Pagefile.sys on PCMCIA I(PC-CARD) Drive



MUGoofy
07-09-2005, 09:27 PM
I've been got a 1 GB CF with EWF enabled and it works great. We've recently
added some addtional functionality to our application, which utilizes all of
our 256MB of RAM. I'd like to implement a pagefile.

I've sourced a toshiba 1.8" 5GB rotating PC Card (PCMCIA slot) for the main
purpose of placing a pagefile on it. For the better part of a week, I've
been chasing discussion threads under the assumption that this problem had
something to do with EWF / CF.

Am I looking in the wrong place? Is it possible to put a swap drive on a
PCMCIA type drive?

Is there an issue with when the drive becomes active with respect to when
the pagefile becomes active that is totally killing me?

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Mike

Matt Kellner \(MS\)
07-09-2005, 09:27 PM
Hi MUGoofy. My guess as to why you can't install a pagefile on your PCMCIA
device is because Windows requires that the pagefile reside on a fixed
(non-removable) drive. The system identifies PCMCIA devices as removable
drives by default - it is possible to "fool" the system into thinking a
removable drive is a fixed drive, but I don't currently know how that is
done. Hopefully another user in this group can help you further with that.

Good luck! It sounds like an interesting problem, and I'd be very
interested in seeing any solutions to it. =)

--
Matt Kellner (mattkell@online.microsoft.com)
STE, Windows Embedded Group

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
===============================

"MUGoofy" <MUGoofy@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:D4F18DC4-F079-4FD3-AFB3-63639ABAD7EB@microsoft.com...
> I've been got a 1 GB CF with EWF enabled and it works great. We've
> recently
> added some addtional functionality to our application, which utilizes all
> of
> our 256MB of RAM. I'd like to implement a pagefile.
>
> I've sourced a toshiba 1.8" 5GB rotating PC Card (PCMCIA slot) for the
> main
> purpose of placing a pagefile on it. For the better part of a week, I've
> been chasing discussion threads under the assumption that this problem had
> something to do with EWF / CF.
>
> Am I looking in the wrong place? Is it possible to put a swap drive on a
> PCMCIA type drive?
>
> Is there an issue with when the drive becomes active with respect to when
> the pagefile becomes active that is totally killing me?
>
> Any suggestions?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Mike

Coderer
07-09-2005, 09:27 PM
If "removable" vs. "fixed" turns out to be the problem, you might look
at your partition structure. How is the PC card laid out? If
possible, you should make it one big primary partition, formatted NTFS.
I had no end of trouble trying to run on SD cards that shipped with
one logical drive on an extended partition, with no primary. That's
how I guess most "removable" media ships; you want to make sure it's
formatted as though it were fixed. Now, if Windows is looking directly
at the media type (this is reported by the drive itself; I had a real
bitch of a time trying to change the way that works), and refusing
based on that.... well, I guess you can always write your own hardware
abstraction layer. Me, I'd look into getting some new hardware. We
wound up using Transcend DOMs (Disk on Module), and we couldn't be
happier with the result.

Mark K Vallevand
07-09-2005, 09:27 PM
There is a filter driver on www.xpefiles.com that will allow a removable
drive to appear fixed.

If you get the page file on to your microdrive, be aware of the limits of
the drive. The ones we've looked at are not meant to run 24/7 and have a
limited number of head load/unload cycles. Check the specs.

--
Regards.
Mark K Vallevand Mark.Vallevand@Unisys.com

Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
- Benjamin Franklin


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"Matt Kellner (MS)" <mattkell@microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:O6PIV2CfFHA.268@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
> Hi MUGoofy. My guess as to why you can't install a pagefile on your
> PCMCIA device is because Windows requires that the pagefile reside on a
> fixed (non-removable) drive. The system identifies PCMCIA devices as
> removable drives by default - it is possible to "fool" the system into
> thinking a removable drive is a fixed drive, but I don't currently know
> how that is done. Hopefully another user in this group can help you
> further with that.
>
> Good luck! It sounds like an interesting problem, and I'd be very
> interested in seeing any solutions to it. =)
>
> --
> Matt Kellner (mattkell@online.microsoft.com)
> STE, Windows Embedded Group
>
> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
> rights.
> ===============================
>
> "MUGoofy" <MUGoofy@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:D4F18DC4-F079-4FD3-AFB3-63639ABAD7EB@microsoft.com...
>> I've been got a 1 GB CF with EWF enabled and it works great. We've
>> recently
>> added some addtional functionality to our application, which utilizes all
>> of
>> our 256MB of RAM. I'd like to implement a pagefile.
>>
>> I've sourced a toshiba 1.8" 5GB rotating PC Card (PCMCIA slot) for the
>> main
>> purpose of placing a pagefile on it. For the better part of a week, I've
>> been chasing discussion threads under the assumption that this problem
>> had
>> something to do with EWF / CF.
>>
>> Am I looking in the wrong place? Is it possible to put a swap drive on a
>> PCMCIA type drive?
>>
>> Is there an issue with when the drive becomes active with respect to when
>> the pagefile becomes active that is totally killing me?
>>
>> Any suggestions?
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Mike
>
>


Pagefile.sys on PCMCIA I(PC-CARD) Drive