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Fernand Raynaud wrote:
<snip>
> I typically set the swap
> file (preferably on a not too fragmented drive) to a little under 100 MB to
> start, with a max of whatever you can muster, e.g. 250 MB. If NT has to
> work to expand the swap space, and if your disk is fragmented, it can be
> very slow.
That's exactly why I place the swap file on its own partition. I even go
a step further, I place the cache folders for my web browser on its own
partition. A little 40-50 MB partition is fine. Web browser caching
causes a tremendous amount of fragmentation.
You wanna know a trick you can do with NT if you're using the Server
version.
Make a mirror of the partition that you use for your web browser cache.
In effect, you've doubled the bandwidth at which you can read and write
to your cache. I've noticed significant speed increases by using this
technique. It even works extremely well on T1 lines. The higher the
bandwidth, the faster your cache needs to work.
It's also a wise idea to do the same by mirroring your swap file
partition. The swap file, in effect, has twice the available bandwidth.
But there's one caveat, it requires two hard drives. That's the way
mirroring works. But, it's really best if you can to have more than one
hard drive in your computer anyway.
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> All of these apps also leak memory like crazy, and aborted or crashed runs
> don't help, so it just gets worse over time.
I work extremely hard at making sure there's no resource and memory
leaks in my programs. But I've seen other programs have a tremendous
amount of resource and memory leaks. It's a fact, there are programs out
there with enormous leaks. I make sure mine is not one of them.
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> NT doesn't crash very often,
Well, I've frozen NT on pointer errors before. It can happen. You never
know when the smallest pointer error goes amuck in the system. You've
gotta act fast to get those worked out. It's not fun at all trying to
debug a program when the machine just freezes -- no Task Manager and
mouse either. But little mistakes like that can bite at unsuspecting
times. I've gotten really good at tracking down pointer and memory
errors. Enough experience will show you what pointer and memory errors
are like, and what's the likely cause in your program.
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> but you need to at least log out now and then to try to reclaim SOME
> memory. I've taken to rebooting my Server-as-workstation machine every few
> days just to reclaim the rest of the memory.
Same here.
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> So check your disk for fragmentation, just so you know. Frankly I'm not
> sure if you can use the win95 defrag program on an NT FAT partition,
I think you can use a DOS defrag without any problems on a NT FAT
partition.
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