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Optimizing pagefile (moving data to fastest part of disk)

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Omega Destroyer

Member
Joined
Sep 27, 2002
Location
Alberta
I can't remember if there was an article here or somewhere else, but it was about optimizing pagefiles.
Anyway what I really wanted to get out of that was to find out how to relocate data to the fastest part of a disk, or even better yet, how to specify what part of the disk a partition goes into

For instance, I'm installing windows, specifying my partitions, and on a seprate physical drive I want to create a partition exclusively for my pagefile HOWEVER, I want this partition to be on the fastest part of the hard drive (distal edge I believe), how do I specify the partition to be created there and not somewhere else?
If anyone knows how, or knows of a few links that explain it, that would be wonderful.
 
It's true, though debated, that placing the pagefile on the outer edge of another hard drive (not partition!) will help it's perfomance. As far as getting it moved, the only program I've ever known to do this is Norton SpeedDisk.

It's also not a bad idea to pick up a free little utility from SysInternals to defrag your pagefile occasionally. It does registry hives too :]
 
What I wanted, was to create a partition that is located on the outer edge of the drive, but I want to have it there when I first create the partition. Then I would use that partition for my pagefile. Is there some way of specifying sectors where you want a partition?
 
"As far as getting it moved, the only program I've ever known to do this is Norton SpeedDisk."

getting ot moved to the outer edge, or just moving it?

In windows 98 you can specify where you want it. Maybe XP doesnt support that because it sucks :p

2000 will let you choose what drive you want it on, id assume xp will too.
 
Yeah XP does allow you to change the drive and partition it's located on, but it doesn't allow you to specify what sectors on the drive.
I want to move it to the outer edge
 
Create a partition on the beginning of the disk. Format it with FAT32, the biggest clustersize you can manage. Then put the pagefile there. It will be on the fastest part of the disk
 
or if you're only running one hard drive, you can plug in a small drive (like a 2-4 gig) as slave and use that drive for page file only.

this way, the heads don't have to move at all to acces the page file. even though it has a little more transferring to do, the extra speed you get from having the heads already placed at the right spot on the disk will even it out, and it's easier to do than rearranging and partitioning your master drive. those old hard drives are really cheap too, where you can find them.
 
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