Swap file size ...
Yes, many have claimed that swap files should be sized to twice your system's memory. Mine isn't!
Choose Virtual Memory settings to Let Windows manage your swap file. Get System Monitor running with Memory Manager - Swap File Size displaying. Start Logging (Logging is found under File.) Now open all the programs you'd ever possibly be running at once and watch your swap file grow as you add to your system's workload. Eventually, you'll "Max Out" your swap file size. Check the log for the largest number recorded.
You now know how large your swap file gets. Use this number to set the MINIMUM size manually.
Use SysEdit to change (or add) the settings in SYSTEM.INI under the [386Enh] heading. On my system, the entries are:
[386Enh]
PagingDrive=E:
MinPagingFileSize=49152
These lines locate my swap file on E: drive with a minimum size of about 48 meg. If needed, Windows can make this file bigger, but not smaller. So .... an area on my disk is allocated to the swap file, and only the swap file. Nothing else gets written to this disk area, so whenever Windows needs the space, there's no clutter to be written around. This prevents pieces of my swap file from getting written randomly all over my disk. In those rare occasions (One hasn't happened yet) that my workload increases sufficiently that the swap file overflows it's reserved space, Windows simply grabs some empty disk space, vacating it when no longer needed.
This gives my system the best of both worlds: An exclusive area on disk for the swap file and an opportunity to exploit the efficiencies that accompany using contiguous disk space; and the ability to grab more if it's ever needed. Needless to say, this method reduces the waste of over-allocating disk space for the swap file.
Cheers, PW. |
