In the normal course of operation, Windows data is temporarily shifted to the hard drive. This can sometimes cause noticeable slow-downs. When resources are very low, however, this swapping out of memory to the hard drive can slow down the computer drastically, as the hard disk has to work continuously for the running applications as well as for the Windows.
If you feel your system is low on RAM, and all the available RAM is going to get engaged, it's advisable to split the swap file onto a newly defragmented hard drive. Windows can write to several hard drives simultaneously and
hence speed up the data transfer process. However, this makes sense only if you use multiple physical disks and not just partitions on a single disk. Using a single disk would force Windows to write to multiple areas, thereby slowing down access even further.
Initially you must check which of your drives are separated physically and what partitions you have on your drives. To start, go to Control Panel → Administrative Tools → Computer Management.
In the tree view structure on the left side of the window, navigate to Storage → Disk Management. You will now see the physically divided data drives on the bottom right with their corresponding partitions and the allocated logical drives.
In addition to the system drive ‘C:’, search for the primary partitions of the other physical drives (whichever other physical drives you might be having), note their drive letters, then close the Disk Management window.
For configuring the swap file, double click on the System icon in the Control Panel and switch to the Advanced tab, or click on the Advanced System Settings link if you are using Windows Vista. Click on Settings under Performance tab and activate the Advanced tab. Now, under Virtual Memory tab, click Change to change the size of the paging file and much more.
Disable the System managed size option, and select the desired drive in the dialog box above, then select Custom size and enter the desired value in the two subsequent fields, for example 1024 MB each. Equal values for minimum and maximum limit define a fixed size, making it impossible for the swap file to fragment the partition. Now click Set to save the settings.
Repeat this procedure for other drives. Confirm the settings with Ok. Restart the systems for Windows to apply the settings. Now see for yourself, your system will run fast with improved performance, that you have never experienced before.
Caution: You cannot
create swap files on external hard drives and memory cards. (Ed. There is one exception to this rule about external hard drives. If you have an "eSATA" drive that plugs into an adapter card that Windows reports as in internal drive, it can be used to mount a swap file.)