Advice needed re. Page File

[martinlest]

A far as I can see, this is really just cosmetic. It's a bit odd to see my boot disc as disk3, but in practical terms it doesn't seem to matter (from what I have gleaned elsewhere).

Disk drive numbers may not correspond as expected to the SATA channel numbers when you install Windows on a computer that has multiple SATA or RAID disks

But please do let me know what you learn too of course...

Martin

 

[gregrocker]

I explained why it can make a difference, and suggested a solution here:

Perhaps if you switch the mobo ports then it would sort itself.

In particular we always like to see if possible the OS drive plugged into Disk0 in Disk Mgmt so that the System boot files can't be derailed to a preceding Primary partition during Repairs or Reinstall. But this may not be possible if you've carefully chosen the port for your SSD, as you should.

 

[martinlest]

OK, this is not really an area in which I am comfortable, to be honest. I have an Antec 900 case, which although pretty well-laid out, is quite full and it is not easy for me to access the SATA ports on the m/b. In addition, the SATA connectors are strung along a common cable, which is thick and very hard to twist and fit to the drives. I can manage to change SATA connections to the drives, but to get to the m/b connectors would mean disassembling half the insides, which I am not going to do. (It's not the DISassembly that is the problem of course, it's the REassembly afterwards!!).

But I suppose switching round the connectors to the drives instead amounts to the same thing.. There are two thick cables (four single SATA cables bound together I imagine) which each has one SATA connector at the end and three more along its length; they disappear to somewhere I can't see (and then of course connect to the m/b, though I can't tell which plug is which, such is the layout inside the case). I have my two SATA drives connected to the 2nd. and then fourth SATA connector on one cable and the two SSDs similarly connected off of the second cable. I guess that it doesn't matter which SATA connector is used along each cable.

At the moment Disk0 is my 1st SATA drive, Disk1 my '2nd' SSD (with FS9 on it), Disk2 is the 2nd. SATA drive and Disk3, the '1st' SSD, with the O/S.

I am assuming that the two SATA drives need to be connected via one common cable and the two SSDs via the other. The only thing I can do is to use the cable currently connecting the SATA drives for the SSDs, and vice versa (???). Is that what you are suggesting?

I looked in the BIOS and there is a disk-order setting (apart from the boot order setting), but I can't seem to change it from there. Each change keeps the drives in the same order, but just shifts priority, i.e. 1234; 2341; 3412 etc. (if you see what I mean).

To rub salt in the wound, my Flight Simulator 2004 installation now starts up then quits a few seconds later. Not sure if that is connected with the above problems: the paths to the exe and other files needed haven't changed and are still correct in the registry.

Ho-hum ......

 

[gregrocker]

What I would do is uninstall Flight Simulator, back up and delete its partition, extend C into the space, then reinstall Flight Simulator.

Normally there is a recommended port for SSD's.

 

[martinlest]

Well, it's FSX which is on the same drive as the O/S, not FS9. Expanding the C drive somehow messed up a number of licence files for some of the payware I had installed (they saw the partition expansion as a 'major system change'). I managed to troubleshoot this (much easier for me than troubleshooting hardware issues!) and fix the problems.

How about the Disk order issues? The PC manufacturer installed the SSDs so I guess it's best to leave things as they are, as far as the connections are concerned.

I have found other problems that are new since PW made its changes (AutoRun and AutoPlay don't work and an afternoon's 'work' trying to fix this with registry changes etc. etc. etc. has been in vain). I kind of wish I had left things alone now... I still had 10GBs free on the C drive. Oh well, too late now. At least things still work! I am worried about leaving my boot drive as Disk3 though, given what you say above.

 

[gregrocker]

Have never heard of PW CD causing any issues at all, especially those. It must have been something else.

Have you considered doing a perfect Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 - same steps for retail?

This actually saves time sorting all of these issues, and you have our help here to make sure it's perfect.

Read over the steps to ask back any questions before making your decision.

 

[martinlest]

No, it was PW. For sure, the coincidence is way too great. I had none of these problems until I ran PW; they all surfaced the moment I had rebooted after the partition changes. You may not have heard of any problems (and ironically, I think it was the incorporation of free space into the two SATA drives, not the expansion of the C drive that caused the problems), but no software can be 100% error-free on 100% of PC systems.

You cannot imagine what a nightmare it would be to reinstall my entire system!! It would take days and days (I can say this from experience): I'll spare you the details (it's not Windows that takes all that time, but FSX and FS9 - mostly licences that need to be revalidated online; there are so many things that go down with the registry).

I will do a clean install, but only if and when having the O/S drive set as Disk3 actually causes major issues. Thanks for the link. (Would reinstalling Windows automatically reset the SSD with the O/S as Disk0? I'd hate to go through all that and find that issue not fixed!).

 

[Britton30]

You primary OS drive should be connected to the port labeled SATA1 or SATA_0 whichever your board has it. I think Gigabyte generally uses the former one.

I didn't read your entire thread, if your OS has some files, such as Users, on a separate drive, plug the OS into the port as above and the secondary OS drive in the next consecutive one. Power down to do this, disconnect all other drives and boot. After the boot you may power down again and reattach the other drives.

 

[theog]

GIGABYTE - Motherboard - Socket 1366 - GA-X58A-UD3R (rev. 2.0)

As the motherboard has IDE, Sata2, & Sata3 ports.
The base order in Disk Management would be
IDE.
Sata2.
Sata3.

 

[gregrocker]

The point of having a Clean Reinstall is to reset the SID's and HID's that may be playing havoc with your multi-disk and multi-partitioning scheme

. But the main reason to reinstall is to have a perfect install as compiled in Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 since there is nothing like the performance of native Win7 with the best install. Maybe 1% of users have this.

 

[Layback Bear]

To answer post #1
Advice needed re. Page File
I keep page filing on the C drive with Windows 7 and let Windows 7 manage the memory and page filling. I have tried many things and always ended up with Windows 7 taking care of such things works best.
Many people try tweaking things the way they did in in XP. In my opinion Windows 7 doesn't need such tweaks.

 

[martinlest]

Will do a clean install, as I say, if I encounter any problems as a consequence of my boot drive being Disk3. As long as Flight Simulator works as before I'll leave things as they are, but I have saved your tutorial to my laptop in readiness!

 

[martinlest]

Just to confirm, I have opened up the PC to check and my SSD1 (O/S) is connected to SATA1 on the m/b (an Asus P6X58D-E; apologies, I see my profile here is not up to date!! It's correct now). SSD2 to SATA2 and the two SATA drives to SATA3 and 4..

Layback bear - I agree. My old setup was a hangover from when I used XP, just habit. Now I have the PF on the C drive, Windows managed

 

[gregrocker]

If you haven't lately run a few Startup Repairs to see if it finds any boot issues.

Then since you're interested in learning gradually work through the Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7 to go over your install closely and see if anything turns up.

 

[Britton30]

When installing have only the drive you're installing w7 to connected. The installer will attempt to put the system reserved or boot partition on the largest drive it detects. (Correct me if that's wrong Greg)

 

[martinlest]

OK, thanks both. Have used the startup repair several times (though not recently). Will have a look through the checklist Greg ...

 

[gregrocker]

The installer will place the System boot files on the first Primary Active partition in order, sometimes merely the first Primary partition which makes it hazardous to have preceding Primary partitions when reinstalling - or running Repairs which also check and repair/rewrite the boot files to the first Active partition.