programs aswell. – There is a reason why when I install Linux it follows these same principals.
The OS partition/drive will only be fragmented from OS changes, the program – the programs, and the Pagefile will not become fragmented on it’s separate location. I also put my downloaded multimedia content on a separate partition, as it is constantly changing, yet does not matter as much if it fragments.
Sure, it would be wiser to set these four partitions on four seperate disks with independent I/O systems. But, if you have that kind of money why not buy a solid state drive! lol
Mr. Know-It-All, here.
I’ve been working with Windows since 3.1. I manage servers and workstations for a HUGE organization.
If you have a second drive, put the page file there and set the size static to 1.5 times the size of your RAM. Windows will only address 1.5 times the physical RAM. If you don’t set the page file to static, it will fragment and you can’t de-frag it. That’s the way we do it on all out computers.
Testing shows pretty much what others are saying, though not at all sure about the 1.5 number, any references for that?
Partions – First will be put on outer rim of disk, this is the fastest area, anywhere from 20% to 50% faster dependent on disk
Paging – Static, defragmented, no question this will decrease thrashing, and if NOT in it’s own partition will stop fragmenting
Physical Drive 1,2 Velociraptors
1st Partition 3 x Memory
2nd Partition OS, etc
Physical Drive 2,3,4,5 – RAID 0 (Seagate 1.5TB x 4)
1st Partition Scratch for CS (Photoshop) = 10-20% of disk size
2nd 3 x Memory
3rd 4TB for DATA
4th Emergency Space
It’s true that true Physical drives would be better, but the truth is for data/applications it’s a load once operation after which paging takes over where memory fails, after which seek’s etc are confined to the scratch disk and paging file (though that’s rare for it to hit the paging much since I have 12GB on an i7 system) RAID 0 increases this dramatically (yes everything is backed up nightly to an alternate setup)
Anyway real world testing showed me this was fastest, but not sure about the need for 2nd paging file, havent stressed it enough
I stumbled in here looking for some answers to moving my page file to an SSD Expresscard which uses an internal USB port.
Unfortuately your directions don’t work for me. When I select no page file for the C: drive and set the ssd as the page file- a reboot shows all page files are disabled. I cannot get the paging off the C: drive. It has to be there for any other page files to be enabled. so what’s with that??
re: “…to moving my page file to an SSD Expresscard which uses an internal USB port. … ”
Yeah, it won’t do that. I’ve tried it too. The best you can do is (1) buy a flash drive that looks like a SATA drive (expensive) or (2) use readyboost and a low-latency high bandwidth flash card.
I recently bought a CF to SATA adapter for $5 (new), for connecting a CF card to a SATA connection on the mobo. It says it is compatible with CF I/II, needs no drivers, can support data transfer up to 1.5Gb/s and can be the primary boot device. I also have a CF to IDE adapter, also $5.
I’m still experimenting with them – I still need to load puppy linux on my lowly 4GB card.
I set my page file to a small size on the c: drive and made a 4Gig page file on the SSD express card. I’m not sure what that really gives me in a perfomance boost. I have a readyboost drive of about 4 Gigs also on that express card but from what I read it won’t give me much if any boost since I have 3 Gigs memory. I may just delete it.
I just built a new Vista 64 bit system. Intel i7 quad core processor. 2TB Storage (RAID 10)
I also have a 32G Solid State drive which I thought I’d put the page file on.
Anyone see any issues with this?
Brian, I’m impressed by the specs of that new PC. I’m not sure if that solid state drive will be much faster. Why don’t you try and let us know.
My Systems :
- OS Vista Bussiness
- HDD 1 parted to Windows and Program files (2 partitions)
- HDD 2 parted to data and temp dir (2 partitions)
- HDD 3 not parted for multimedia
- USB 1 flashdisk 8GB to readyboost 4GB, remain 4GB free space.
Can I speedup my PC if I move pagefile to remain USB 1 space?
Thanks a lot
I found this page helpful as Vista will not otherwise reduce the size of the Vista partition on my system below 85GB, even though it uses << 20 GB. Apparently the swap file/paging file was stored around the 85GB location in the partition, and the partition could not be shrunk past it.
I did read this “Never use a separate partition on the same hard drive as the C: drive. This will slow your computer down. “, and wondered if they were wrong or if you could comment.
[http://maximumpcguides.com/windows-vista/move-and-optimize-windows-vistas-paging-file/]
Thanks,
Tony
You should never put the page file on a seperate partition on the same hard drive as Windows is installed on.
If you do, your hard drive’s arm will have to move from one end of the platter to the other constantly if the page file is being used. This will slow down your computer.
I did what was suggested above to set an additional page file on an addition drive in PC.Now my pc won’t load past boot,setup page. I don’t want to restore. But what else is there to do?Thanks
Go to this guide.
When you get to step 6 click Startup Repair instead of Command Prompt.
Hi there. I am running Vista Home Premium 64 bit on a Q6600 with 8gigs of ram and no paging file. I have been running this way for about two months now. I have not quantified it through any benchmarking, but things seemed a bit snappier after I removed my paging file. I did have it on the same drive as my operating system though. I have not had any problems with my system since eliminating my paging file. I use my computer mostly for gaming and home entertainment (converting video formats, burning DVDs etc.) and some photo editing. Ram is so cheap these days that getting an extra 4gigs and foregoing the paging file makes great sense.
I have the same problem as Tony, I cannot shrink Vista’s partition below 214GB because of the location of unmoveable system files, most likely the page file. For years I have heard that the page file should be placed where the disk spins the fastest. How do you move the page file to a spcific area of the drive without dropping it into a separate partition?
In responce to Fred,
he gave sound advice, but for those who need it, PageDefrag can defrag paging files and Registry hives. It is one of Mark’s Sysinternals tools, here:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb545027.aspx
You can put it on a separate partion on the same drive. But it should be as follows for performance.
Partion 1 5Gb: PageFile only this ensures it is place at the outside of the platter and is never fragmented (the main reason for taking away windows management).(Windows managed size it won’t go above 4Gb in Vista, but windows doesn’t like over 80% of a drive used hence 5Gb.)
Partion 2: Os and Programs (and everything else if you want. Defrag immediately after installing the os and moving the page file.)
Partion 3: Storage (Optional for organization and easy OS reinstalls, but this will be the slowest partion)
The slowest part of a computer is the hard Drive so if you want a faster computer just get a faster Hard drive.
then ofcourse a good video card and processor and memory.
It is widely known that Hard drives are the slowest part of a computer because it has moving parts,
Processors, memory and video cards dont have muving parts that need to move to perform.