Paging file settings xp

This is just a small trickle of data, usually not noticeable except for the slight flickering of the hard drive activity light. However, this can actively hurt your DAW. This background writing which I'll call "backwriting" - my own invented term will continue until the complete "changed pool" of data in the inactive thread has been written to the pagefile, then it will stop.

This can take a few seconds, or many seconds, depending on how much data is in the pool. And the whole time, the DAW is in danger of audio stream disruption. From this, it may appear that turning off the pagefile would be the way to go. But actually, the answer is not really.

First off, backwriting only happens when the system has run out of physical memory and started paging. If you have reached this point, then turning off the pagefile.

If you have the pagefile turned off and you run out of physical memory, then instead of paging, you get "Out of Virtual Memory" errors and application crashes. Paging ''may'' impact your recording; an application crash will ''definitely'' impact your recording. There is another factor. Remember, when a program starts, it tells Windows how much memory it expects to use. If it runs out of memory and needs to request more, it is a very expensive operation.

Therefore, most programs will request more memory than they will ever use. If the pagefile is disabled, then this memory is locked up by the program, regardless of whether or not the program ever uses it.

However, if Windows is allowed to use a pagefile, then it will notice that the process is not using all its allocated RAM, and it will swap those unused pages out to make them available for other processes. Because of this one fact, you may be able to load many more effects and softsynths if you have paging enabled than if you do not.

By disabling the pagefile. Consequently, you have reduced its perceived performance. If you should add enough effects and softsynths to trigger paging, be aware that you may go through a period where backwriting is occurring, as mentioned earlier.

So, if you do something that will trigger paging, you may want to give your DAW a few seconds or a minute to "settle down" before you start recording. When the hard drive light stops flickering, the backwriting operation is done, and you may start recording without worry.

But even if you start recording while backwriting is occurring, it might not actually cause you any issues at all. First, I tried recording with no backwriting occuring. Then I started up a graphics program with a large picture, doubled the resolution of the picture, and applied an effect. This used a lot of memory. When I switched back to the DAW, there was the initial flurry of paging, then backwriting started at its normal pace. There was no disruption to the audio, but with a less-responsive drive or more tracks, there might have been.

If you are running on a system that is sensitive to backwriting, then all you need to know is when it occurs, and how to avoid triggering it or how to wait for it once it's triggered. There is no need to turn the pagefile off. If you are running a computer with a relatively weak CPU, or are running softsynths or effects that really tap your CPU, you may still be tempted to turn off the pagefile.

However, this doesn't really gain you anything. Remember, the pagefile and faulting are merely aspects of the overall memory management system. The purpose of the memory management system is to move data between disc, RAM, and cache. If you disable the pagefile, you throw off the delicate balance of this system, and reduce its efficiency. You may save a minimal amount of CPU because the background system thread that does backwriting will have less to do.

And the virtual memory management system itself CANNOT be turned off - if that were to happen, the entire computer would completely cease to function. When you turn off the pagefile. This can HURT performance much more than it can help it. The answer is simple: it depends on your usage. The minimum pagefile size should probably not be set any smaller than MB.

Other than that, the minimum pagefile size should only be big enough to handle any demands you regularly place on your system - any larger, and you are basically wasting disc space. Contrary to popular belief, there is no need to keep the size of the pagefile larger than the size of installed RAM, or set it to 1. The best setting is completely dependent on YOUR usage. One way to determine the best setting for your computer is simple: set your minimum pagefile size to some small value, like MB, and set the maximum pagefile size to some large number, like MB.

Then use your computer for a while. Occasionally check the size of the pagefile, using Windows Explorer. If the pagefile suddenly gets bigger at any point, Windows expanded it. Increase the minimum pagefile size by about the same amount. Repeat the process, slowly increasing the minimum pagefile size until your pagefile size remains constant. Tip: if you set your pagefile size to MB and it doesn't get any larger as you use your computer, that is a good indication that adding more RAM to your system may not help performance of your DAW in any way.

