I would add: what do you mean by "fragmented"? Do you mean that it has several parts? That is not a big deal with an ATA drive (i.e., it would slow down things only imperceptibly). As for size, the best bet is to ignore ANY Dell recommendations and just tell XP to let Windows handle the swap file size. It would begin with your max size and then grow only if it were needed, which goes back to what msgale says.
As for getting it all into one contiguous file, get a de-fragmenting program which rearranges file by compacting them to the beginning of the drive AND which has an off-line defrag function. The swap file is recreated everytime you shut down power and re-boot. If files are scattered all over the drive, then the file will be recreated in parts unless there is a single area of free space the size that the swap file needs.
In a default Windows XP installation, Windows creates the page file in the root folder on the same drive that holds the Windows system files. The size of the page file is determined by the amount of RAM in your system: By default, the minimum size is 1.5 times the amount of physical RAM on your system, and the maximum size is 3 times that value. You can see the page file in a Windows Explorer window if you configure Windows to show hidden and system files; look for Pagefile.sys in the root of your system drive.
An option in the System Control Panel lets you see your current page file settings and adjust them as needed. You can change the size of the page file, move it to another drive, or split it over several physical drives to improve performance.
To view and change page file settings, follow these steps:
Log on using an account in the Administrators group and open System in Control Panel. On the Advanced tab, click the Settings button in the Performance section. In the Performance Options dialog box, click the Advanced tab. Click the Change button to display the Virtual Memory dialog box
Look in the Total Paging File Size For All Drives box to see the current settings for the page file. Select any drive from the list at the top of the dialog box to adjust the settings for that drive. The following options are available:
Custom Size. Enter a value in the Initial Size box to specify the starting size (in MB) for the Pagefile.sys on the selected drive. In the Maximum Size box, enter a value (also in MB) that is at least as large as the initial size but is smaller than 4096 MB (4 GB).
System Managed Size. Select this option to instruct Windows XP to dynamically manage the size of the page file for that drive. This is the preferred option if you intend to override the default Windows settings.
No Paging File. Choose this option for any drive where you don’t want to create a page file. Make sure that a page file exists on at least one drive.
After making changes for an individual drive, click the Set button to record your changes.
Click OK to close the dialog box when you’re finished.
How big should your page file be? A large page file is appropriate for systems with relatively low RAM configurations-on a system with 128 MB of RAM, for instance, a page file of 192 MB to 384 MB makes perfect sense. With higher RAM counts, overly large page files simply waste disk space. If you have 512 MB or more of RAM and your Total Commit Charge never approaches the total physical memory installed on your computer and you’re short of free disk space, you might want to set your page file to a fixed size, where the initial and maximum sizes are identical and are equal to your total amount of installed RAM. Be aware, however, that this option can result in out-of-memory error messages if your computing requirements change over time.
Do you have two or more physical drives? Moving the page file to a fast drive that doesn’t contain your Windows system files is a good idea. Splitting the page file over two or more physical drives is an even better idea, because your disk controller can process multiple requests to read or write data concurrently. Don’t make the mistake of splitting the page file over multiple drive letters on a single physical disk, however. If you have a single hard disk that contains C, D, and E drives and you split the page file over two or more of these partitions, you might actually make your computer run more slowly than before. In that configuration, the magnetic heads on the physical disk have to do more work, loading pages from different portions of the same disk sequentially, rather than loading data from a single contiguous region of the hard disk.
If you decrease the size of either the minimum or maximum page file settings, or if you create a new page file on a drive, you must restart your computer to make the change effective. Increasing the size of a page file typically does not require that you restart your computer.
Based on experiences with previous versions, some Windows users advocate creating a fixed-size page file, where the initial size and maximum size are identical. In theory, this strategy should improve performance by preventing Windows from storing the page file in fragments on a single physical disk. In practice, however, the design of the page file is such that it tends to use large blocks of disk space, and as a result the impact of fragmentation on the page file is minimal. You might notice a very small performance hit when Windows increases the size of the page file, but that’s a one-time operation and won’t affect everyday performance.
On systems with 512 MB or more of physical memory, the large initial size of the page file can consume excessive amounts of disk space. On a system with 1 GB of RAM, for instance, the starting page file size is 1.5 GB, and under normal circumstances it’s likely that this file will never be used. The best strategy for page-file management in this configuration is to set Initial Size to be relatively small-say, 512 MB-while setting a large maximum size so that Windows can increase the page file size if necessary. This setting keeps disk space use in check but prevents the possibility of experiencing out-of-memory errors. If disk space is really tight, set the initial page-file size to its minimum of 2 MB and set the maximum size to a value that is at least as large as the amount of installed memory. Use your computer normally for a few weeks and allow Windows to create a page file of the proper size. Use Task Manager to monitor the size of the page file and make certain that it’s below the maximum size you specified.
