Windows 7 x64 pagefile, scratch disk, temp files, etc

[abhiroopb]

I have the following desktop: www.techcomet.com/p/my-gadgets.html

My “MO” is generally to keep things “default” unless there is a good reason why I should change the way something is set up.

An example is that I read SSDs wear out over time so it is better to put the paging file on a separate disk. Hence, I created a dedicated partition on my 1TB HD and put my paging file there. The partition is 10GB and the paging file can go up to a total of 9GB (I have 6GB of RAM).

I have read articles that I suggest I move my Photoshop CS5 scratch disk of my SSD onto a separate hard drive. Hence, I made my paging file partition bigger and put the scratch disk there. I don’t deal with a lot of massive photoshop files, so this shouldn’t be a big deal, but again I want the best performance with the least hassle.

So, my questions are:

1. Where should the paging file be placed and approximately how big should it be?
2. Where should the Photoshop scratch disk be placed?
3. Should I move my temp folders off my SSD (i.e. move them to my HD)?
4. Are there any other hardware or optimization tweak that would benefit the speed or longevity of my system?

Again like I said I don’t like trying out every obscure hack, for one thing there is so much disagreement over these hacks that it is difficult to figure out what is the best thing to do.

Anyway, thanks for helping!

 

[TorrentG]

Seems like you did well already. I personally also like my temp folder on a separate drive than the boot drive (that houses Windows itself.)

I make my Photoshop scratch disk the same one as my temp folder...off the boot drive.

You can let Windows manage the page file size and this is fine. Some like to set its max and min size to the same to prevent it shrinking and growing but I don't really think this is an extremely valuable tweak or anything.

You'd do well to disable the Disk Defragmenting service and use something like O&O to manually defrag once in a while, with that SSD.

I don't have an SSD but I do this anyhow.

 

[abhiroopb]

Seems like you did well already. I personally also like my temp folder on a separate drive than the boot drive (that houses Windows itself.)

I make my Photoshop scratch disk the same one as my temp folder...off the boot drive.

You can let Windows manage the page file size and this is fine. Some like to set its max and min size to the same to prevent it shrinking and growing but I don't really think this is an extremely valuable tweak or anything.

You'd do well to disable the Disk Defragmenting service and use something like O&O to manually defrag once in a while, with that SSD.

I don't have an SSD but I do this anyhow.

Thanks for the thoughts.

I have read that defragging SSDs is bad. Actually pretty much every article says it’s bad, so I have completely disabled it.

If you have any other thoughts please let me know.

 

[TrainableMan]

"When a solid state drive is present, Windows 7 will disable disk defragmentation, Superfetch, ReadyBoost, as well as boot and application launch prefetching." - it's fine you disabled it but W7 already knows.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/e7/archive/2009/05/05/support-and-q-a-for-solid-state-drives-and.aspx

 

[abhiroopb]

"When a solid state drive is present, Windows 7 will disable disk defragmentation, Superfetch, ReadyBoost, as well as boot and application launch prefetching." - it's fine you disabled it but W7 already knows.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/e7/archive/2009/05/05/support-and-q-a-for-solid-state-drives-and.aspx

Thanks for the clarification

 

[Nibiru2012]

The Paging File must be put on a separate hard drive when running an SSD. There are MANY opinion on how big the Paging File should be. I make mine the same size as my RAM, which is 6GB.

This is to minimize the number of read/write cycles to the SSD, plus Windows likes it better when the Paging File is separate from Drive C.

I have done this for years on regular hard drives.

BTW, NICE system you have there!


Maximize SSD Performance with the SSD Tweak Utility

If you're an early adopter of solid-state drive technology, odds are you're interested in squeezing every last drop of performance out of your system otherwise you probably wouldn't have spent $300 on 80GB of storage (or considerably more than that a few months ago).

There's a wealth of information to be had about SSD tweaking and with a bit of research you'll find various adjustments for Windows that can help you make the most of your drive. The thing is, to fine tune Windows, you'll waste a lot of time navigating menus and that's where SSD Tweak Utility steps in.

A user on the OCZ forums created a utility that gives you centralized access to all the popular SSD configuration points within Windows. The SSD Tweak Utility lets you fiddle with the following:

• Windows Indexing Service
• System Restore
• Windows Defrag
• Use Large System Cache
• Ntfs Memory Usage
• Disable 8.3 Filenames
• Disable Date Stamping
• Disable Boot Tracing
• Windows Prefetcher
• Windows Vista Superfetch
• Windows Services

The software is compatible with Windows 2000, XP, Vista, and 7 (both 32 and 64-bit). It's also worth mentioning that the program only makes adjustments to Windows at the OS level, so it should work with any SSD brand or model. I tested it using a second-gen Intel X25-M on Windows 7 Home Premium and Ultimate x64 as well as Windows XP x86 without a problem.

The SSD Tweak Utility recommends which settings to disable for optimal SSD performance, and if you're a little unsure there is an auto-tweak feature that offers a brief walkthrough. This should come as a great addition to a tip we ran in December about reclaiming storage space with a few simple steps within Windows.

SSD Tweak Utility.zip

SOURCE

 

[abhiroopb]

The Paging File must be put on a separate hard drive when running an SSD. There are MANY opinion on how big the Paging File should be. I make mine the same size as my RAM, which is 6GB.

