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10.5: Move swap files to another partition under 10.5
Authored by: TigerKR on Dec 05, '07 09:20:40PM

Firstly, having a dedicated (contiguous free space) partition for swap on the fastest part of the hard drive is beneficial even in a single HDD configuration. Anytime a file is fragmented, it will take longer to read from / write to. Anytime a file (or fragments of a file) are located on the slower parts of the drive, they will take longer to read from / write to. The more the swap is used, the more this effect becomes pronounced. The less the swap is used, the less this effect becomes pronounced.

For the vast majority of people, this isn't really much of a concern. For those for which it is a concern, the answer is to get more RAM, so that they swap less. But for the small minority who constantly hit their swapfiles even though though they have gigabites of RAM, this is helpful. Of course, putting the swapfile on a different drive is better. Heck, its even more betterer ( :) ) if you can put it on a different bus completely.

But, sometimes that's not an option. Like for instance if you're on a laptop, which has a slow HDD to begin with, a typically lower RAM cap, and typically less expansion possibility.



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