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Suggestions for 32GB system

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#1 10basetom

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Posted 12 September 2020 - 08:01 AM

Hi, I have a Windows 10 Home 64-bit system with 32GB of RAM. To reduce wear and tear on my SSD, I'm planning to try out ImDisk Tools with the following settings:

  • Size = 4GB
  • Allocate Memory Dynamically checked
  • File System = NTFS
  • Launch at Windows Startup checked
  • Create TEMP Folder checked (default variables)
  • Move my browser cache locations to the RAM disk
  • Update all my apps to output log files to the RAM disk

On the Advanced tab, should I check "Use AWE physical memory"? The description says it guarantees that memory is never written to the pagefile on my SSD, which is what I want. I guess there are still some programs that write to the pagefile no matter how much memory you have.

 

Regarding the pagefile, with 32GB of RAM should I just set it to a small fixed size like 1GB? Some people recommend always keeping the pagefile at its default setting (dynamically managed by Windows), whereas other people recommend changing it to a fixed size, so I'm not sure which advice I should follow.



#2 Wonko the Sane

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Posted 12 September 2020 - 09:36 AM

Regarding the pagefile, with 32GB of RAM should I just set it to a small fixed size like 1GB? Some people recommend always keeping the pagefile at its default setting (dynamically managed by Windows), whereas other people recommend changing it to a fixed size, so I'm not sure which advice I should follow.

The pagefile may be *needed* by some programs that require it.

It should be "fixed size".

Making it in a RAMdisk (if you can normally access that RAM area) is ridiculous.

It can be reduced to much less than 1 GB without any consequence (Heck! With 32 GB of RAM you won't ever hit it.)

 

See some more details starting from here:

http://reboot.pro/to...n-vhd/?p=213415

particularly:

http://reboot.pro/to...n-vhd/?p=213428

 

In a nutshell.

The pagefile is used for TWO things:
1) to virtually expand memory
2) to host the crashdump (but do read the given links)

 

Traditionally (when ram was scarce AND even large amount of RAM were not so large, AND there were 32 bit addressing limits) the pagefile was sized anything between 1.5x and 2.5x, in some cases even 3x, the physical RAM size.

I.e. given an amount of RAM "a", total amount of memory "b" available to the system was:

1.5*a<=b<=2.5*a

Let's explicit:

a=1 b=2.5-3.5

a=2 b=5-7

a=4 b=10-14

the next step would have been:

a=8 b=20-28

but at the time the good MS guys changed their advise to say that pagefile should be 1x the amount of RAM + some 257 MB (this latter minimum requirement was due uniquely to the use of the pagefile as a "full" crashdump[1]), so:

a=16 b=16.25

 

Then, in more recent Windows, they allowed the separation, i.e. the pagefile has become ONLY a pagefile and you can configure a separate file for a "full" crashdump:

https://docs.microso...tem-memory-dump

https://docs.microso...-page-file-size

 

With 32 GB, you need NOT any pagefile (unless a program you use requires it) and in case it should go NOT in RAM but rather in normal storage, and the crashdump should be set to another file (again not in RAM, in normal storage). This latter crashdump file will only be created in case of need, and even if set to "full size" it is well within the normal size of the free space (around 15%) that you should always have on a NTFS volume, even if you have a small 240 GB SSD (240*0.15=36).

 

:duff:

Wonko

 

[1] Good luck to anyone wishing to analyze a several GBytes sized crashdump



#3 alacran

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Posted 12 September 2020 - 12:58 PM

@ 10basetom

 

If your MB firmware allows CSM/MBR booting, create a Wimboot install on a VHD and then run the system from Ram by means of grub4dos + SVBus driver.

 

Manual way:

 

http://reboot.pro/to...vhd/?hl=wimboot

http://reboot.pro/to...ram/?hl=wimboot

 

And this is wimb tool to make almost all automatically:

 

http://reboot.pro/fi...-for-os-in-vhd/

 

And to compress your Wimboot VHD to load it faster on Ram you can use: http://reboot.pro/fi...lz4-compressor/

 

alacran



#4 10basetom

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Posted 12 September 2020 - 05:04 PM

@Wonko wow thanks for the detailed advice! I was reading up on memory dumps after your post and found out you can now specify the dumpfile without going into the Registry:

https://www.google.c...s-windows-8/amp

@alacran thanks for suggesting Wimboot. This is the first time I've heard about this so I'll need to read up on it.

