Talk:Virtual memory

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Revision as of 12:03, 19 January 2008 by imported>Robert W King (→‎swap file distribution across disks)
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 Definition A concept in computer science whereby an operating system can use alternate (usually slower) data storage to impersonate real memory and run programs that ordinarily would not fit into real memory (RAM) [d] [e]
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swap file distribution across disks

I don't think RAID is required to distribute a Windows paging file across two disks, only a second available disk (partition) is required, whether RAID or not.Pat Palmer 10:14, 19 January 2008 (CST)

Another odd phenomenon: if the swap file is moved entirely to a second drive, say D:, a Windows machine may well boot up faster. I think that happens because the loading of boot programs from the primary partition (C: drive) can then go on in parallel with the loading of running program parts into the page file (D: drive), so overall, everything gets ready quicker. This is the kind of crap I learned from doing a lot of system administration and spending too many hours of my life watching Windows reboot (smile). It's typically 3 minutes per reboot (still) on practically any machine, because even though machines got faster, the amount of stuff that wants to load itself on startup has gotten correspondingly greater.Pat Palmer 10:19, 19 January 2008 (CST)
A RAID or stripe set is required. And no, moving the swap file to another drive doesn't make windows boot up faster, because the bandwidth across the IDE/SATA channel is slower between two discs. --Robert W King 11:03, 19 January 2008 (CST)