Creating Windows Swap File Partition

Win95 allows you to run multiple applications simultaneously, all of which may not fit into the amount of physical memory in your machine. This is done by using a swap file (or paging file) that is used as virtual memory, which means that Windows can use this file as a temporary location in which to save portions of your system’s memory when other applications need more physical memory. The size and location of this file is automatically specified by Windows, but can also be set using the Performance tab’s Virtual Memory dialog, located in the Control Panel’s System option.

By default, your swap (or paging) file is a temporary file that is located on your boot drive and is recreated each time you start Windows. However, you can usually improve the performance of Windows by specifying that this file be created on a specific partition that you can either create using the DOS FDISK utility when you first set up your hard drive, or later "on the fly" using Partition Magic. By dedicating a specific partition to your swap (or paging) file, Windows' performance can be enhanced because it doesn't have to compete with other applications in order to access this file.

NOTE: By default both Windows 95 and 98 use a dynamic swap file whose size can change depending upon the number and sizes of the applications that you are running. If you have enough free space to create a partition equal to 2 1/2 - 3 times the amount of your installed RAM (i.e. approximately 175-200MB if you have 64MB of memory) you can make a static swapfile that may speed things up even more. In any case make sure that if you use a dynamic swap file that your swap partition is large enough to allow this file to grow (min = 100MB).

Before proceeding with the remainder of this section, make sure that you have sufficient space available on one of your disk drives in order to create a permanent swap partition. As a general rule, the size of your swap partition should be somewhere between two and three times the amount of physical memory in your machine.

NOTE: You should always locate your swap partition on the fastest drive in your system. If you have multiple hard drives in your system, consult the documentation for your disk drives and compare the access rates. The lowest access rate identifies the fastest drive.

To create a separate partition for Windows 95 paging files using either FDISK or Partition Magic:

Suggested Size

Create a partition large enough to accomodate your Virtual Memory swap file. I would suggest an absolute minimum of
100MB with more space allocated if you have additional RAM memory installed:
up to 32MB = 100MB
up to 48MB = 150MB
up to 64MB = 200MB

Creating a Partition Using FDISK

When using the DOS FDISK utility to repartition a hard disk all data is wiped from the disk...therefore for users who don't have access to a third-party partitioning utility like Partition Magic this tip is ONLY suggested when initially setting up a new hard drive or reformatting an existing drive.

When using FDISK in the course of configuring a new hard drive simply create an extra small partition for your swap file (note that it will be a FAT16 partition by default as partitions smaller than 512MB are not supported under FAT32).

Creating a Partition Using Partition Magic

With Partition Magic or a similar utility one can employ this tip at any time as such utilities allow one to reconfigure existing partitions and create new partitions "on the fly" without disturbing existing data or programs.

Just start Partition Magic and select the free space on your fastest disk drive to use for your new swap partition, then follow the procedure detailed under "Creating a Partition" in your Partition Magic documentation to create a new swap partition as per the sizes suggested above.

Moving Your Swap File to the New Partition

1. Right-Click on My Computer > Click Properties
2. Choose the Performance tab
3. Click the Virtual Memory button
4. Choose "Let me specify my own virtual memory settings"
5. Pull down the "Hard disk" drop-down menu and choose the partition you have created for your swap file drive
6. If you are creating a dynamic swap file:
7. Enter "0" as the Minimum and the full size of your swap partition as the maximum size of the swap file
8. If you are creating a static swap file:
9. Enter the full size of your swap partition as BOTH the minumum AND maximum size of the swap file
10. Click OK > Click Yes > Click Close
11. Click Yes to restart the computer

Your system reboots and runs with the new swap file.