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blankpoin... blankpoin...
 
December 21, 2008 12:32 AM

Will an older IDE PATA hard disk be better for my Windows swap disks than my faster SATA Boot drive?

I have Vista 32bit with 4GB DDR2 installed (I know the limitation of RAM etc in 32bit Windows). I use a lot of heavy production software and in general have a lot of stuff open at any given time. My swap files tend to be anywhere from 2-7 gigs. In the current setup, I have my windows installed on a 250 gig partition of a 500 gig 7200 SATA hard disk. My swap files for Windows are right now on the boot partition and drive. I figured that there would be no benefit putting them on the other partition, since it's the same physical drive.

I have another drive that I will be emptying of all other content. It's an older 40 gig PATA IDE drive. Would the benefits of having a dedicated drive for the swap outweigh the disadvantages of PATA?

Also, where should I be putting Adobe scratch disks? I can't have a second dedicated drive for those, so should I put them on the boot drive, the drive with my actual files that I'm working from (PSDs, source files for Premiere, etc) or onto the new dedicated drive with the Windows swap, if I decide to use that? I know Adobe says performance is worse if it's on the same drive as Windows's swap...

Any help would be appreciated.
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darth cont... darth cont...
 
 December 21, 2008 12:54 AM
SATA drive would definitely be faster, but for the best results you should give the swap file its own home on a separate drive, not the boot drive.

If it's an option, you could experiment with using a SSD (solid state drive), as this unlike a typical electromechanical hard drive has no moving parts and offers significantly faster speeds than the best hard drives out there. Don't use a USB flash drive, however, for this purpose (see http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2006/06/30/30pogues-posts-3/ which talks about the limited life span of flash devices, making them unsuitable for activities such as swap file maintenance which involves rapid and frequent disk access).
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blankpoint blankpoint
 
December 21, 2008 03:03 AM
To clarify, I am asking specifically about the part I mentioned in my original post. I know that ideally, each swap getting its own dedicated fast drive is the best option. I cannot buy an SSD, and cannot connect more SATA drives to this motherboard.

My options are:
1. Keep the swap on the SATA drive, that also is the Windows boot drive.
2. Put it on a dedicated drive, but one that is PATA.

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darth cont... darth cont...
 
December 21, 2008 03:21 AM
In that case, I'd probably keep the swap file on the SATA drive, but create a separate partition on that drive for the swap file to live on. If that isn't an option, you could create the swap file on the boot partition and use a defrag utility (e.g. Raxco PerfectDisk) to maintain it with a periodic defrag of the swap file.

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iainbest iainbest
 
December 21, 2008 12:39 AM
If you're using a lot of swap, then the fastest drive you have will be best suited to being the swap..

I would recommend grabbing a cheap SATAII drive to use as your swap where possible, however there is no substitute for RAM. If it's possible to use 64bit Vista, this will allow you to utilise your RAM, and maybe install more.

Having said all that, it's worth throwing that PATA drive in and just testing it out.. run some tests using your main HDD and then run the same tests using your PATA drive - say a complicated process in Photoshop. Time with a stopwatch.

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blankpoint blankpoint
 
December 21, 2008 03:04 AM
What about the Windows & Adobe files. If I'm using a SINGLE dedicated drive for swap, can I get away with putting the windows swap and the Adobe scratch disks onto the same dedicated drive?

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drivel drivel
 
December 21, 2008 05:31 AM
With your setup you will likely get the highest performance boost by repartitioning your existing drive so that it has only one partition. Using multiple partitions will slow disk performance. With only one partition the most frequently used files will be closer and will enable Windows to more efficiently use the disk.

If you can also trying turning on PAE mode (if your hardware supports it) so that Vista can use all 4GB of your memory.

You could also try using ReadyBoost
Source(s):
http://www.ocmodshop.com/ocmodshop.aspx?a=989


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