Swap file tweaking with multiple hard drives

[SixIron]

XP Pro, SP2
X2 3800+ w 2 x512 DDR 400 in dual channel mode
250 gig WD SATA II boot drive that Windows is installed on
80 gig Maxtor SATA I data drive
80 gig Maxtor SATA I second data drive

I was contemplating a clean install of XP because things seemed sluggish clicking between different open programs even though only about half my ram was in use. I checked my swap file, it was all on C: 1.5 to 3.0 gig variable size swap file. I changed it to fixed sizes, 128 meg on C, 768 each on D & E. Rebooted, loaded up the same usage as before and shit my knickers at the increased responsiveness.

I also frequently unrar or copy large files (single and dual layer DVD type stuff) from one drive to another. I haven't done any of that yet since modifying the swap file and I want that to continue to be fast. Anyone have similar experience to recommend further swap file tweaking?

[Oklahoma Wolf]

I have a seperate 2gb partition at the front of my 200gb Maxtor main HD just for my swap file

[davidhammock200]

Set to fixed size equal to up to 3X the amount of RAM, not to exceed 4GB on a 32-bit OS.

Put on each "stand alone" HDD & each HDD array.

Example: 2GB RAM, put 2GB swap file on C, D & E.

[Bbq]

Oklahoma wolf, the Maxtor 200gb SATA 150 16mb cache?

Mine went after 3 hours. They did replace it with a 300 though. which is working flawlessly.

[Oklahoma Wolf]

That's the one... mine's been solid for 10 months now

[CAD4466HK]

Oklahoma wolf, the Maxtor 200gb SATA 150 16mb cache?

Mine went after 3 hours. They did replace it with a 300 though. which is working flawlessly.

I've had one of those now going on 3 years, zero problems

[MrWicked1968]

I have a 1.5gb (1gb of ram) swap file set on a 2gb partition on my only internal hard drive.

I don't see what purpose it would serve having multiple swap files if you're only running one operating system at a time.

[davidhammock200]

I have a 1.5gb (1gb of ram) swap file set on a 2gb partition on my only internal hard drive.

I don't see what purpose it would serve having multiple swap files if you're only running one operating system at a time.

On seperate HDD's & seperate HDD arrays, it allows the OS to use the fastest access.

[Rubycon]

I have a 1.5gb (1gb of ram) swap file set on a 2gb partition on my only internal hard drive.

I don't see what purpose it would serve having multiple swap files if you're only running one operating system at a time.

32bit OS limit you to 4095MB per paging file. You can get around this with using more drives.

[SixIron]

So far, putting swap on all three of my hard drives has definitely paid dividends. I'm still tinkering with sizes, so far it seems the smaller the total swap size, the more repsonsive XP seems to be. I'm still looking for the elusive balance of having enough, yet maintaining the reponsiveness. The 128/768/768 setting seems pretty sweet. I haven't moved the swap totally off c: yet so my final settings are yet to be determined.