Windows swap file on ssd drive

I hibernate whenever I feel like shutting down that way. It isn't going to last forever anyway. For reference, I have the 80GB version which is very adequate for my boot drive with all my programs.

I really hesitate to move any OS or program stuff to slower hard drives, just to save wear and tear on the SSD. It would be like putting ugly, uncomfortable plastic on your new couch. I do store lots of data files on regular hard drives, for instance lots of video and audio files. I also store my huge download directory on a regular hard drive. Apr 25, 0 0 www. You can carry this one step further if you have sufficient ram 4Gb and ask what a swap file would do for you in any case?

Consumers are so tied to the whole swap file theory without understanding the needs of their system and software. Oct 21, 14, 3 I keep hearing different things about swapfiles and SSD's. Some say to disable it completely. Others say to keep a very small amount MB? And others say to make it x your system memory unless you have 8GB, in which case no swap and store it on the SSD. Lastly, swapfile on a different physical mechanical hard drive. I am so confused. LokutusofBorg Golden Member. Mar 20, 1, 0 The correct answer is to use a modern OS Win7 and let it manage the swap file.

You can test that rather easily.. Since the standard Win7 size is rather large do they still ues 1. Nothinman Elite Member. Sep 14, 30, 0 0. I wasn't complaining about the size of Windows. I don't have room to spare on that drive for a swap. I would prefer to put it on a different HD. I wanted to know if I should use one at all and if so, would putting it a mechanical drive be ok.

Golgatha Lifer. Jul 18, 12, After considering all the options, I decided to make my swap file a static 4GB one. I have 4GB, only half in use, but swapping still happens. Disabling swapping is a bad idea too, because some programs can require huge amounts of memory reserved for them think Photoshop , and you can easily get out of memory messages. It depends on usage, but swapping is always useful to have for extreme situations.

Another thing to consider is whether your current swap drive is also your main drive. For most people, the answer will be yes. That means the hard drive is having to access paged virtual memory whilst also accessing data and programs. In this case, having an SSD for paging is likely to make a noticeable improvement. I'm looking for somebody who's tried this to give definitive info on performance, but on paper the case looks clear-cut.

Patrick Regan's answer about "swappiness" is pretty spot on: Depending on your usage, it might be fine, and if you're using Linux you can tweak "vm. So I'm tempted to say yes, as long as you give lots of disk to your swap.

I've been hearing lots about the internal controllers on SSD drives having super-tweaked algorithms to combat write wear, so in theory this would help -- give it lots of space, and set the kernel swappiness level low, and the SSD controller can spread the writes out and prevent any wear trouble. So that got me to wondering what the largest swap partition could be.

I locked onto your mention of "swap partition" and thought "Linux", so I looked into the maximums there. It turns out you can create ridiculous things like 16 TB swap partitions, at least based on the kernel math. However, the kernel can't use it. According to this , 16 GB is about the biggest swap partition you can make and use in a modern Linux kernel. So yes, you can, if your usage is going to be fairly swap-free.

If you'll be swap-heavy, though, maybe a cheapo USB key for ReadyBoost or the Unix equivalent would be a better fit -- that way when your swapping destroys the device from overwriting, it'll be cheap to replace and won't cost you the price of another SSD.

Some more fresh data about SSDs nowadays. I can't really sell it, so I can use it for virtual memory. Well, why not? It is still better than an HDD. If you have to have a page file, put it on a legacy drive. The following test shows that many of them fail after a while. I would assume it is more than two or three years of usage. I would use it as a virtual drive if I really need it, but if it is an available option, just expand your RAM as far as you can in necessity.

Use this virtual memory only if you run out of options. On the other hand, you can use your older SSD for this purpose, and you can replace it for USD any time if fails probably won't for a long while , it can be useful. One last sidenote: if you now have only HDD, go and get an SSD, migrate your operating system, you will feel like you bought a new computer. Although the random read of SSD drives is very good, the random write performance can be very bad. So in conclusion, the swap performance of your SSD may well be better, but do not assume that this will be the case until you have checked the number of random write IOPS your SSD can achieve.

I would be inclined to say that the performance gain from it is not worth it, especially if you have a lot of RAM. Not to mention that SSD sizes are relatively small, so you may not want to eat up a few GB worth of pagefile on it anyway. I think it would depend on how much RAM you have and how your "swappiness" is set. I have a swap set up on my computers, but if I don't hibernate, I rarely write to it. I tend to not max out my RAM usage. But if you know you're hitting swap a lot, I'd say no.

If you don't hit it a lot, I'd say go for it. FWIW: I've been using my pagefile. Windows must thrash on something, so thrashing on an SSD is much better than thrashing on a traditional HD ;-.

If this actually decreases the lifespan of the SSD, so what? Unless you need the swap file for suspend to disk for example , I would simply turn swapping off and get rid of your swap partition. The point of swap is to provide an extra cache level. This process is noninvasive, meaning you can pretty much manipulate data on a disk drive infinitely.

That is until the mechanics start to fail. In contrast SSD technology does not run the risk of mechanical failure. But what is a concern is how it stores its data. For data storage SSDs use controlled bursts of electrical energy. The semiconductors that are hit with this electric current slowly wear out from the process as they are used over time. This process has been improved upon through software and hardware updates. Also, as with any production process, SSDs themselves have gotten better at managing and maintaining the degradation of NAND flash drives.

Although, that concern is just as marginal as your HDD failing. There's a very in-depth podcast about the subject here if you'd like to read up on the topic further. You bought an SSD for its performance advantages and not simply for increasing battery life right? So use your SSD for that very purpose, to make your system quicker.

User needs differ and as such system requirements and thus configuration must differ in order to meet these needs, put simply it boils down to how you configure your system. This will ensure that …. C onfigure your temp filesystem to utilise space when required for your particular system needs, if you have enough RAM then consider setting your swappiness level to be less aggressive, this will ensure that…. D o you really need all off those logs?

Consider what your system is logging and where. There are a heap of other aspects to your system configuration that can make a none SSD system perform faster, default system builds have a tough metric to fulfil, pure performance or keeping data safe and secure or a balanced mixture of them all.

If you apply the same mentality to what you write and to which device, you can drastically increase both performance and at the same time increase the life span of your SSD. The accepted answer explains the theory; I'd figure I might add a little real-life data from two of my systems.

The remainder is due to swap and the Windows installation. According to mmc-utils :. Two very different systems, both used for years with swap on an SSD, and both systems are totally fine. To be fair, both systems are probably light on swap usage. Systems with a lot more memory pressure will see more swap writes, and therefore also more SSD wear.

But for normal desktop use with some occasional light swap usage, I don't see a problem with putting swap on an SSD. Jan I use a small, dedicated enterprise grade SSD as a swap drive. Ubuntu Community Ask!

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You should upgrade or use an alternative browser. Thread starter Start date Jul 12, Joined Oct 2, Messages Hi there all. I have added some drives to my machine recently.

I have: 1. The 1TB seagate is just used for storage. Where should I put my swap file? I have heard mixed things; that you shouldn't use an SSD as a swap drive, that you can if it's not the same drive as the windows drive etc. I am looking for optimal performance.. Joined Nov 19, Messages 14, Click to expand Damar Supreme [H]ardness. Joined Jun 20, Messages 4, MS themselves said an SSD is the absolute best place for the swap file, and it makes sense.

Most pagefile operations are small random reads or larger sequential writes, both of which are types of operations that SSDs handle well.