SSD Page file - Disable or move

[sicon99]

Hello,
I just installed a new SSD. Should i disable or move the page file?
I currently have it disabled.. My system has 24GB of ram.. If i should have it enable.. how do i tell it to use a different drive?

 

[nikorr]

Leave the 6GB page on SSD - it is fine for most people., What SSD do u have?

Use this guide to tweak it, but I would leave the page , even if u have a lots of RAM.

http://thessdreview.com/ssd-guides/optimization-guides/the-ssd-optimization-guide-2/

 

[sicon99]

its a 120GB OCZ Vertex 3

Right now i have it disabled to limit excess writes to the drive... I just wasn't sure if thats the best way to go.

 

[thessdreview]

Dont worry about excessive writes whatsoever...just enjoy. Would you have ever done that for a hard drive? I would be not and the SSD lasts much longer.

 

[nikorr]

Yeah, don't worry, page file is needed even if u have lots of RAM.


SSD's do have a write limit.

When the first consumer ssd's were introduced in 2007 it was a real legitimate concern. But lot has changed since then.

With modern ssd's write limits there is nothing to be concerned about, any longer.

 

[f34nor]

Hello,
I just installed a new SSD. Should i disable or move the page file?
I currently have it disabled.. My system has 24GB of ram.. If i should have it enable.. how do i tell it to use a different drive?

Download dataram ramdisk, make a 4 GB ramdrive and move your page file there. Easy free and even faster than your ssd. 20 GB of ram, now say it with me kids...."should be enough for anyone."

 

[zhihao50]

advanced system property-- performance-- advanced-- virtue memory

 

[zzzyyy]

Dont worry about excessive writes whatsoever...just enjoy. Would you have ever done that for a hard drive? I would be not and the SSD lasts much longer.

I have my doubts about that, having just experienced my third SSD failure in 1 year. I have got through two Mushkin drives and one OCZ Vertex 2. One Mushkin was DOA, the other started giving I/O errors within the first month, and the Vertex 2 lasted about 11 months before succumbing to I/O errors. I was running Windows 7 and Ubuntu on it, dual boot, with the Windows page file on the SSD. Anecdotal evidence proves nothing I know, and perhaps I'm just unlucky. I hope so, because I have just replaced the Vertex 2 with a Vertex 4.

Anyway, it does make me wonder about whether SSDs still have longevity problems. And it makes me wonder whether I should move the Windows paging file off the new SSD.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

http://www.overclock.net/t/1133897/windows-7-ssd-tweaking-guide

Here are some more tips ^

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/270102-32-useful-articles-part

Great info put together by Tecmo34 ^

 

[niceget]

I have my doubts about that, having just experienced my third SSD failure in 1 year. I have got through two Mushkin drives and one OCZ Vertex 2. One Mushkin was DOA, the other started giving I/O errors within the first month, and the Vertex 2 lasted about 11 months before succumbing to I/O errors. I was running Windows 7 and Ubuntu on it, dual boot, with the Windows page file on the SSD. Anecdotal evidence proves nothing I know, and perhaps I'm just unlucky. I hope so, because I have just replaced the Vertex 2 with a Vertex 4.

Anyway, it does make me wonder about whether SSDs still have longevity problems. And it makes me wonder whether I should move the Windows paging file off the new SSD.

You simply have had bad luck. SDDs today are able to do everything e.g. System Restore, Write Cache and Page file in Windows 7. Just don't Defrag them, that's all there is to taking care of them. (of course clean your temp files from time to time)

 

[gamerk316]

You simply have had bad luck. SDDs today are able to do everything e.g. System Restore, Write Cache and Page file in Windows 7. Just don't Defrag them, that's all there is to taking care of them. (of course clean your temp files from time to time)

Call me in 5 years when SSD's start failing. I've had HDDs that last a decade or more, and have no worry about them breaking. For SSD's, I have to worry about write limits, firmware issues, and more headaches then should exist for storage media.

I'll stick to 10k RPM HDD's.

 

[Javik]

Yes, this is an old thread. I am posting here because this is the first Google result for "SSD disable pagefile".


