pagefile framentation

Originally Published 2003-10-09 11:01:26

***Read the following if your machine seems to do excessive I/O during even simple UI operations (like repainting the active window).***



Since getting my new hard drive and XP template a few weeks ago, I had noticed that my machine performance was exceedingly poor. The OS appeared to be I/O bound on most common operations. I didn't suspect fragmentation initially, because the OS had just been templated and there was plenty of free space. However, doing a defragment analysis showed moderate filesystem fragmentation. I did a defrag, but performance gains were marginal. Then, I came across the following article: http://www.cyberwalker.net/columns/nov01/081101.html



The problem appears to have been fragmentation of the pagefile. Doing a regular defragment with the built-in Windows defragmenter will not fix this problem (if you are using a 3rd party defragmenter like Diskeeper, you may not have this problem). After following the instructions in the article, my machine performs dramatically better. As an example, the minaccept test suite runs for me in about 1/3 the time it took yesterday, and Notes and IE are responsive enough to use while the test is running. Caveat emptor, but if you are having similar problems, take a look at this.