Move the virtual memory to second hard disk

[Eru]

Hi,
Does moving the virtual memory to a faster disk improves the performance of Windows. If yes then how to do that. I have some older model of Desktop computer which has specific accounting software. Those application are stopped now so I cannot get the backup of the same. To accelerate the speed I added some hard drive to them. If this works then I can get more faster working speed. Thanks in advance.

[Devasis]

Moving the virtual memory on a second disc leads to marked improvement of machine performance. Indeed, the second disk is not used by the system, access the swap file is much faster. On the second hard disk, create a primary partition at the beginning of disk (access is faster) dedicated to the swap (with Partition Magic for example). You can call it swap. Create only the size of future swap file.

[Solomon]

If your using a older version of Windows then here is the steps to configure it. You can swap the file to a other disc. But this work for older version of windows only. Go on the desktop and then right click on My Computer > Properties > Performance > Virtual Memory and then on file creation win386.swp. Select the partition and the swap size desired. Restart the computer so that the settings take effects properly.

[MrChris-]

If you are using this on Windows 2000 then here is the solution for this. You can see the My Computer icon on your desktop. Right click on that. Then go to properties and click on Advance. After that go to Performance and create a file pagefile.sys. Determine the disc where you want to put the file and make sure that you restart the computer.

[Calvin K]

It is correct that moving the virtual memory can give a boost to your application. In Windows XP open the Control Panel and click on System. Click the Advanced tab and then click the Settings button in the Performance section. Finally, select the Advanced tab and choose Edit in the Virtual Memory section. Check the box No paging file on the current partition. Confirm your choice by clicking the Set button. Select the newly created partition and check the box Size System managed size or custom (if you know how to adjust the size of the swap). Confirm your choice by clicking the Set button. Restart the computer.

[Lillebror]

One thing you have to take care that in order to have a significant increase in performance requires that the second disk is faster as compare to other. Otherwise this solution is of no use and can cause a fatal system error. Finally, simultaneous access to both drives will be faster if both IDE disks are not on the same sheet. For details on adjusting the size of the swap I will recommend you to read about optimizing Windows virtual memory.

[jesse]

Another solution is to launch the application from the command line (in a DOS session). To simplify everything, we create a batch file (batch file with extension. Bat): just create a file with a text editor (Notepad for example) and include the command line. In our example, the file created will be called quake.bat and it contains the line start / HIGH quake3.exe. It is obviously that the command file is located in the same directory as the program to run.