1. Yes, the pagefile will wear out an SSD and make it unreliable. Due to the wear leveling abilities of SSDs, the bigger the SSD and the more unused space you have on it, the slower the wear out will occur.


2. No, you don't need the pagefile, though if it is turned off you need to be at least somewhat aware of how much you are using. Leave the Task Manager open and look at the memory usage once in a while.

If you just run one 3D game at a time and close other programs when you do that, then sure, you can run with 4 gig and no page file just fine.

However, I often have five Firefox windows open with 25+ tabs open in each window, plus iTunes, and maybe a suspended 3D game in the background, while I open another 3D game...


3. Note, there is a built-in limiter in Windows Vista/7/8 that tries to prevent out-of-memory conditions if more than 75% is in use. (You can also hit this if you have a pagefile, but there isn't enough disk space for it to grow bigger.) If you hit this limit, Windows will force programs to close and pop up a warning.

For significantly large memory systems running without a pagefile, this results in a ridiculous amount of wasted memory that Windows will NEVER utilize.

Do you have 4 gig of memory and no pagefile? Windows will never use the last 1 gig.
Do you have 16 gig / no pagefile? Windows will never touch the last 4 gig. (!)

Part of the reason for recommending a disk-based pagefile even if you do have tons of memory, is just so that Windows can use this otherwise wasted area. The pagefile may never be used, but it also means the limiter is not triggered for high main memory usage.


4. You can disable the limiter to allow 100% memory usage without the pagefile, by deleting three registry keys, but programs and Windows itself may misbehave severely if your system really hits the 100% mark.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\WDI\DiagnosticModules\
{45DE1EA9-10BC-4f96-9B21-4B6B83DBF476}
{5EE64AFB-398D-4edb-AF71-3B830219ABF7}
{C0F51D84-11B9-4e74-B083-99F11BA2DB0A}

This is discussed in more detail here:
http://www.kylirhorton.com/2009/disabling-low-memory-messages/


5. Creating a RAMdisk from your system memory for the pagefile is just stupid. By doing that, you're reducing available memory, in order to accelerate the operation of a mechanism that is intended to deal with... reduced available memory conditions.

Since this pagefile is limited to the size of the RAMdisk, the end result is identical to just turning off the page file and not using a RAMdisk.

Note, this is different from the old i-RAM device that used separate memory modules on a card accessed via SATA, for a dedicated RAMdisk:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-RAM


6. Yes, fast enterprise grade hard drives (10,000 - 15,000 RPM) are an option, but they continuously operate at high power and need lots of airflow to dissipate the heat they generate.

If you're using 10k/15k drives specifically for faster pagefile performance, your money would likely be better spent on 4/8+ gig memory sticks.

 

[niceget]

Nuts and bolts: Buy an OCZ 140 GB SSD latest edition Vertex. Don't adjust anything in Windows to maintain the SSD other than disable Disk Defrag. You'll love your SSD.

 

[SquittersTweet]

Yes, this is an old thread. I am posting here because this is the first Google result for "SSD disable pagefile".


1. Yes, the pagefile will wear out an SSD and make it unreliable. Due to the wear leveling abilities of SSDs, the bigger the SSD and the more unused space you have on it, the slower the wear out will occur.


2. No, you don't need the pagefile, though if it is turned off you need to be at least somewhat aware of how much you are using. Leave the Task Manager open and look at the memory usage once in a while.

If you just run one 3D game at a time and close other programs when you do that, then sure, you can run with 4 gig and no page file just fine.

However, I often have five Firefox windows open with 25+ tabs open in each window, plus iTunes, and maybe a suspended 3D game in the background, while I open another 3D game...


3. Note, there is a built-in limiter in Windows Vista/7/8 that tries to prevent out-of-memory conditions if more than 75% is in use. (You can also hit this if you have a pagefile, but there isn't enough disk space for it to grow bigger.) If you hit this limit, Windows will force programs to close and pop up a warning.

For significantly large memory systems running without a pagefile, this results in a ridiculous amount of wasted memory that Windows will NEVER utilize.

