[SOLVED] Game is on SSD but HDD is being used ?

[gazza740]

hi all
I have Day Z installed on my SSD (CDrive) but when I check task manager, I can see my HDD (D Drive) is the one thats reading/writing. I have installed it several times, same thing. Any idea why this may be happening?
Thanks

 

[Darkbreeze]

Was the installer on the HDD? It may not have installed the supporting files on the SSD, only the core application. In the same way that games which come on disk can be fully installed on the HDD or be installed in such a way that the disk is required to access the maps, levels, etc, it may be accessing supporting files for the game from the HDD. I would suggest uninstalling the game, copying the installer files to the desktop or another folder on the SSD and reinstalling the game.

Before doing that you may want to just disconnect the HDD and see if the game will still play or if it gives you errors for missing files.

 

[gazza740]

thanks for the advice - I will give this a go and see what happens, will update soon after

 

[drtweak]

What else you have running? Maybe something running in the background is reading and writing to it? Is your pagefile on the HDD? If so that is most likely your issue.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Yep, that would be the next suggestion is checking your virtual memory settings to see if there is space allocated on the hard drive for the page file.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Open System by clicking the Start button Picture of the Start button, right-clicking Computer, and then clicking Properties.


2.In the left pane, click Advanced system settings. Administrator permission required If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.


3.On the Advanced tab, under Performance, click Settings.


4.Click the Advanced tab, and then, under Virtual memory, click Change.


5.Clear the Automatically manage paging file size for all drives check box.


6.Under Drive [Volume Label], click the drive that contains the paging file you want to change.


7.Click Custom size, type a new size in megabytes in the Initial size (MB) or Maximum size (MB) box, click Set, and then click OK.



If your system is set as "Automatically manage all drives" you might want to uncheck that and set your HDD as no page file. Don't change the system managed size setting for your boot drive though.

 

[gazza740]

would you have a recomendation for the minimum/maximum MB in the custom section?

Currently my SSD has "No paging file" and the HDD was set to system managed - do i just put a custom amount in here then to see if that helps?

My drive boot is my SSD so just leave that alone and have the custom for HDD?

 

[Darkbreeze]

Change the SSD to "system managed" and the HDD to "no paging file".

 

[gazza740]

thanks for the help guys, i can definately see the SSD is doing the brunt of the work, i am getting the occasional jolt where the frames plummet and I can see the HDD shooting to 100% usage. Not really sure why this is happening as all the game files are definately in the SSD, anyways, thanks for the help!

 

[drtweak]

Well if the Page file was on the HDD, which it sounds like it was, that is why, because the page files is like RAM but its stored on the Hard drives/SSD's and low priority memory is stored there because its a lot slower.

If you set it on the SSD Dont' set it to System Managed. Make it like 4096 MB or 4 GB. assuming you have 8GB or ram or more. Windows will set it to double of what ever your RAM is so if you have 16 GB or ram it will be a 32GB Page file and it WILL take up 32GB of space on your SSD and honestly having the page files on your SSD isn't as good of an idea only because it puts more read and writes on the SSD.

yes SSD's these days can handle a thousands of hours and millions of writes before they die but its more work on it. Yes the SSD is faster.

Me I just disable it altogether. Only down side is if you get a a BSOD you dont get a Minidump of all the detailed info

 

[Darkbreeze]

Well if the Page file was on the HDD, which it sounds like it was, that is why, because the page files is like RAM but its stored on the Hard drives/SSD's and low priority memory is stored there because its a lot slower.

If you set it on the SSD Dont' set it to System Managed. Make it like 4096 MB or 4 GB. assuming you have 8GB or ram or more. Windows will set it to double of what ever your RAM is so if you have 16 GB or ram it will be a 32GB Page file and it WILL take up 32GB of space on your SSD and honestly having the page files on your SSD isn't as good of an idea only because it puts more read and writes on the SSD.

yes SSD's these days can handle a thousands of hours and millions of writes before they die but its more work on it. Yes the SSD is faster.

