Page file defrag - Vista
 

Is there a way to defrag the page file in Vista? Apparently the built-in defragger in Vista does not have this ability. Help!

Re: Page file defrag - Vista
 

It's a bit long winded, but you can move your pagefile to another drive, reboot, defrag the original drive, move the pagefile back and reboot..

http://www.techmetica.com/howto/how-...file-in-vista/

Re: Page file defrag - Vista
 

Stuart thanks everso for these destructions, as you say a bit long winded. Will have to mull this one over, cos I'd be worried in case something went wrong. Maybe I should let well alone. :rolleyes:

Re: Page file defrag - Vista
 

Are you sure the page file is even fragmented?

Re: Page file defrag - Vista
 

No I am not sure, but considering the computer is now 4 years old, I would assume there is a high likelihood. I've been reading an article that says defragging the pagefile could help to improve the performance. But if this is not necessary, or the resulting defrag doesn't make any significant difference. I will let well alone.

Re: Page file defrag - Vista
 

Just turn off the pagefile, reboot, and turn it back on again. Done.

Re: Page file defrag - Vista
 

But surely if the disk partition contains other files and is fragmented then the newly-created page file will still be in chunks?

Re: Page file defrag - Vista
 

Yes the page file tends to be a fixed size and thus tends not to frag. But a better solution is turn it off reboot, defrag and then turn it back on. You could also use a program like defraggler to tell you how fragmented the file is.

Re: Page file defrag - Vista
 

I was told many years ago if you PC has two Hard Drives (Not 2 partitions) was to put the page file on the other drive (I.E. move from C: to D:, and that would speed up your system a bit)

Re: Page file defrag - Vista
 

Theres a program called Perfect Disk that gives u this option.

Re: Page file defrag - Vista
 

Yes, I've done this on this system. I create a fixed size pagefile as the first file on an empty second drive. This makes sure it's one contiguous file and always remains that way as the size does not vary.

I've not noticed any dramatic increase in performance but I guess every little bit helps.

Re: Page file defrag - Vista
 

Well if you have lots of ram the page file won't see much use, but that is the best way to do it.

Re: Page file defrag - Vista
 

It's a capability that is creeping in to a few freeware defrags, the availability of boot-time defrag which can defrag pagefile and other locked system files.

http://www.iobit.com/iobitsmartdefrag.html

http://www.piriform.com/docs/defragg...ot-time-defrag
http://www.piriform.com/docs/defragg...ot-time-defrag - the files Defraggler does in boot time mode

Re: Page file defrag - Vista
 

Update for anyone who may have similar question.

A friend recommended I assign a fixed size to the page file. As I understand it this should do away with the need to degrag. According to the article I was reading, the figures for PC which has 2GB of ram (which mine has) the page file size should be between 3072 and 4096. So I have set both the initial size and the Maximum size to 3072.

Just for good measure I downloaded and ran Perfect Disk, which took all night to defrag. This morning I also did the boot defrag, and can't honestly see any significant difference in performance/speed. Was it worth it?:shrug:
Many thanks to all for your help! :nworthy:

Re: Page file defrag - Vista
 

I really don't think it's necessary, even when windows is managing it the page file it isn't that THAT dynamic. I have a windows managed page file and it is a giant 6GB block sitting in the middle of my boot partition, the same size and same place it always is. You can install defraggler and look at it.

Re: Page file defrag - Vista
 

Interesting downquark, where do I look for this is in Defraggler? i.e. how do I go about looking for it? Does that make sense?

Re: Page file defrag - Vista
 

http://www.piriform.com/defraggler

Install, click your drive, press analyze. The page file will be in one of the orange blocks.

Re: Page file defrag - Vista
 

Oh goodie, goes off to analyse..............just as long as it doesn't decide to do another defrag! :erm: Incidentally, as an aside, when a computer is left on to do a defrag, let's say overnight, and the screen goes blank as mine does if left on for any lenght of time, does the defrag carry on, or is it suspended until the screen is showing again?

Re: Page file defrag - Vista
 

It goes on, as long as it doesn't go to sleep or standby.

Defragler will estimate more fragmentation than windows but as long as you use one of them a few times a year I don't think there is reason to worry. But it is useful because it shows you the files that are fragmented, if they aren't anything important (used often) you can always decide not to bother.