Do you have 4 gig of memory and no pagefile? Windows will never use the last 1 gig.
Do you have 16 gig / no pagefile? Windows will never touch the last 4 gig. (!)

Part of the reason for recommending a disk-based pagefile even if you do have tons of memory, is just so that Windows can use this otherwise wasted area. The pagefile may never be used, but it also means the limiter is not triggered for high main memory usage.


4. You can disable the limiter to allow 100% memory usage without the pagefile, by deleting three registry keys, but programs and Windows itself may misbehave severely if your system really hits the 100% mark.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\WDI\DiagnosticModules\
{45DE1EA9-10BC-4f96-9B21-4B6B83DBF476}
{5EE64AFB-398D-4edb-AF71-3B830219ABF7}
{C0F51D84-11B9-4e74-B083-99F11BA2DB0A}

This is discussed in more detail here:
http://www.kylirhorton.com/2009/disabling-low-memory-messages/


5. Creating a RAMdisk from your system memory for the pagefile is just stupid. By doing that, you're reducing available memory, in order to accelerate the operation of a mechanism that is intended to deal with... reduced available memory conditions.

Since this pagefile is limited to the size of the RAMdisk, the end result is identical to just turning off the page file and not using a RAMdisk.

Note, this is different from the old i-RAM device that used separate memory modules on a card accessed via SATA, for a dedicated RAMdisk:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-RAM


6. Yes, fast enterprise grade hard drives (10,000 - 15,000 RPM) are an option, but they continuously operate at high power and need lots of airflow to dissipate the heat they generate.

If you're using 10k/15k drives specifically for faster pagefile performance, your money would likely be better spent on 4/8+ gig memory sticks.

This was almost a perfect timing! Just ordered my SSD yesterday and was wondering about the page file. Your post sums it up very nicely. Thanks!

 

[sunk818]

Download dataram ramdisk, make a 4 GB ramdrive and move your page file there. Easy free and even faster than your ssd. 20 GB of ram, now say it with me kids...."should be enough for anyone."

Sorry to reply to a two year old thread. Was curious about running my pagefile.sys on the SSD exclusively.

I don't see the point in using a RAM disk to store your pagefile.sys -- Wouldn't it be just same the to have zero allocated to swap and utilize all your RAM for applications and background services? The RAM disk just seems like an overhead when you can run without a pagefile.sys

 

[wingclip]

Dont worry about excessive writes whatsoever...just enjoy. Would you have ever done that for a hard drive? I would be not and the SSD lasts much longer.

I have my doubts about that, having just experienced my third SSD failure in 1 year. I have got through two Mushkin drives and one OCZ Vertex 2. One Mushkin was DOA, the other started giving I/O errors within the first month, and the Vertex 2 lasted about 11 months before succumbing to I/O errors. I was running Windows 7 and Ubuntu on it, dual boot, with the Windows page file on the SSD. Anecdotal evidence proves nothing I know, and perhaps I'm just unlucky. I hope so, because I have just replaced the Vertex 2 with a Vertex 4.

Anyway, it does make me wonder about whether SSDs still have longevity problems. And it makes me wonder whether I should move the Windows paging file off the new SSD.

Whew! Frankly, that sounds like you're pumping too many volts into something. You probably should check you PSU & PSU Connections. You could have a ground problem or maybe some resistors are dead in the mobo. Whatever the cause, you shouldn't be going through SSD's at that rate and the SSD's you named aren't bad ones. Something's wrong there and I think you may be blaming the wrong culprit.
FWIW

 

[niceget]

No one has owned a 2nd or 3rd generation SSD long enough on a clean/optimized PC (gaming rig) to know the answer to this. I have been using SSD's (see above post) for several years. I KNOW that I do not have to disable anything but the Defrag. Besides, Windows 7, 8 (probably 9, 10, 11 etc) will all see the SSD and disable Defrag automatically.

So don't worry about fussing around with your new SSD. Just plug it in, install your system (or transfer your System Image) and watch the over-all performance blow you away!

I'm talking first hand experience here on my computer(s) at home for work, gaming and creating videos.

Let the theorists whine and speculate. I know through experience and that experience also means my machines, the power supplies etc. are all above recommended specs.