Defragmenting A Page File
There are two
approaches to defragmenting a page file. One is free; the other
costs you some money but is well worth the expense. The phrase 'by
design' crops up a lot when talking about XP and here it comes
again. By design, Windows XP will not allow a page file to be
defragmented when the computer is online. Online in this case does
not mean when it's connected to the internet, but when it is powered
on and the operating system has been loaded and ready for use. This
is why you can defrag 1000 times from inside XP, check the defrag
log page file section and it will never show it being defragmented.
To get around this problem using the free method, it's necessary to:
-
Eliminate the
fragmented pagefile
-
Create a temporary
page file on another drive
-
Reboot
-
Defragment the
drive that held the original page file
-
Eliminate the
temporary page file
-
Recreate the
original page file
-
Reboot
It sounds worse than it
really is, but it's easily accomplished using the Virtual Memory
property sheet and the standard disk defragmenter utility that ships
with XP. If you don't have a secondary drive to create the temporary
paging file just eliminate the current paging file, reboot, recreate
the paging file and reboot once more.
If you're willing to
spend a few dollars, read about Diskeeper at the
Executive Software International, Inc site. Diskeeper is
actually the defragmenter utility that ships with XP. If you're
wondering why you'd pay good money for something you already have,
the version that ships with XP is a stripped down version that
doesn't include a fraction of the features that the full Diskeeper
product contains, including the ability to defragment paging files
using a method called Boot-Time Defragmentation. The links below
will convince you of the desirability of upgrading the included XP
defragmenter utility.
The Limitations of the Disk Defragmenter Tool in Windows XP
(Q314848)
Diskeeper vs. Built-In Defragmenter
Just so there is no
confusion or doubt, I have no stake in Executive Software
International, Inc. or Diskeeper. There may be other products out
there that do an equal or better job, but I have experience using
Diskeeper and highly recommend it for use with XP. Nuff' said.
[ Up ] [ Paging File ] [ Locating the Page File ] [ Sizing the Page File ] [ Physically Setting Page File Size ] [ Page Files and Fragmentation ] [ Defragmenting the Page File ] [ Paging File Performance Monitoring ]
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