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.
By ava on April 12th, 2008 at 1:39 pm #
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?
By Ste on April 15th, 2008 at 6:19 am #
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.
By Mike on April 23rd, 2008 at 11:02 pm #
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.
By Andrew on May 1st, 2008 at 7:08 pm #
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?
By Jon on June 5th, 2008 at 8:07 pm #
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.
By Brent Trahan on June 6th, 2008 at 6:35 am #
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.
By Jon on June 6th, 2008 at 12:37 pm #
Yeah, I like tweaking things though. The more performance I can get with my hardware, the better.
By Aakash on July 23rd, 2008 at 8:39 pm #
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.
By Brent Trahan on July 24th, 2008 at 6:35 am #
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.
By Dean Sinclair on October 23rd, 2008 at 5:26 am #
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. ;)
By Araknis on November 22nd, 2008 at 8:54 pm #
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
By Araknis on November 22nd, 2008 at 9:10 pm #
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 :P
By Dave on December 20th, 2008 at 1:48 pm #
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
By Fred on January 5th, 2009 at 11:04 am #
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.