Golden Goose, thanks for the valuable information. I'm hoping you can also make some recommendations regarding my configuration. At the moment I have a Dell PowerEdge 2600 RAID 5 server with (4)Xeon Processors and 4GB of RAM. This server is configured with Windows 2000 Server w/SP4 and Exchange 2000 Enterprise Server SP3, including the post SP3 rollup package. This is the mail server for approximately 50 users at the moment.
Soon after configuring this server I noticed Application Error 9582 at regular intervals, about every 10 days. Essentially I was told that my virtual memory was fragmented in such a way that I needed to restart my Exchange Services. My original paging file resided on C: and was set to 4000-4095.
A few days ago the system rebooted itself in the middle of the night and the system Event ID indicated the "Previous System Shutdown was Unexpected." After this I then began to pay more attention to the virtual memory errors in case there was a link. Since then I added a second page file on E: and set it to 4000-4095 giving me a total paging file of 8000MB. However, I was never asked to reboot my system. Next, I also made the following modification to my registry; HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\HeapDeCommitFreeBlockThreshold to equal 26214.
Basically, I'm looking to correctly set the paging file for this system in such a way where it will not cause any virtual memory fragmentation. I've bee advised that I should install Windows 2000 Advanced Server which supports the /3GB switch in the boot.ini, but I'm looking to exhaust all other possibilities before going down this road.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions you might have.
I also have a problem with my laptop. I just bought this in February and I was in the middle of doing my homework, when all of a sudden it gave me this message saying, defragmentation and optimization. And that I needed to buy it to fix my computer. I never download anything in this computer. I only use this for Microsoft Word and internet use. Please help me on what you think I should do to this laptop. Do I buy what the Dell is recommending me to buy? My computer always gives me this message saying "Exception Processing Message" and every time I would hit ok, my computer shuts downs and restarts on it's own.
Since this thread is 8 years old, most people will not even read it, nor is anything on it applicable. I suggest that you start a new thread and post your problem again. On your new posting include the OS you are using, the amount of Ram, and the size of your disk. I can also say with some level of certainty that a fragmented page file is a non-issue.
msgale
2 Intern
•
2.5K Posts
0
December 9th, 2002 18:00
wsnyder
580 Posts
0
December 9th, 2002 22:00
I would add: what do you mean by "fragmented"? Do you mean that it has several parts? That is not a big deal with an ATA drive (i.e., it would slow down things only imperceptibly). As for size, the best bet is to ignore ANY Dell recommendations and just tell XP to let Windows handle the swap file size. It would begin with your max size and then grow only if it were needed, which goes back to what msgale says.
As for getting it all into one contiguous file, get a de-fragmenting program which rearranges file by compacting them to the beginning of the drive AND which has an off-line defrag function. The swap file is recreated everytime you shut down power and re-boot. If files are scattered all over the drive, then the file will be recreated in parts unless there is a single area of free space the size that the swap file needs.
golden_goose
10 Posts
0
December 9th, 2002 23:00
thatsme
In a default Windows XP installation, Windows creates the page file in the root folder on the same drive that holds the Windows system files. The size of the page file is determined by the amount of RAM in your system: By default, the minimum size is 1.5 times the amount of physical RAM on your system, and the maximum size is 3 times that value. You can see the page file in a Windows Explorer window if you configure Windows to show hidden and system files; look for Pagefile.sys in the root of your system drive.
An option in the System Control Panel lets you see your current page file settings and adjust them as needed. You can change the size of the page file, move it to another drive, or split it over several physical drives to improve performance.
To view and change page file settings, follow these steps:
Log on using an account in the Administrators group and open System in Control Panel.
On the Advanced tab, click the Settings button in the Performance section.
In the Performance Options dialog box, click the Advanced tab.
Click the Change button to display the Virtual Memory dialog box
Look in the Total Paging File Size For All Drives box to see the current settings for the page file.
Select any drive from the list at the top of the dialog box to adjust the settings for that drive. The following options are available:
Custom Size. Enter a value in the Initial Size box to specify the starting size (in MB) for the Pagefile.sys on the selected drive. In the Maximum Size box, enter a value (also in MB) that is at least as large as the initial size but is smaller than 4096 MB (4 GB).
System Managed Size. Select this option to instruct Windows XP to dynamically manage the size of the page file for that drive. This is the preferred option if you intend to override the default Windows settings.
No Paging File. Choose this option for any drive where you don’t want to create a page file. Make sure that a page file exists on at least one drive.
After making changes for an individual drive, click the Set button to record your changes.
Click OK to close the dialog box when you’re finished.
How big should your page file be? A large page file is appropriate for systems with relatively low RAM configurations-on a system with 128 MB of RAM, for instance, a page file of 192 MB to 384 MB makes perfect sense. With higher RAM counts, overly large page files simply waste disk space. If you have 512 MB or more of RAM and your Total Commit Charge never approaches the total physical memory installed on your computer and you’re short of free disk space, you might want to set your page file to a fixed size, where the initial and maximum sizes are identical and are equal to your total amount of installed RAM. Be aware, however, that this option can result in out-of-memory error messages if your computing requirements change over time.
