Best way to setup page file?

having swap file on compressed drive surely will slow performance over non-compress drive. is it even 'allowed'?
i would allow windows to automatically set the swap file size and i would then if necessary change the swap file drive setting to the fastest drive i had with sufficient contiguous defragged hard disk space.
you could even create a partition on that fast drive and set the swap file to that (dedicated) volume. allow more room for overhead depending on file system you select when formating swap volume. i am not sure how large that all is...maybe 200MB??

Page file should be twice the size of memory + 5%

So basically, your page files should be around 2010.

Being that you have no problem with space, you could put that entire size on your 0 drive.

If you want, you can put it all on the 1 drive and only notice a very small performance loss. Nothing really. If you put it all on the 1 drive, ensure you put at least 25mb in the page file for the 0 drive. (25 is the minimum required to do a dump of errors on any drive) That being the case, make your page file on 0 - 25mb and 1 - 2000mb.

There are a LOT of folklore setting guides for virtual memory (page file).

2 times installed RAM is a hold over from Windows 3.1

Setting a fixed size page file is also a hold over from the past.
The "advantage" of a fixed size page file is that neither the page file, or user files get fragmented as the page file changes in size.
The negative of a fixed size page file, is if it is too small for your needs, your system can crash.

Here is a link to a good article on Optimizing Virtual Memory in Windows XP.

http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm

Since XP is built on the core W2K code, the advice applies to W2K.

Having the page file on a separate hard drive has advantages:

Files on the primary drive do not get fragmented as the page file changes in size.

If the page file is the ONLY file on the drive, it will be located at the start of the drive where access is fastest.

The page file can be accessed while files are being accessed on the main drive.

One negative of having the page file on a secondary drive is that W2K needs a page file on the boot drive to perform a memory dump.

Ideally, you would want the page file on your SATA drive, as that has the fastest data transfer rate.
However, any performance improvement to be gained from having the file on the SATA drive would be lost in the compression / decompression process.

You should only use a compressed volume for files that are seldom accessed.

What would I do?

Back up the files on the SATA drive.

Delete the partition.

Create a new extended partition.
The first logical drive on the partition should be between 2 and 5 GB.
Use this drive for your page file.

Use the remainder of the drive for your data storage.

You might want 2 logical drives rather than 1 for data storage.
Leave the first volume uncompressed, and store files that are used often there.
Compress the second volume and store seldom used files there.

Chas

In response to your questions:

"Since there is only one (or one set) of reading / writing head in a drive, does it make any difference if I divide my SATA drive into two partitions, and seprate the data and page file?"

The advantage of a separate logical drive for the page file is NOT speed of access.
Having a separate logical drive will keep both the page file and your data files from becoming fragmented.
With the page file on the same drive as data or system files, over time files from both get fragmented. At some point, a fragmented page file will reduce system performance.

"In my opinion, I think they will have the same performance because as long as other data is being accessed, it should cause the same lag for the page file in the same physical drive, whether it's in the same logical drive or another one."

Basically correct, the access speed would be the same. There is some gain to be made from having the page file as the first file on the drive.

The first file on the drive has the lowest "seek" time.

One advantage that Norton "Speed Disk" has over other disk optimization utilities is that it can move the page file to the start of the drive.

"Also under the same logical drive, can I compress folders only, and leave the page file under the root, and remain uncompressed?"

I believe you are correct.
I don't use compressed volumes or folders myself.

"Also disregard the affection made by compressed disk, what is the best size distribution for two swap files under my HDD0 and HDD1?"

If you wish to maintain the ability to do a full memory dump if Windows crashes, you would want at least a 1GB available for the page file on the C: drive.

One way to determine a minimum page file size is to use performance monitor and track the size of the page file.
Use the PC as hard as you expect to.
Look at the peak page file size value.
Add 20%, and set that as the minimum page file size, with NO maximum.

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