Scratch Disk & Paging file management

[shinew]

Hello, I'm in the process of upgrading my computer, and I'm facing a dilemma as to where to put the PS scratch disk & system paging file under Vista 64-bit.

I know that it's better to have a separate drive for the OS, photo storage, paging file & scratch disk, but that makes 4 separate dirves. Since I only have 3 internal drives(see my setup below), where are the best places to put the scratch disk & paging file? and how big should I make the scratch disk?

thank you!

======================
#My system configuration:
- CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400
- Memory: 8GB PC 8500 1066 DDR2
- OS drive: 150GB WD Raptor(I'm planning to use about 40GB for Vista 64-bit, Photoshop & Lightroom. The rest is running Ubuntu linux as my main OS)
- Storage: 750GB(all the photos are on here)
- Backup: 500GB
======================

xun

[AgencyDigital_NYC]

Hello, I'm in the process of upgrading my computer, and I'm facing a dilemma as to where to put the PS scratch disk & system paging file under Vista 64-bit.

I know that it's better to have a separate drive for the OS, photo storage, paging file & scratch disk, but that makes 4 separate dirves. Since I only have 3 internal drives(see my setup below), where are the best places to put the scratch disk & paging file? and how big should I make the scratch disk?

thank you!

======================
#My system configuration:
- CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400
- Memory: 8GB PC 8500 1066 DDR2
- OS drive: 150GB WD Raptor(I'm planning to use about 40GB for Vista 64-bit, Photoshop & Lightroom. The rest is running Ubuntu linux as my main OS)
- Storage: 750GB(all the photos are on here)
- Backup: 500GB
======================

xun

why not run an external backup & replace the 500GB with a seagate Cheetah 15K drive as a scratch disk?

[new_haven]

I would create a 100mb partition on your backup drive for the scratch disc. Since you are probably not making backups and using photoshop at the same time, the 100mb partition will be dedicated to photoshop, and you still have 400mb for backups.

http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewConten...9&sliceId=1

[Plekto]

It doesn't matter as long as it is not on the same drive as the OS.  Otherwise the heads will be trying to complete two tasks at the same time - caching and reading/writing.   This is a hardware limitation of hard drives that goes beyond partitions and so on as well.  Optimally it would be on a separate SATA channel/controller as well from the main OS drive, since multiple drives also have to fight for bandwith.  

Just go into the settings for virtual memory and where you see C:\ in the paging file name, type in the drive letter you want.  Set it to the same minimum and maximum size to keep it from being fragmented.  Delete the original.  Reboot.

[Philmar]

It doesn't matter as long as it is not on the same drive as the OS.  Otherwise the heads will be trying to complete two tasks at the same time - caching and reading/writing.   This is a hardware limitation of hard drives that goes beyond partitions and so on as well.  Optimally it would be on a separate SATA channel/controller as well from the main OS drive, since multiple drives also have to fight for bandwith.  

Just go into the settings for virtual memory and where you see C:\ in the paging file name, type in the drive letter you want.  Set it to the same minimum and maximum size to keep it from being fragmented.  Delete the original. Reboot.

Delete the original what? the original paging file?


I know you aren't refering to the original disk.

Why set it to the same minimum and maximum? Is it already optimized by Windows? If one has 8 GBs of RAM and 64 bit Vista, would that change these settings one should set for optimal performance?


thanks.

[Plekto]

You need to pick a value - usually 1x-2x your ram - and set them to the same on a fairly clean disk.  This puts it as one big contiguous file that can't be fragmented.  When it allocates sizes up and down, it puts the new pieces of the swap file, well, wherever, and it adds a huge amount of slowdown and grinding to swapping.

Yes - under the system/my computer areas - there should be a virtual memory option somewher( I know XP mostly, so Vista is a bit different).  It's easy to make a new one and then once that is done, you can delete the original/set the C drive to "no paging file".