Do you have two or more physical drives? Moving the page file to a fast drive that doesn’t contain your Windows system files is a good idea. Splitting the page file over two or more physical drives is an even better idea, because your disk controller can process multiple requests to read or write data concurrently. Don’t make the mistake of splitting the page file over multiple drive letters on a single physical disk, however. If you have a single hard disk that contains C, D, and E drives and you split the page file over two or more of these partitions, you might actually make your computer run more slowly than before. In that configuration, the magnetic heads on the physical disk have to do more work, loading pages from different portions of the same disk sequentially, rather than loading data from a single contiguous region of the hard disk.
If you decrease the size of either the minimum or maximum page file settings, or if you create a new page file on a drive, you must restart your computer to make the change effective. Increasing the size of a page file typically does not require that you restart your computer.
Based on experiences with previous versions, some Windows users advocate creating a fixed-size page file, where the initial size and maximum size are identical. In theory, this strategy should improve performance by preventing Windows from storing the page file in fragments on a single physical disk. In practice, however, the design of the page file is such that it tends to use large blocks of disk space, and as a result the impact of fragmentation on the page file is minimal. You might notice a very small performance hit when Windows increases the size of the page file, but that’s a one-time operation and won’t affect everyday performance.
On systems with 512 MB or more of physical memory, the large initial size of the page file can consume excessive amounts of disk space. On a system with 1 GB of RAM, for instance, the starting page file size is 1.5 GB, and under normal circumstances it’s likely that this file will never be used. The best strategy for page-file management in this configuration is to set Initial Size to be relatively small-say, 512 MB-while setting a large maximum size so that Windows can increase the page file size if necessary. This setting keeps disk space use in check but prevents the possibility of experiencing out-of-memory errors. If disk space is really tight, set the initial page-file size to its minimum of 2 MB and set the maximum size to a value that is at least as large as the amount of installed memory. Use your computer normally for a few weeks and allow Windows to create a page file of the proper size. Use Task Manager to monitor the size of the page file and make certain that it’s below the maximum size you specified.
For a page file defrag
http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/pagedefrag.shtml
James
thatsme
270 Posts
0
December 10th, 2002 23:00
I don't think I could have paid money for any better answers. Thank you everyone for taking time to answer.
Mike Dunphy
5 Posts
0
February 3rd, 2004 17:00
Golden Goose, thanks for the valuable information. I'm hoping you can also make some recommendations regarding my configuration. At the moment I have a Dell PowerEdge 2600 RAID 5 server with (4)Xeon Processors and 4GB of RAM. This server is configured with Windows 2000 Server w/SP4 and Exchange 2000 Enterprise Server SP3, including the post SP3 rollup package. This is the mail server for approximately 50 users at the moment.
Soon after configuring this server I noticed Application Error 9582 at regular intervals, about every 10 days. Essentially I was told that my virtual memory was fragmented in such a way that I needed to restart my Exchange Services. My original paging file resided on C: and was set to 4000-4095.
A few days ago the system rebooted itself in the middle of the night and the system Event ID indicated the "Previous System Shutdown was Unexpected." After this I then began to pay more attention to the virtual memory errors in case there was a link. Since then I added a second page file on E: and set it to 4000-4095 giving me a total paging file of 8000MB. However, I was never asked to reboot my system. Next, I also made the following modification to my registry; HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\HeapDeCommitFreeBlockThreshold to equal 26214.
Basically, I'm looking to correctly set the paging file for this system in such a way where it will not cause any virtual memory fragmentation. I've bee advised that I should install Windows 2000 Advanced Server which supports the /3GB switch in the boot.ini, but I'm looking to exhaust all other possibilities before going down this road.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions you might have.
whengy16
1 Message
0
December 4th, 2010 11:00
I also have a problem with my laptop. I just bought this in February and I was in the middle of doing my homework, when all of a sudden it gave me this message saying, defragmentation and optimization. And that I needed to buy it to fix my computer. I never download anything in this computer. I only use this for Microsoft Word and internet use. Please help me on what you think I should do to this laptop. Do I buy what the Dell is recommending me to buy? My computer always gives me this message saying "Exception Processing Message" and every time I would hit ok, my computer shuts downs and restarts on it's own.
Please help.
Thank you
msgale
2 Intern
•
2.5K Posts
0
December 4th, 2010 13:00
Since this thread is 8 years old, most people will not even read it, nor is anything on it applicable. I suggest that you start a new thread and post your problem again. On your new posting include the OS you are using, the amount of Ram, and the size of your disk. I can also say with some level of certainty that a fragmented page file is a non-issue.
.