#5 Olof Lagerkvist

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Posted 13 September 2020 - 05:47 PM

I almost always run Windows without any page files when I use 64 bit Windows version on a machine with lots of RAM available. In the very few cases where something needs a page file I temporarily create one fixed size with my swapadd.exe tool. That just creates a page file for the running session, that configuration is not saved in registry so it will not be used again after next reboot.



#6 10basetom

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Posted 13 September 2020 - 09:33 PM

I almost always run Windows without any page files when I use 64 bit Windows version on a machine with lots of RAM available. In the very few cases where something needs a page file I temporarily create one fixed size with my swapadd.exe tool. That just creates a page file for the running session, that configuration is not saved in registry so it will not be used again after next reboot.


Thank you for the advice. I'm thinking about going with a fixed 100MB pagefile, or none at all. How do you know when a program requires the pagefile -- will it throw an out of memory error?

#7 Olof Lagerkvist

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Posted 13 September 2020 - 09:43 PM

Yes, there are sometimes strange errors about "out of resources", "out of memory" etc. But there have only been a very few applications over the years that have had any problems like this and it was now at least two years since I last time saw something like that.



#8 alacran

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Posted 16 September 2020 - 06:23 AM

@ Olof Lagerkvist

 

I almost always run Windows without any page files when I use 64 bit Windows version on a machine with lots of RAM available. In the very few cases where something needs a page file I temporarily create one fixed size with my swapadd.exe tool. That just creates a page file for the running session, that configuration is not saved in registry so it will not be used again after next reboot.

 

Just downloaded your command line swapadd tool, it looks very useful on certain scenarios as Wimboot or Compact installs not having a pagefile, but I have some questions about the blue remarked part:

 

  • Does this mean pagefile is created on Ram?
  • Does it mean pagefile is created on internal HD like a Temp file and after Reboot it is deleted?
  • Can pagefile be created on VHDs?
  • Can pagefile be created on USB drives?
  • Can we select where to create the pagefile?

 

By the way I'm a long time user of your fantastic Imdisk, since XP times.

 

alacran

Attached Thumbnails

  • swapadd.png


#9 Olof Lagerkvist

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Posted 16 September 2020 - 10:26 AM

You supply a path to swapadd command line and that is where the pagefile will be created and used in the currently running Windows session. It will not be recreated there or used there after next reboot because no pagefile settings are updated in registry.



#10 v77

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Posted 16 September 2020 - 05:11 PM

So, swapadd is based on NtCreatePagingFile. And the great question is: on which unofficial documentation did you rely?
https://www.geoffcha...rite/create.htm
http://www.codewarri...ePagingFile.htm
http://undocumented....PagingFile.html

The 4th argument has a different meaning in each documentation.
Of course, by passing NULL as I can see in the source, you have taken no risk. ;)



#11 Olof Lagerkvist

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Posted 16 September 2020 - 07:23 PM

undocumented.ntinternals.net is very old and in this case quite obviously wrong, that parameter is not a pointer. It is just a 32 bit flag field with unknown meaning. However, Windows itself almost always pass zero in that field so that is obviously a valid value. Most probably it contains priority and crash dump related flags which are not relevant in this case anyway.

#12 Wonko the Sane

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Posted 17 September 2020 - 08:58 AM

Personally, if I had to place a bet, it would be a Win one on Geoff Chappel.

 

:duff:

Wonko



#13 Olof Lagerkvist

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Posted 17 September 2020 - 09:09 AM

Personally, if I had to place a bet, it would be a Win one on Geoff Chappel.

 

...and he writes "DRAFT: Take more than your usual care." in this particular case. :P



#14 Wonko the Sane

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Posted 17 September 2020 - 09:48 AM

...and he writes "DRAFT: Take more than your usual care." in this particular case. :P

I am not saying I am putting my right hand in the fire on this, but I am pretty confident I can put it over something hottish, let's say over a slice of bread just out of a toaster ;).

 

:duff:

Wonko


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