Re: Page file defrag - Vista
 

Well seems I have 10 of these orange block thingies, is that good, bad, or indifferent? Or of no consequence?

Re: Page file defrag - Vista
 

click on them click on the files list and see how many fragments it is in, are they all next to each other?

Re: Page file defrag - Vista
 

They look like this, which looks pretty tidy to me.:dunce:

Re: Page file defrag - Vista
 

Click on an orange or red block, it will list the files in that block and how many fragments it is split into. But it looks like the page file in a big continuous block like it should be.

Re: Page file defrag - Vista
 

Yes I'm pretty happy with the outcome downquark. My old PC seems to be running smoothly now, it's just always interesting to me how to try and keep it as healthy as it can be, and trying and prolong its active life.:)
Thank you!

Re: Page file defrag - Vista
 

For downquark1

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Re: Page file defrag - Vista
 

Been a long time since I've seen of of these Maggie, and I agree!

Re: Page file defrag - Vista
 

Been a while since I've seen such a helpful thread.:)

Re: Page file defrag - Vista
 

It always fascinates me how Microsoft still use a file system that fragments!

Re: Page file defrag - Vista
 

Most of the file systems I know of (Unix, OSX, Linux, Windows) have file systems that fragment at some point.

Re: Page file defrag - Vista
 

I'm struggling to imagine how you could avoid a degree of fragmentation as file sizes change over time.

Re: Page file defrag - Vista
 

I believe that OSX does a fairly good job of defragmenting itself. Not through a separate program (as Windows does, even if it can and does schedule it), but in the OS. Basically it does some limited defragmenting after any major app install.

That's not to say that OSX doesn't run better after a manual defragmentation.

And here is Apples explanation: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1375

Re: Page file defrag - Vista
 

Interesting.

"Mac OS Extended formatting (HFS Plus) avoids reusing space from deleted files as much as possible, to avoid prematurely filling small areas of recently-freed space."

That makes sense in a way, given how big and cheap storage has become. If they get the coding right to ignore small blanks until a suitable file will fit that could certainly improve layout.

Re: Page file defrag - Vista
 

Thats the point i was trying to make (if a bit indirectly) It seems unusual that Microsoft is still using a file system that tries to cram everything into the smallest space possible when hard-drive are so large now-a-days.

My macbook is now on the better side of 2 years old and still starts up in well under a minute, its never had any 'maintenance' or been reinstalled; the only thing i've ever really done with it is updates and I upgraded to snow leopard (update not fresh install) about a year back :) i'll record a video of the reboot in a minute

---------- Post added at 23:23 ---------- Previous post was at 23:12 ----------

Video as promised :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ju7jzHCbqTg

system:
Model Name: MacBook
Model Identifier: MacBook5,2
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.13 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz

Harddrive:
Capacity: 160.04 GB (160,041,885,696 bytes)
Model: FUJITSU MHZ2160BH FFS G1
Revision: 00810091

Re: Page file defrag - Vista
 

Unlike Apple, Microsoft don't seem to readily admit to any strategy used in NTFS to minimise fragmentation. In fact they don't seem to readily admit anything about how NTFS works. However, from what I can gather the strategy used is that NTFS reserves around 15% space either side of the file, so the file can grow. Fine idea in theory, and as long as you leave a lot of free space on the drive. Not so good if you need to fill up the drive.

---------- Post added 28-06-2011 at 00:00 ---------- Previous post was 27-06-2011 at 23:51 ----------

Having said all that about Mac's performing better when defragmented, the only time I have actually HAD to defragment my Mac HDD is when the drive was nearly full, and after deleting a load of stuff, I still didn't have a large area of free space on the drive to install Windows on, so I needed to defrag the drive.

Re: Page file defrag - Vista
 

I've mentioned this one before but, due to bitter experience, I'll say it again...

Be VERY careful about defragging encrypted hard drives. The windows defragger is usually OK but some of the tools which defrag systems files can kill your hard drive. The only hope of getting your data back would be to send it off to a forensics company as, of course, an encrypted disk is not supposed to be read easily. We were quoted prices starting at £2000 four years ago for this service.

I know it's not common to have encrypted hard drives but it's worth remembering