Then add a bit to the maximum usage reported by the utility, and use that as your minimum pagefile size. The maximum pagefile size should be a nice large number, probably at least 1. But once again, only experimentation and monitoring of the pagefile usage will tell you the best settings for you.

A good starting point is to increase the maximum by. There are some ways to squeak optimal performance out of the pagefile. The first thing is to try to make sure that it doesn't get "fragmented". When Windows is first installed, the pagefile gets created on a blank or nearly blank disc.

This means that the pagefile is contiguous on the disc - the whole file is placed pretty much in one place on disc. If the pagefile is spread out over the disc in many little pieces "fragmented" , then it can take much, much longer to access. A common way the pagefile can become "fragmented" is by changing the minimum pagefile size.

The computer is initially configured with a pagefile. Now let's say the user decides to increase the pagefile size to MB minimum and MB maximum. The pagefile. So when the minimum pagefile is increased, the pagefile.

However, chances are good that other files have now been written to disc, and the expanded part of the pagefile cannot be contiguous with the old pieces. Instead, it is placed in empty pieces of the hard drive, and can end up spread out in many different pieces, spread widely over the disc. The pagefile has become "fragmented". Essentially, we'd like to make sure the pagefile is defragmented. But there's a problem. Assuming it exists, the pagefile is always in use, as long as Windows is running.

This means it cannot be defragmented using the Windows defragment utility, because the utility cannot move files that are in use, and the pagefile is always in use. For this reason, the pagefile appears as a green "unmovable file" in the Windows defragment utility, as do a few other files, including the Windows Registry.

To get around this issue:. If you ever increase the minimum size of the pagefile, you should probably defragment the pagefile. You'd do this by creating a static pagefile, which has the same minimum and maximum size. This prevents the operating system from dynamically resizing the pagefile -- it's the dynamic resizing that causes an unfragmented pagefile to become fragmented. Diskeeper can perform an "offline" defragmentation of the pagefile after the system is restarted.

It cannot perform this task while the system is running normally. If you don't have Diskeeper, you'll need to move the pagefile off its current partition and re-create it. See what this Product Spotlight has to say about Diskeeper. You can now run an analysis again using the Disk Defragmenter application to confirm that the pagefile is no longer fragmented.

If you want to max out your computer's memory-handling performance, you must do more to optimize your pagefile. Factors to consider when optimizing the pagefile include:. There is some debate on where to place the pagefile. If you look in Microsoft TechNet, you'll see several references on this subject. From my analysis of the available literature, I submit the following recommendations:. To get the best performance out of the pagefile, you should place it on a dedicated disk.

This is especially the case on high-end systems with a large amount of RAM. If your budget doesn't allow you to do this, you can place the pagefile on a disk that contains files that are occasionally read and written to, such as archive files that you create once a month.

Since the pagefile is subject to frequent reads and writes, you want to make sure it isn't placed on a RAID volume. Various formulas are available for how to optimally size the pagefile. Most are based on some percentage of the amount of RAM installed on the computer. These RAM-based pagefile size recommendations are just estimates. None of them will accurately reflect the best pagefile size for your computer.

The best way to determine the appropriate pagefile size is to use the Performance Monitor, which has two counters that you can use to determine your pagefile's optimal size:.

Increases typically do not require a restart. Notes: To have Windows choose the best paging file size, click System managed size. For best performance, do not set the initial size to less than the minimum recommended size under Total paging file size for all drives. Use the following formula for calculating the correct pagefile size.

Minimum pagefile size is one and a half 1. Maximum pagefile size is three 3 x minimum pagefile size. Say you have 4 Gb 4, Mb of memory. Usually, you should leave the paging file at its recommended size, although you might increase its size if you routinely use programs that require a lot of memory. To delete a paging file, set both initial size and maximum size to zero, or click No paging file.

Microsoft strongly recommends that you do not disable or delete the paging file. Tags : virtual memory. Free computer diagnostics Repairing a PC can sometimes be expensive.

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