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Dedicated hdd for page file, outer disc space used
Windows XP latest SP Hdd dedicated for page file installed, single partition. Page file of fixed size generated on this disc. While reviewing the partition with Windows on-board defragmentation utility, the page file is presented in outer partition sections. It doesn't start from partition beginning. I guess files critical for system performance should be placed at inner section - faster read/write access. Does windows on-board defrag utility really show the facts? Does this file is really placed in outer partition section? If yes, why does windows do that this way? |
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Dedicated hdd for page file, outer disc space used
kakii wrote:
Windows XP latest SP Hdd dedicated for page file installed, single partition. Page file of fixed size generated on this disc. While reviewing the partition with Windows on-board defragmentation utility, the page file is presented in outer partition sections. It doesn't start from partition beginning. I guess files critical for system performance should be placed at inner section - faster read/write access. Does windows on-board defrag utility really show the facts? Does this file is really placed in outer partition section? If yes, why does windows do that this way? Defragmentation can only make contiguous a file if there is sufficient contiguous free space in which to store the file. One of the problems with fragmentation is that some "system" files (which are often very small) cannot be moved by any defragger, even the commercial ones (PerfectDisk, Diskeeper, O&O). I forget which but one of them will actually let you see a map of the files and that's how I found some tiny files marked "System" by the defragger (but "system" was never well defined) that would not get moved by a defrag operation. Because some of my files were huge in size, there wasn't enough contiguous free space to pack the file's sectors all together so it would always remain with 1 or 2 fragments. While it wasn't worth the effort, I had the time and obstinence to find a solution, which was to save an image (logical, not sector-by-sector) of the partition and then restore that image (using a bootable CD so the OS was *not* running in that partition). Restoring put the files together in contiguous clusters. Those tiny "system" tagged files got slammed together instead of at random places on the disk which limited the max size of any section. You never mentioned how much physical RAM you have in your system. You never mentioned how much was reported as free (since free RAM is wasted RAM). You never mentioned the min/max size for your paging file, or if they were set to the same value to eliminate or reduce fragmentation. You never mentioned if all of the pagefile was in the OS partition or split to another partition on another hard disk. I didn't run into the problem of these system-tagged files not providing large enough space for the pagefile to reside within one of them, only for the much larger data file. I suspect you made your pagefile was too huge. Why do you think the "inner section" is faster (if you mean the inside tracks of the platters; i.e., those closest to the spindle)? Rotational speed is the same across the entire platter but linear speed is greatest at the outside, not inside. More sectors fly under the heads per second at the outside than do at the inside. Cylinders, tracks, and mapped sectors are numbered starting from the OUTSIDE of the platter. More sectors pass under the heads per second at the outside of the platter than do at the inside, even with variable recording. Platters are rigid. Part of them doesn't rotate slower or faster than any other part. Spin a plate on your table. Is it somehow elastic or disconnected so the center of it somehow spins faster than the outside. It all rotates at the same speed. A 7200RPM disk spins ALL parts of its platters at 7200RPM. Sectors don't get bigger in size as you progress from the center to outside. They're all the same size. That means the same sized segments at the inner track are spinning SLOWER than the same sized segments at the outside tracks. More distance to cover at the outside than for the inside within the same single rotation for it all. Start he http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/geom/tracks.htm |
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Dedicated hdd for page file, outer disc space used
Thanks to VanguardLH for the explanations |
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