This is to minimize the number of read/write cycles to the SSD, plus Windows likes it better when the Paging File is separate from Drive C.

I have done this for years on regular hard drives.

BTW, NICE system you have there!


Maximize SSD Performance with the SSD Tweak Utility

If you're an early adopter of solid-state drive technology, odds are you're interested in squeezing every last drop of performance out of your system otherwise you probably wouldn't have spent $300 on 80GB of storage (or considerably more than that a few months ago).

There's a wealth of information to be had about SSD tweaking and with a bit of research you'll find various adjustments for Windows that can help you make the most of your drive. The thing is, to fine tune Windows, you'll waste a lot of time navigating menus and that's where SSD Tweak Utility steps in.

A user on the OCZ forums created a utility that gives you centralized access to all the popular SSD configuration points within Windows. The SSD Tweak Utility lets you fiddle with the following:

• Windows Indexing Service
• System Restore
• Windows Defrag
• Use Large System Cache
• Ntfs Memory Usage
• Disable 8.3 Filenames
• Disable Date Stamping
• Disable Boot Tracing
• Windows Prefetcher
• Windows Vista Superfetch
• Windows Services

The software is compatible with Windows 2000, XP, Vista, and 7 (both 32 and 64-bit). It's also worth mentioning that the program only makes adjustments to Windows at the OS level, so it should work with any SSD brand or model. I tested it using a second-gen Intel X25-M on Windows 7 Home Premium and Ultimate x64 as well as Windows XP x86 without a problem.

The SSD Tweak Utility recommends which settings to disable for optimal SSD performance, and if you're a little unsure there is an auto-tweak feature that offers a brief walkthrough. This should come as a great addition to a tip we ran in December about reclaiming storage space with a few simple steps within Windows.

SSD Tweak Utility.zip

I just read this from MS: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/e7/archive/2009/05/05/support-and-q-a-for-solid-state-drives-and.aspx which suggested that I put the paging file on a SSD.

Also somebody on another forum suggested that having the paging file on the SSD is good because the SSD is faster. He also mentioned that I shouldn’t “babysit” my SSD. Although there is a limited number of read/writes the limit isn’t exactly a small number. Apparently the SSD is able to last for a very long time.

Anyway, this is just what someone else has said, but I think it illustrates the point that everyone seems to have a different opinion on where to place the paging file.

Thanks for your opinion, I guess I will have to do some research to figure out where is the best place to put the file!

Thanks, it took me a month to put all the parts together, and the better part of my pay cheque as well!

I notice that Intel has their own “toolbox” but I think this is more for diagnostics. I will have a look at both.

By the way, you seem to link to a number of different sites. Is the tweak utility the same thing in all the links?

Thanks for your suggestions, especially the tweak utility.

 

[Nibiru2012]

Well I should have given credit to the original website that had this info.

I'll try to the link the source on there in a little while.

It's your SSD, you can do whatever you want to do. I would HIGHLY recommend you put your Paging File on a separate hard drive.

Every article I have ever read on the Windows Paging File from XP to Windows 7 says your system will run better with the Paging File separate from Drive C.

SOURCE for following info:

Many sites on the web also tell SSD users to disable the paging file because it allegedly wears down the disk too much. While the paging file is an active file on your computer it is not written to as much as you would suspect. According to Microsoft, reads to the paging file outnumber writes by about 40 to 1. Additionally, Microsoft recommends placing the paging file on a SSD claiming, “there are few files better than the pagefile to place on a SSD.”

Setting the SSD concerns aside, disabling the paging file on a computer with less than 3 or 4 GB of ram will result in poor performance. You may even create out of memory errors depending on what applications you use. Overall, it is just not worth disabling.

 

[abhiroopb]

Well I should have given credit to the original website that had this info.

I try to the source on there in a while.

It's your SSD, you can do whatever you to do.

Every article I have ever read on the Windows Paging File from XP to Windows 7 says your system will run better with the Paging File separate from Drive C.

SOURCE for following info:

Thanks for the clarification.

It’s on a separate drive now (separate partition on that drive) and I am having no problem. Just wanted a source for that info!

 

[Digerati]

Hmmm, it seems you are posting this question all over the place at once. Please note that shotgun posting across multiple sites is considered poor forum etiquette because it hogs responders who could be helping others and in some cases, it results in conflicting and confusing results.

Windows 7 Forums - where I first saw your question and provided my response.

VR-Zone

Microsoft Forums

Toms Hardware

Tech Support Guy

SevenForums

 

[abhiroopb]

Hmmm, it seems you are posting this question all over the place at once. Please note that shotgun posting across multiple sites is considered poor forum etiquette because it hogs responders who could be helping others and in some cases, it results in conflicting and confusing results.

Windows 7 Forums - where I first saw your question and provided my response.

VR-Zone

Microsoft Forums

Toms Hardware

Tech Support Guy

SevenForums

Apologies but that is kind of why I posted on multiple forums, simply because everyone has a different opinion on the topic.

When I used Ubuntu I ONLY posted on ubuntuforums.org simply because everyone used it and that was a central source. On windows which forum would you suggest I post on? I posted on different forums and got different answers, at different speeds and with varying degrees of helpfulness.

I understand it is bad etiquette but this "shotgun" posting helped me a lot more than if I had posted on one forum.

If the question wasn't important I would pick one forum, but in this case it was quite important.