Move your Page File (Virtual Memory) to another drive

Those who are using Windows and with 2 HDD or even a single HDD with multi partition setup, for them, it is always advisable to move the Page File or the virtual memory file to another HDD or to another partition from the default location (which is the Windows installation partition)

What is a Page File ??

In simple words, when your system runs out of RAM by processing large amount of DATA, windows shifts some inactive and background process to a pre-allocated location of the hard drive by making it a part of system RAM (though because of slow read and write speed of the HDDs, a really slow RAM)

Read in details here -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_memory

Why do I need a Page File ??

If you don’t have a page file, your system may and will run of out RAM (no matter how much ram you add) and which will may the system unresponsive, thus, forcing you to restart…

How much Page file do I need ??

As per Microsoft the Page file ammount should be 1.5 times than your physical RAM. So which means if you have 512 MB of RAM then you should set the page file size to 1.5 GB…

How ever, now days, because we can buy really high amount of RAM, for example, 2 GB or more, therefore I would suggest that, if you have 2 GB or more as you physical RAM, then you should set the amount of page file as not more than 3 GB… Do note, a large paging file may slow down the system performance…

Why Should I change the Page File location ??

If you have 2 Hard drive, then this really helps the system performance, because when you set the page file from your OS drive (where all programs would be in) to another drive, then that takes a huge load out of the main system hard disk, as a page file needs continues read and writing…

How do I change the Page file location ??

If you are an Windows XP user, please follow this article given by Microsoft on How to move the page file in windows xp.

If you are a vista user, then follow this bellow process…

Right Click on My computer and click properties.

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At your system information pane, click on the option which says, advance system settings at the left navigation pane….

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One you do that, it should bring up the system properties advance options… Click settings under performance section…

Click setting to reach the next level..

In the performance option, go the Advance TAB… There click change under virtual memory options

Change the page file size at Windows Vista

Click no paging file for Windows System drive, which by default is C: and set your page file to another location apart from your Windows System drive… !!!

Set the page file value and location in Widows Vista

Choto Cheeta on December 21, 2007 | Filed Under Windows

8 Comments

Rudolph Davis  on May 8th, 2008

I have a gig of memory in my sony vaio, what should i set my page file size as. I have moved it to another partition.

Choto Cheeta  on May 9th, 2008

2 GB, thats 2048MB which I would suggest :)

thank you.

Wayne  on November 23rd, 2008

I have 3 drives (XP SP3 system), one IDE and 2 SATA drives. Now I have created a 0 RAID (Striped Disk) with the 2 SATA drives. I changed the page file to the RAID. When I check it again the RAID page file still exist, but the C drive Page file is back again.
How can I get rid of it?
I want my page file to be only on the RAID for better performace.
I also install all my games on the RAID.

gabe  on December 19th, 2008

hi

i have a single hd on my laptop which came partitioned out of the box. Should I divide one of the partitions – I’m thinking the D: drive, the one that doesn’t hold the Windows installation – and place the pagefile there? Do you get anything when the pagefile is still actually on the same physical drive, even those its been allocated its own space?

I am mostly trying to avoid fragmentation of the pagefile – though maybe this isnt even an issue to begin with….
thanks

julieann  on January 3rd, 2009

i have one 250 HDD laptop with 4096mb SDRAM. Vista running at first on one drive C: and have been created new partition drive F: so i have now two partition, but i can’t make the drive F: to GB, it takes only up to 754mb. how will i make it to GB when it says that shadowstorage are there but my shadowstorage is only 5GB.. HOW? ANYONE WITH A BIG HEART? PLS HELP COZ IM MAKING VB.NET 2005 TO XP, thats why i badly needing some help with you guys. =(

teranos  on January 27th, 2009

i have an 500 gb IDE harddisk

and have 6 partitions. (1=450GB 5=10GB)
2024 mb of pagefile is on 5 partitions.

is this too much for windows xp sp3 or not ? (10 GB of pagefile)

Larry Miller  on August 25th, 2009

The optimum location of the pagefile is on the most active partition of the least active hard disk. If you have only one drive that will almost always be on the partition that contains Windows. Moveing the pagefile off the Windows partition will almost always be a bad idea unless it is on a separate physical disk.

The general principle is to keep the pagefile as close as possible to your most frequently accessed files. In the large majority of cases this will be on the Windows partition. This minimizes seek time, the #1 factor by far in pagefile performance. Placing the pagefile on a separate partition will increase seek time and impair performance.

Unless you have a very specific need, and you understand what you are doing, leave pagefile settings on default. You will need far more information than is in this article to make intelligent changes. Windows default operation of the pagefile has been extensively researched and tested. A larger than necessary pagefile will NOT impair performance.

Larry Miller
Microsoft MCSA

Hicksticks  on March 23rd, 2011

The author has some fuzzy math. He says:
“As per Microsoft the Page file ammount should be 1.5 times than your physical RAM. So which means if you have 512 MB of RAM then you should set the page file size to 1.5 GB…”

well 1.5 times 512MB of Ram is 768MB of Virtual memory.

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