SwapFile using Flash

[THEKATZ*{MEOW}*]

USB Jump drives

I have been investigating this for a while.  Using these little critters, I have found that I can eliminate my hard drive as swap file.  What happens is these little “thumb drives” are a very good swap file in themselves.  I have a 4gig OSC which I use as the only swap file (Page file).  The benefits are a much better performance, especially in gaming.  I have found that eliminating the swap file from the physical hard drive makes most every program I have load faster and lack the stutter that is somewhat present with hard drives.  Reason is of course is no moving parts and a direct path to the CPU rather than IDE which shares a super highway with everything else on the mother board.

This, in MHO is a nice set up to have and relatively inexpensive.  Saves space on your HD as well.  Draw back would be using this Jump Drive somewhere else and forgetting to put it back.  You will see a big drop in performance since your physical memory will have to take up the slack.

Just an FYI from yours truly.

   About "Swap File"

TK

[CrazyBoy]

neat trick, but I'm guessing you still haven't upgraded to SATA?  how much RAM do you have that you need to page out that frequently?

[THEKATZ*{MEOW}*]

LOL, I have two SATA 7200 RPM (one now).  SATA is very fast but still has to execute and access swap files like any other HD for the Operating System.  SATA's are still a moving part that actually is doing more than just loading the game, they still access swap files while in game or program.  The USB tip removes the moving parts and allows the HD to do one thing only, that is to load the program.  The USB's get all the rest of the business.

[CrazyBoy]

yeah, I see your point and agree with the moving parts issue, but if you have enough memory, there's no need to swap out to the thumb drive for gaming either...

[THEKATZ*{MEOW}*]

Well, I am not too sure about not having a swap file present.  There are some programs that actually depend on it.  Most programs or games gain realistate in the physical memory as designed, same with swap files.  What the program doesn't assign to memory then the swap file is used.  We have all had the memery error in which a note comes up or the blue screen that states memory address conflicts.  This is generally a program fault that could not properly address it's space in memory.  One common issue is having a swap file too small, this in turn sends what was supposed to go to swap file to physical memory eating up the space that may be assinged to that program.  I am not all to sure about this but so much I have read is so much I have forgotten too 

[THEKATZ*{MEOW}*]

My idea has caught on!  Too bad I don't get the credit but hey, I am just one of billions out in cyberland

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/index.php?cl=11106159

[Smooth*{MEOW}*]

They have basically the same principle on Vista with ReadyBoost.

[THEKATZ*{MEOW}*]

Yes, it works very nice - specially when the computer is put to sleep. Hit a key and your back where you left off immediately.   I seldom shut this computer off.  When I click the sleep button it shuts down all but the flash drive that contains the state the machine was last in.  Less than .15 watts I have been told. 
I haven't seen the boot screen in several weeks, just hit a key and I am back in business. I like it a lot never having to boot again (Well, the occasional boot yes) but not having to look at the load up screens makes me a happy fella.
Unlike the disastrous XP Hibernate which never worked right or caused problems - at least with me

[THEKATZ*{MEOW}*]

I thought I would bump this post - Seeing a lot of traffic in here from guests.  This BTW, works very nice.  There are many write ups out there now.