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Paging file and XP RAID
While getting ready for 70-270, I was playing around with moving the Windows paging file around to different hard disks, etc. I have a question, though, that I'm not in a good position to test (not certification-related):
We agree that if you can put the paging file to a (fast) hard disk on another IDE cable, that there might be some improvement in virtual memory response.
So what if we put the system disk on one cable, and two hard drives on the other and we want to use both of these non-system drives to get the best paging file performance we can. Everything else being equal, which would be better:
1.) Tell Windows to make two additional paging files (leaving a small one on the system disk) - one for each of the two hard disks on the second cable.
2.) Tell Windows to RAID and Stripe the two hard disks as one drive and have Windows make only one (probably larger) paging file on the Striped volume.
I know that the best way to go would be to use a hardware RAID solution, but I'm not sure about the above. I would think that number 1 would be best, however I don't know how well XP handles multiple paging files. I do, however, understand Striping, but since it's XP doing it, it'll lower overall performance to a degree. I suppose that it may all come down to the factor of "how fast are the RAIDed hard disks?" Any thoughts?
We agree that if you can put the paging file to a (fast) hard disk on another IDE cable, that there might be some improvement in virtual memory response.
So what if we put the system disk on one cable, and two hard drives on the other and we want to use both of these non-system drives to get the best paging file performance we can. Everything else being equal, which would be better:
1.) Tell Windows to make two additional paging files (leaving a small one on the system disk) - one for each of the two hard disks on the second cable.
2.) Tell Windows to RAID and Stripe the two hard disks as one drive and have Windows make only one (probably larger) paging file on the Striped volume.
I know that the best way to go would be to use a hardware RAID solution, but I'm not sure about the above. I would think that number 1 would be best, however I don't know how well XP handles multiple paging files. I do, however, understand Striping, but since it's XP doing it, it'll lower overall performance to a degree. I suppose that it may all come down to the factor of "how fast are the RAIDed hard disks?" Any thoughts?
"We will rule over all this land, and we will call it...'This Land.'"
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Smallguy
Member Posts: 597
if it was a hardware RAID I'd say option 2 for sure but Im' not sure how much slower a software RAID is and more importantly would most people ever really notice.
honestly I don't think you could really tell with a decent system
I know that when I moved my paging file to a 2nd hard disk (7200 rpm ATA 133) I id;nt notice it one bit on my home system which is an AMD 2400 with 1gb of Kingston Value ram. -
Optionsgarv221
Member Posts: 1,914
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308417
Rule of thumb avoid paging files on RAID, its about as good for the RAID as a defrag.
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Optionsendersftd
Member Posts: 61 ■■□□□□□□□□
I can see where the microsoft article says not to use paging files on a RAID-5 or other fault tolerant RAID config, but I fail to see where it says not to use it on RAID at all. I appreciate all the info though!"We will rule over all this land, and we will call it...'This Land.'"
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Optionsendersftd
Member Posts: 61 ■■□□□□□□□□
"If you have a RAID-0 (Stripe Set) array, use it to store the Pagefile. "
from here: http://www.petri.co.il/pagefile_optimization.htm
I just don't know what kind of hit having XP software-based RAID has on the performance."We will rule over all this land, and we will call it...'This Land.'"