Heyo forum-goers, what I am trying to do is sort of complicated but I'll try my best to explain it. Basically I'm trying to squeeze every ounce of potential out of my nearly outdated machine.
First, my relevant system specs:
- Windows 7 Pro 64bit
- 2 IDE Hard drives - 5400rpm 80GB Maxtor, and 7200rpm 160GB Seagate
- 2 Gigs of generic grade RAM
OK so earlier today I found out about virtual memory, AKA a paging file, and about how it acts like a sort of RAM buffer, increasing performance. I also found out that I can put a paging file on each hard drive and that I could get the greatest benefit if I had each hard drive on a separate IDE channel, so I ripped open my case, rerouted the cables appropriately, changed the master/slave jumpers, reset CMOS, and booted up Win7.
Now here is where I make things more complicated
. In the interest of getting every drop of juice out of this rotten orange, I want to move (clone) the entire Win7 partition from the Maxtor to the Seagate to take advantage of the extra RPMs. Except when I attempt the cloning process via Seagate Disc Wizard, I only get the option to clone the Win7 partition and not the reserved unallocated space used by Windows Recovery Environment. I am unaware of how Win7 uses the reserved space specifically, but I assume that if I just created the unallocated space later it wouldn't instantly restore WinRE functionality. I know enough to know it has to be more complicated than that. How would I clone the Win7 partition and retain WinRE functionality?
Then, after that's done, do I still have to allocate some space on each hard drive for the paging files, like a Linux swap file? Or is the virtual memory reserved literally as a file in the operating system partition?
First, my relevant system specs:
- Windows 7 Pro 64bit
- 2 IDE Hard drives - 5400rpm 80GB Maxtor, and 7200rpm 160GB Seagate
- 2 Gigs of generic grade RAM
OK so earlier today I found out about virtual memory, AKA a paging file, and about how it acts like a sort of RAM buffer, increasing performance. I also found out that I can put a paging file on each hard drive and that I could get the greatest benefit if I had each hard drive on a separate IDE channel, so I ripped open my case, rerouted the cables appropriately, changed the master/slave jumpers, reset CMOS, and booted up Win7.
Now here is where I make things more complicated
. In the interest of getting every drop of juice out of this rotten orange, I want to move (clone) the entire Win7 partition from the Maxtor to the Seagate to take advantage of the extra RPMs. Except when I attempt the cloning process via Seagate Disc Wizard, I only get the option to clone the Win7 partition and not the reserved unallocated space used by Windows Recovery Environment. I am unaware of how Win7 uses the reserved space specifically, but I assume that if I just created the unallocated space later it wouldn't instantly restore WinRE functionality. I know enough to know it has to be more complicated than that. How would I clone the Win7 partition and retain WinRE functionality?Then, after that's done, do I still have to allocate some space on each hard drive for the paging files, like a Linux swap file? Or is the virtual memory reserved literally as a file in the operating system partition?
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