Windows Server 2003 - Should the Page File not be on the 'C' (System) Drive?

Virdi · 15 Jul 2011 at 10:43

Hi all,

Question please - for Windows Server Techi's.

What drive should the Page File be on please?

...and should it be 1.5x the amount of physcal RAM installed?

Thanks

#Chri5# · 15 Jul 2011 at 16:56

I've known people create a dedicated partion for swap files and move it to that.

MS have an KB article on swap file sizing for x64.

PAz · 15 Jul 2011 at 21:06

We put our page files on seperate drives for all systems. Its part of our VM template etc etc

IIRC AceT who posts on here did the research for it so he might be able to provide something more conclusive.

Destination · 15 Jul 2011 at 21:26

#Chri5# said:
I've known people create a dedicated partion for swap files and move it to that.

MS have an KB article on swap file sizing for x64.

He did say 2003, which is 32bit.

aspirin · 15 Jul 2011 at 21:33

Hikari Kisugi said:
He did say 2003, which is 32bit.

There are 64bit versions of 2003:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/888733

aldo1234 · 15 Jul 2011 at 21:47

I find its always a quick way to get more space on the C drive to move the page file out esp when you have a 12GB C drive

#Chri5# · 15 Jul 2011 at 21:55

Hikari Kisugi said:
He did say 2003, which is 32bit.

2003 could be had in x64, even prior to R2 IIRC.

smargh · 15 Jul 2011 at 21:57

Depends what the box will be doing - you need to follow vendor best practices. For heavily used terminal services, definitely.

Knubje · 16 Jul 2011 at 11:43

Pagefile should be in a seperate disk to the one the C: is on, not a seperate partition, but a seperate physical disk.

Therefore you are using another disk to get hammered on rather than your C: and core operating files.

Skidilliplop · 16 Jul 2011 at 18:22

Depends what you're doing with it. But idieally you want the pagefile on it's own partition with it's own I/O queue. In addition you want that underlying storage system to have high IOPs and lower seek times.
Size wise I usually leave mine on system managed size.
But as said it depends if the OS drive is being used a lot. If you're running a fileserver with Data on a separate array and the OS is sitting on a 15k SAS mirror then you can leave it on C usually as the storage has the grunt to cope well enough.