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If you have more than one physical drive in your computer, this guide is for you. The page file can take a considerable toll on your system drive; by moving the page file to a separate drive, you can increase overall performance. Learn how to move the Windows Vista page file to another drive in this guide.
Move the Page File to Another Drive
1. Press Start, right click on Computer and select Properties
2. In the left-hand pane, select Advanced System Settings
3. Click the Advanced tab and under Performance, select Settings…
4. Click the Advanced tab and under Virtual Memory, select Change…
5. Uncheck Automatically Manage Paging File Size for All Drives
6. Select the different physical drive that you want your paging file to now be stored on(e.g. D) and select System managed size and press Set. (If applicable, make sure this is the first partition on the second drive)
7. Select the drive that contains your paging file (usually C), select the Custom Size option, set the original and maximum size, and press Set
Your page file will now need to rebuild on the new drive–this may temporarily slow performance.
Note: The reason for keeping around 1GB on the OS drive is because Windows Vista needs still some pagefile space on the OS drive.
About Rich
Rich is the owner and creator of Windows Guides; he spends his time breaking things on his PC so he can write how-to guides to fix them.
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Bill said that he was “trying” to set up a swap file on an SSD ExpressCard. I tried this in XP with a swapfile on C AND another flash drive (NOT ExpressCard). This would not set up a pagefile on the flash drive. Will this work on an SSD ExpressCard (small C drive pagefile and large pagefile on Expresscard)? This is in XP, but I could move to Vista if I was forced to.
Bill said that he was “trying” to set up a swap file on an SSD ExpressCard. I tried this in XP with a swapfile on C AND another flash drive (NOT ExpressCard). This would not set up a pagefile on the flash drive. Will this work on an SSD ExpressCard (small C drive pagefile and large pagefile on Expresscard)? This is in XP, but I could move to Vista if I was forced to.
i have 2 hds in my laptop. i set 1gb custom size to C drive. On the second HD, i have a scratch partition of about 13gb and a system managed paging file.
It doesnt sound like everyone will agree, but does this sound like the right set up (or at least a better one than leaving it on c)?
i have 2 hds in my laptop. i set 1gb custom size to C drive. On the second HD, i have a scratch partition of about 13gb and a system managed paging file.
It doesnt sound like everyone will agree, but does this sound like the right set up (or at least a better one than leaving it on c)?
i have 2 hds in my laptop. i set 1gb custom size to C drive. On the second HD, i have a scratch partition of about 13gb and a system managed paging file.
It doesnt sound like everyone will agree, but does this sound like the right set up (or at least a better one than leaving it on c)?
i have 2 hds in my laptop. i set 1gb custom size to C drive. On the second HD, i have a scratch partition of about 13gb and a system managed paging file.
It doesnt sound like everyone will agree, but does this sound like the right set up (or at least a better one than leaving it on c)?
If you have one HD and two partition C: and D: put page file on D: because there is no impact on speed because it is one HD with two logical partition. If you have two HD with different speed and ram cache put windows on faster with more ram chache on HD and pf also.
it is about fragmentation. the swap file will never get fragmented.
You should always put the pf on the first partition, because it’s closer to the outside edge of the disk, an therefore provides faster IO.
If you have one HD and two partition C: and D: put page file on D: because there is no impact on speed because it is one HD with two logical partition. If you have two HD with different speed and ram cache put windows on faster with more ram chache on HD and pf also.
If you have one HD and two partition C: and D: put page file on D: because there is no impact on speed because it is one HD with two logical partition. If you have two HD with different speed and ram cache put windows on faster with more ram chache on HD and pf also.
If you have one HD and two partition C: and D: put page file on D: because there is no impact on speed because it is one HD with two logical partition. If you have two HD with different speed and ram cache put windows on faster with more ram chache on HD and pf also.
Thanks for the post. I give this a try when I buy a second Hard Drive.
Thanks for the post. I give this a try when I buy a second Hard Drive.
Thanks for the post. I give this a try when I buy a second Hard Drive.
Thanks for the post. I give this a try when I buy a second Hard Drive.
Thanks !
Someone stated that the C drive needs at least an 800MB pagefile, besides the “PageFile” that’s moved to a separate drive, which implies there can be multiple pagefiles in a sysem, on separate drives. Now, doesn’t a pagefile “belong” to the partition where it’s located? Won’t the 800MB pagefile on the C drive be treated as “the” pagefile used by the C drive? How does the C drive “know” that the pagefile that once “belonged” to it was moved, and won’t the partition the pagefile was moved to start using it, not realizing it’s for the C drive? Or if you have multiple pagefiles, on respective partitions, can memory management start using a pagefile from any of the other partitions? Because if you have a “minimal” pagefile on the C drive, but bigger pagefiles on other drives, it seems the system would get confused as to what pagefile to use, which takes time to resolve, which defeats the purpose of putting the “pagefile” on the outer partition or on a separate drive in the first place. Or should one only have one pagefile in a system, preferably separate from the C drive, and not a 2nd “minimal” pagefile on the C drive as described elsewhere?
Well, it appears that that “someone” was retarded. Don’t listen to the retarded.