On 2009-01-23, Stroller <strol...@stellar.eclipse.co.uk> wrote:
>
> On 23 Jan 2009, at 05:16, Grant Edwards wrote:
>> ... I found a very slick solution that lets Windows XP use
>> a Linux swap partition for swap/paging/vm/whatever-MS-calls-it:
>>
>> http://db.bme.hu/~surprof/SwapFs-i/
>
> That looks a really cool & useful idea.
>
> However, I have a reservation. Since you NEED to use it -
> perhaps for space considerations?
Yup. Mainly because I use ntfsclone to keep a bunch of backup
copies of the NTFS partition, and having a 2GB swap file in
every backup copy starts to eat up a lot of disk space.
> - the go for it, by all means. But if this driver is slower at
> reads or writes than Windows' own NTFS driver then it may
> actually slow the computer down.
Could be. My understanding is that the system is still using
the Windows NTFS driver. I believe that swapfs is a
block-device filter driver that sits between the NTFS driver
and the bottom layer block device driver (the IDE driver or the
SATA driver or the SCSI driver).
> In the case of a driver written by an individual, who is
> likely not as familiar with Windows' APIs, or who may not be
> able to use the private APIs used by Windows' own filesystem
> drivers, I find it quite possible the performance may be
> questioned.
Well, there are several individuals who've worked on it. That
said, I can't swear that there aren't performance implications.
There probably are, since it adds a layer between the SATA
driver (in my case) and the NTFS driver. But, I haven't
noticed any visible slow-down, and the machine is more than
fast enough for my purposes.
Besides, if you're running MS Windows, you've already lost the
war when it comes to swapping performance: anybody who cares
about swap performance wouldn't be using a normal file on a
normal filesystem for it...
Someday when I'm bored, maybe I'll google for a file I/O
benchmark for windows and run it with and without the swapfs
layer.
--
Grant Edwards grante Yow! INSIDE, I have the
at same personality disorder
visi.com as LUCY RICARDO!!