Me I just disable it altogether. Only down side is if you get a a BSOD you dont get a Minidump of all the detailed info

Don't listen to this, sorry DrTweak, but it's wrong. Windows 7 and 8 do a very capable job of managing the paging file, unlike the old days of XP and ME where it was best to manually set the page file to a specific amount.

Regarding the disabling of the page file, this is a sure fire way to create issues. There are tons of argument on this subject by individuals who claim it works fine on their systems but I can provide link upon link from sources far better equipped to make subjective analysis of both methods than you or I and every trustworthy source out there indicates that disabling the paging file, regardless the amount of RAM installed, is a very poor decision that almost always leads to performance issues at the minimum, system crashes at the other end. This is just one of many.

http://lifehacker.com/5426041/understanding-the-windows-pagefile-and-why-you-shouldnt-disable-it

Some people base this belief of an article on Puget systems where it's recommended to do this. They even reference Microsoft in the article as a reason for doing so. However, this has been adamantly refuted by Microsoft and Microsoft strongly recommends that you do not disable or delete the paging file. Backtracking a bit, reducing the size of the paging file to a more manageable amount is ok, better by far than disabling it, but it's really a personal choice I guess. I've seen systems with 32GB of RAM installed that still insisted on using the page file and exhibited issues when it wasn't.

 

[drtweak]

I don't "Reccommened" that you disable it. By all means I agree that it doesn't matter how much RAM You have to have a Pagefile even if windows doesn't use it. I know what its there for and what it does. It's just an option to do. Never said to do it.

And IDK about windows 7 managing it. EVERY windows 7 with a system managed Page Files is ALWAYS twice the size of the RAM. There was a post recently with a guy and a 240GB SSD, after installing windows half his space was gone. Why? He has 64GB of RAM and windows decided to make a 128GB page file.

My main point was if you have 8GB of ram or more Leave it on the HDD and not on the SSD. It won't get used as much if you have a high amount of ram and shouldn't affect game play. I have 8GB ram, 240GB ssd, and my pagefile is set to 8GB on the HDD and it never gets uses even when playing games. Every time i install windows or get a new PC in from Dell the Pagefile is always twice the size of the RAM regardless of how much RAM it doesn't have.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Now that, I can agree with. Personally, for people who are somewhat non-technical and disinclined to be tweaking things, I recommend they leave things alone aside from basic management for troubleshooting or some minimal refinement. For everybody else, I can see no reason you should ever need more than 4-8GB of virtual memory assignment in the manager. You probably won't ever need that much, but just in case something thinks you do, it's there.

And the type of workstation you're referring to plays by a completely different set of rules than those that should be adhered to by the average or even above average consumer rig. In my opinion anyhow.

 

[Otto Bjorkman]

Open System by clicking the Start button Picture of the Start button, right-clicking Computer, and then clicking Properties.


2.In the left pane, click Advanced system settings. Administrator permission required If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.


3.On the Advanced tab, under Performance, click Settings.


4.Click the Advanced tab, and then, under Virtual memory, click Change.


5.Clear the Automatically manage paging file size for all drives check box.


6.Under Drive [Volume Label], click the drive that contains the paging file you want to change.


7.Click Custom size, type a new size in megabytes in the Initial size (MB) or Maximum size (MB) box, click Set, and then click OK.



If your system is set as "Automatically manage all drives" you might want to uncheck that and set your HDD as no page file. Don't change the system managed size setting for your boot drive though.

I know i am son a decade late but i am having the exact same problem described but i am on windows 11, what do you mean with the first step what is "Open System by clicking the start butten picture of the start button"?

 

[USAFRet]

I know i am son a decade late but i am having the exact same problem described but i am on windows 11, what do you mean with the first step what is "Open System by clicking the start butten picture of the start button"?

Please start a NEW thread for your particular situation.