Windows 10: Paging File Location and Settings Questions

I currently have one pagefile.sys, assigned to a Samsung SSD drive and it's set to let Windows do the managing.
This is the only page file I have enabled on my system.

Is there a better way to handle this file on my system?
Is it a good idea to have it located on another physical drive?
Should I have a paging file for all my drives?

There seems to be a lot of discussion about this,
with many conflicting arguments as to the setting and possible file locations etc. *Confused

:)

 

Windows 10 paging file won't retain settings

This appears to have worked! The memory allocated now has a value, and the error did not pop up after restarting. Thank you!

 

Windows 10 paging file won't retain settings

Hi,

Thank you for posting the query on Microsoft Community.

I do appreciate your efforts and time.

Try to run Memory Diagnostic Tool and check if it helps.

In the Search box, type Memory, and then click Diagnose your computer's memory problems.‌ If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

Hope this helps in resolving the issue. If the issue persists, do get back to us. We will be happy to assist you.

 

I would let Windows continue to maintain it and not worry about it. *Smile

 

Just leave it alone.

Unless you are desperate for those few GB of disk space or you have some specific purpose (like the guy on this forum that was loading 50GB of graphics assets into his Cities: Skylines game), there's no need to mess with the pagefile.

 

Is it okay, that I only have one page file enabled and that it's on my F drive?
Or should I just tick the little box, that lets windows manage the entire system?

 

I would tick the "automatically manage paging file size for all drives" box. I would have thought it was ticked by default.

 

Yes, this option was and is ticked by default, but I went in and changed it.
Should I just go back in and change it to the default settings and let windows manage it?

 

There is a valid principle that if you have 2 physical drives the pagefile should be on the non OS drive. However, there is the assumption, often unstated, that this drive should have performance comparable to the OS drive. In your case that is not true at all. The performance characteristics of an SSD are an almost perfect match for typical pagefile usage patterns, while those of a conventional drive could not be more wrong. In your case the pagefile should be on the SSD only. The only valid reason to put the pagefile on the conventional drive would be if you were very short on space on the OS drive. With a 512 GB SSD that should not be an issue.

 

This is a bit confusing... *Confused
However, my OS is installed on a Samsung 960 PRO 512GB NVMe and I placed the page file on a SAMSUNG 850 EVO 500GB SSD.
I also have a WD Black 1 TB HDD, with no page file on it.
This seems to be working well, but being that I have 24gb of installed RAM.
I may not be using the page file much anyway.
Would you say that this kind page file setup is acceptable for my system?

 

You are rarely going to be hitting the pagefile anyway so it won't really matter whether it's on the SATA or NVMe drive. Windows will automatically use the fastest drive for the pagefile.

 

So I'm guessing here,
that putting the page file on my 850 EVO SSD,
which is the F drive and having no other page file is fine, right?

 

If you have a second pagefile on an SSD that would be fine. This was not made clear in any post prior to mine.

 

What do you mean a "second page file"?
As I've already explained, I only allocated one (1) page file and it's on my 850 EVO SSD.
I have 2 other drives, a 960 PRO NVMe with Windows on it and a WD Black HDD for general storage.
I have set these other drives to "None", meaning no page file.

I'm concerned about taking up valuable space on the Windows MVMe drive.
So that's why I allocated the 850 EVO SSD to contain the page file.

Will I be alright with just the one (1) page file.
Could this kind of page file setup, potentially cause me any foreseeable issues down the road?

 

One pagefile should be quite adequate. With conventional drives there was some limited benefit with having multiple pagefiles. The idea of multiple pagefiles originated at a time when the maximum size of a single pagefile on a 32 bit OS was 4 GB and in a busy server that often wasn't enough. With SSDs and an OS that supports a pagefile as large as 16 TB that need is largely obsolete. And with a reasonable amount of RAM the pagefile isn't going to be used enough to make much difference.

Many people get a wrong idea of how the pagefile is used, being misled by the configuration dialog describing the pagefile. The impression is that Windows is madly reading and writing the pagefile, using it just like RAM. That is not the situation at all. Windows tries very hard to minimize pagefile usage, using it only for rarely used data which it is able to identify quite easily. This leaves more RAM available for more important purposes and improving performance.

With a reasonable amount of RAM pagefile configuration matters little if at all. Most attempts at pagefile optimization are wasted effort. The only time it matters is if you have a heavy workload.