After reading thru ( for the xxxth time ) OneTinSoldiers optimization guide I decided to look at the Page File size in an effort to speed up the finding of textures when views are changed in FS9 .Not that there is really much of a lag - occasionally a fraction of a second before everything fills in, but it would be nice if etc etc...............My system is set up as dual boot----Drive C = WinME 10GB ( 6gb free) this is used rarely and only for some essential(non FS) software which doesnt like WinXP too much.Drive D = Storage 14Gb( 7.5 free) On this partition is my addon mesh scenery directory.Drive E:= Win XP 28Gb( 14.5 free) FS9 and all associated software except addon mesh sceneryDrive F:= Backup 24GB( 10gb free)- the name says it all.RAM is 512mb DDRAM on a K7S5A with AMD Athlon 2000GPU is Ti4200/128mbDrives C and E are one one HDD, D and F on another( both Disks are Maxtor 38GB at 7200rpm).When I looked to see how Windows XP had set Page file it was showing against Drive E 768(min) 1536(max) with nothing shown against any other drive and max " for all drives" 1536.I upped the E drive to 1024(min) and 2048(max) and also allocated 1024(min and max) to the D drive on the principle that if I'm using the mesh from there maybe it will be a good thing to do.Max all drives is now 2048.Performance in texture filling /view changing seems slightly quicker and ,if another view change is made after the initial look there is no perceptable lag.So far no visible problems but.............My question is (not being expert in system settings and memory principles)--are these changed settings likely to have a bad effect anywhere else in the system - if so what should I be looking out for?Dave

Hi Dave,Here's how I have mine set up:http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/71355.jpgWindows XP is installed on its own on the C: DriveI have 2 HDs - 60Gig and a 40Gig - both are IBM DeskStars and have similar performance.The 60gig has 2 partitions - C: (6gig) and D:Flight sim and all my 'permanent' software are on D:My E: drive is the 2nd HD and holds all my backups, software odds and ends and any 'transient' installations.The advice I followed was to allocate a small page file on the C: drive for XP's routine housekeeping tasks. 2MB minimum is needed.The rest of the page file (I stuck to XP's recommendations re. the total size) I placed on E: The usual advice is to place it on your fastest drive, but since my drives are similar I chose to park it on E: rather than D: to avoid cluttering the latter.Seems to work well. C: takes a while to become significantly fragmented and the o/s remains undisturbed and stable, D: rarely requires defragging - although I do it anyway ;) and E: fragments only very slowly. Also Norton Speed Disk keeps the page file in a physical position on the disk well away from my other files.Mike

If you aren

I've got a gig of ram, and have NO page file.Works the best. WHy have one if you dont' need one?

For matters such as this I like to turn to the Elder Geek on Windows XP (hey, don't laugh... I can relate to him). Good explanations and guidelines here: http://www.theeldergeek.com/paging_file.htmGregP.S. Oqvist has the killer set-up. I bet you don't wait long for things to load, huh? :-)

"I upped the E drive to 1024(min) and 2048(max) and also allocated 1024(min and max) to the D drive on the principle that if I'm using the mesh from there maybe it will be a good thing to do.Max all drives is now 2048."If I'm understanding this correctly, you have a page of file of at least 1 GB on those partitions?This is totally unnecessary. For one, the maximum total amount of memory that the 32-bit Windows OS can allocate is 2 GB (some of their professional OS's can allocate 3 GB). So, in total you only need 2 GB of memory. including physical and page file. Now, most software (including FS), typically do not use more than half a gig of RAM.I suggest you create ONE swapfile on one partition only.Size: About 768MB. Set min and max to the same value to minimize refragmentation. Don't use a bigger size unless you know that you need more for a specific application.I think it would be best to place the swapfile on the drive which does not contain FS9. I'd place it on D.Also, make sure the pagefile does not get fragmented. You can do this by using a program such as VoptXP or RaxCo PerfectDisk. They include a feature to defragment the page file. There are probably other programs that also do this. I use and recommend PerfectDisk however.If you're only using the default WinXP disk defreagmenter, you can still minimize pagefile fragmentation.1. Disable the swapfile on D but leave it enabled on some other drive (to prevent bootup problems). Reboot.2. Defragment D3. Enable the swapfile on D and disable it on all other drives. Reboot.Here's my partition setup (Disk1: 7200 RPM Maxtor 160GB, Disk2: 7200 RPM Western Digital, both have 8MB cache)C is for WinXP and all programs/games. D is for downloads. I: is the swapfile (I set it to 2 GB because I need that amount of memory for some programs I use). E is for scenery. E is also mounted in the FS9Addon Scenery folder so I can easily install new addon sceneries to the correct partition. F is for storage and backup.http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/76248.gif

Because at times you need more than 1 gig of RAM. And games don