Got a question regarding the paging file in win2k.
Under performance options you can set the initial and the maximum size of it.
I have set mine to the following:
Initial size: 192mb
Maximum size: 384mb
I also have 128mb ram.
If I check TaskManager, under performance, I can here see "Commit Charge (K)" this sais that my "Limit" is: 311mb (my ram + pagefile - 9mb).
Now my question, shouldnt the "limit" be higher, at least my ram + pagefile? And another thing, what does the "maximum size"-pagefile setting do?

Same number for minimum and maximum size is more efficient because the OS need not resize the page file and waste time and resources to do so.
On my 192 Megs ram box, I put min=max=576 (3xram size) Megs for the page file. That's the right figure for my config and needs.
I directed the file to the primary partition of my fastest drive : few and fast swaps.
Your mileage may vary with what the hungriest of your apps requests there is still a lot of controversy about the optimum size.

I'm a bit confused about the page file settings. Let's say I have 256mb of RAM. If I look at the "peak" commit charge under task manager, I noticed that it never goes above 160mb. Would that mean that I do not need a pagefile at all?

Someone posted a message here once saying that the reason why the Pagefile needs to be at least equal to the amount of RAM, is that this way the computer can perform a complete "memory dump" if your computer crashes. What's this memory dump? I would imagine that a "normal" computer user wouldn't know what to do this "dump" anyway.

Can anyone clarify this?

Thanks,

Andy

All it means is that windows screwed up and told the ram to abandon ship so it dumps it to a file. After that what it does I dont know.

Found this using SEARCH...
http://www.ntcompatible.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/000980.html

Yeah, I've read that particular thread thoroughly already, but as far as I can remember it didn't discuss what the "dump memory" function is for. The people are just arguing whether or not it's a good idea to use a RAM drive to store your swap file (it's not, by the way).

Andy

The dump gives you a blues screen with a lot of information on what made your NT/W2k crash. If you find this information usless then you probably shouldnt' care if you can get the dump.
On a new machine I like to have the dump until I get the machine running good (no driver problems). Then I adjust the Page file based on info in the task manager after a few hours of normal use. Right now I have 288 megs of memory and a 32meg page file on a seperate hard drive.
Ars has a good article about this. http://arstechnica.com/index.html

Thanks Ge0ph!

That's just what I wanted to know! Ok, so after I have a stable system that doesnt crash (or when I think I dont need the memory dump thingy) I can adjust the swap file to reflect my "peak" usage and not 2.5x RAM.

Great, Thanks again man!

Andy