defragging the pagefile

[terrell]

several months ago, i was reading an article about defragging the pagefile. basicly, to defrag the pagefile, you hafta delete it, defrag your disk, then add the pagefile back. i remember doing that, and my pagefile was one big contiguous block.

well, i defragged this morning, and i noticed my pagefile was badly fragmented. so i went through the gyrations above, and ended up with 265 segments to my pagefile! so i did it all again, thinking it could quite possibly be a 'the morning after saturday night' thing. same thing, 265 segments.

so i downloaded a defrag utility from here (after searching yahoo for 'defrag pagefile' and reading several threads on the subject):

http://www.abexo.com/

it's too late to ask for opinions on the subject. i'm going to kick off a defrag with abexo, then i'm going irl golfing with some friends. but does anyone else have any success stories with defragging the pagefile, or utilities that will streamline the effort, or experience with abexo?

addition to above: i did delete my pagefile, then booted into safe mode. defragged, rebooted to safe mode, re-added the pagefile, and rebooted. so i wasn't running windows (xp pro sp2) in normal mode.

any and all comments, questions, expletives are welcomed (hey, that might make a good sig).

[BruceWallace]

I use Diskeeper 10, and do bootime defrag to defrag the page file, every once in awhile. It puts the page file in one segment.

[Armand]

I have read a little bit on defragging the pagefile, but I have never done it. I haven't even really looked to see how fragmented mine is until now .... OOPS!

I couldn't find my pagefile (and yes, I have system and hidden files showing in Windows Explorer). And then I remembered - I don' use a page file/virtual memory! I have 1GB of ram and find that I don't require a pagefile for what I do with the computer. Have you checked to see if you really require the pagefile?

terrell, is your pagefile a set size or do you allow Windows to adjust it as required? I would guess (but I'm not certain) it becomes less fragmented if it's one set size. ???

Armand

[terrell]

thanks for the responses guys.

@bruce

i will look for diskeeper and give it a try. abexo did everything it was supposed to do today but reboot after it finished. that must only work with the paid version.

@armand

you bring up an excellent point. i have 1280 mb on this machine, and i probably don't even hafta be worrying about a pagefile. i think the largest load i've ever seen on it, running several apps, was about half that. thanks. i'll try running without one for awhile.

[Grant_M]

A lite version of diskeeper is available here T http://www.majorgeeks.com/Diskeeper_Lite_d1207.html

it works well. after installing it, you can enable or disable it through your start/all programs tab.
you will find that it will detect fragmentation alot....so disabling is pretty standard.

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best_46 ... lities.htm is a really great place. I sent gizmo $20 in the mail and became a subscriber several months ago. very well worth it.

cheers

[terrell]

thanks, grant. i'm downloading diskeeper lite now. majorgeeks needs to buy some bandwidth.

[Grant_M]

considering the fact they are delivering for free.......Yep, you're d a m n right! more bandwidth. What were those a r s e's thinking:?:

[Crissy]

I have my page-file set before windows I find this the best spot for it as this is the fastest part of ones hard-drive. And I use Raxco - Perfect Disk to defrag my drives.

Here is a screen-shot to give you a better idea. And you will also see all my Links Courses are on a CD Rom. Well not really its a mounted ISO file ( Virtual CD/DVD ROM drive - about 26 gig ) so I can trick Links into moving the course I am playing from E: Drive to my Links folder on C: Drive for better performance. ( Links renames the course to current.zzz )

Click to enlarge



Crissy

[Grant_M]

WOW! [ the savior ] you do some wild things crissy. I have a favor to ask of you.

It's for everyone all the time. it's around 150 mb zipped and I tried to organize for a while....

[Crissy]

WOW! [ the savior ] you do some wild things crissy. I have a favor to ask of you.

It's for everyone all the time. it's around 150 mb zipped and I tried to organize for a while....

Hi there Grant how are you, what can I do to help you.

Crissy

[RR_CrazyHorse]

For my money the most comprehensive defrag program is Diskeeper 10.

[Crissy]

For my money the most comprehensive defrag program is Diskeeper 10.

I have tried just about all of them, even the one terrell mentioned in his post ( Abexo Disk Defragmenter ) And I would say the three best made are Diskeeper 2007, O&O Defrag V8.5 and Raxco PerfectDisk 8

Diskeeper 2007 is very good and is really the same disc defrag program that comes with XP only Diskeeper 2007 does a better job and has many more features, but there made by the same people. O&O Defrag V8.5 is also a very good product.

But the problem I find with both these products is they can not be set to manual ( run - services.msc ) if you set them to manual then when you go to use them you will receive errors. So one is forced to leave them running all the time.

( The older versions of Diskeeper could be set to manual with out problems but not the newer versions. I think Diskeeper 8 was ok but things went kaput after that )

Now Raxco PerfectDisk 8 can be totally turned off with nothing running in the background, you can set it to manual with no errors what so ever. So for this reason I use Raxco PerfectDisk 8 not because I would say its any better then any of the others but because for setting up a PC for gaming its the only way to go in my opinion.

Good thread by the way interesting.

Crissy

[terrell]

just to give you guys an update. i've been playing with abexo, diskeeper, and perfectdisk, and having major problems/questions. they seemed to be working, but i could analyze the drive immediately after defragging, and all of them would report 'massive fragmentation', and i could never get the pagefile to defrag. now i know windows is notorious for sticking temp/cached files all over the disk, but something wasn't working right.

then it hit me. disable the frelling firewall (i would imagine it was actually the antivirus component)! doh! so i tried perfectdisk again, and it ran 'perfectly'. i still have a bunch of fermented (sic) files, but they look like restore points. that makes sense. and one big contiguous 3 gb static pagefile.

thanks for the heads up, crissy. i like the perfectdisk interface, but i think i'll go back and give diskeeper another look. and i want to try o&o defrag.

[BruceWallace]

For my money the most comprehensive defrag program is Diskeeper 10.

I have tried just about all of them, even the one terrell mentioned in his post ( Abexo Disk Defragmenter ) And I would say the three best made are Diskeeper 2007, O&O Defrag V8.5 and Raxco PerfectDisk 8

Diskeeper 2007 is very good and is really the same disc defrag program that comes with XP only Diskeeper 2007 does a better job and has many more features, but there made by the same people. O&O Defrag V8.5 is also a very good product.

But the problem I find with both these products is they can not be set to manual ( run - services.msc ) if you set them to manual then when you go to use them you will receive errors. So one is forced to leave them running all the time.

( The older versions of Diskeeper could be set to manual with out problems but not the newer versions. I think Diskeeper 8 was ok but things went kaput after that )

Now Raxco PerfectDisk 8 can be totally turned off with nothing running in the background, you can set it to manual with no errors what so ever. So for this reason I use Raxco PerfectDisk 8 not because I would say its any better then any of the others but because for setting up a PC for gaming its the only way to go in my opinion.

Good thread by the way interesting.

Crissy

I have Diskeeper 10 and have no problem at all setting it to manual defrag. It is not running until I tell it to run.

[Crissy]

I have Diskeeper 10 and have no problem at all setting it to manual defrag. It is not running until I tell it to run.

Hi Bruce if you go to Start then Run and type ( services.msc ) and look down the list of services you will see Diskeeper running ( It will be set to automatic thats default ) Setting the program to manual through its interface does not do the trick it just looks like it’s off but its not.

If you click on the Diskeeper service and set it from automatic to manual and reboot when you go to start Diskeeper you will get an error as it needs to running at all times for the program to start.

Here is a screen-shot, I have a PC just for messing with stuff like that.

Click to enlarge


Anyway if your happy with it thats all that matters, its a good program.

Crissy