Windows 7 Windows 7 using .VHD boot

noam1000

New Member
I use windows 7 RC by double-booting with XP, whilst Windows 7 is installed on .VHD and booted with windows 7 boot manager.

I recently installed Primiere CS4 and it works well on XP but on Windows 7 it laggs.
I have 2gigs of ram which is the minimum requirement for both Windows 7 and Primiere.

I was wondering if the lag in Windows 7 is because of Windows 7 itself or because of the nature of boot from .VHD.

I want to know that because I plan to get rid of XP and install a normal Windows 7 installation without .VHD when it releases, and I want to be sure that Primiere will work for me.

So, anyone has a clue? (bear in mind that I watch videos and run games normaly in the current Windows 7, it's only primiere that has been doing problems)

Thanks in advance,
Noam.
 
some basic system specs would be helpful processor type, RAM configuration. Exact OS but i think if you say the requirement for windows is 2 gigs of ram you must be using 64 bit. x64 is always a little more RAM hungry due to the extra addressing requirements. If your AT the minimum RAM for both the OS and the application that should cause some slowdown due to pagefile access.If you go to the task manager select the processes tab the select view from the menu bar and at the bottom select columns tick rhe box next to page faults. Now you have to identify the process(es) that relate to the application in question. Select them (with the blue bar) and record the number (you may have to start the application first). now go to your desktop leaving the task manger open begin using the offending application as usual.After a recorded period of time go back to task manager and record the new number of page faults. Re post the two measurements and the time in between.
 
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Thank you for your answer.

My Processor: Intel Pentium 4 CPU 2.40Ghz
My OSs: XP Professional SP3, Windows 7 RC build 7100.
I didn't know what you meant by RAM configuration but I recently upgraded my RAM with this kit: OCZ Technology | Products | Memory | OCZ EL DDR PC-3200 2x1024MB Dual Channel Platinum XTC .

I'm almost certain I don't have 64bit, I always download the 32bit versions of software and when I bought the computer I wasn't told anything about it. (edit: I checked and somewhere in the device manager it said 86x based-pc so I'm pretty sure)


I tried your check, I hope I did it right:

  • I ran Task Manager, activated page faults and launched premiere. at that point the pagefile number was 57,665.
  • I played a video in primiere and tried to edit it but suffered from the lagg, I did that for 01:37:22 (min:sec:millisec)
  • I looked at Task Manager and at this point the pagefile faults number was 250,728, and is still rising as we speak.
Primiere is running other processes but I focused on the main task.

So, have I done it right?
 
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Your definitely hitting your pagefile pretty hard when running premire.The minumum requirement for 32 bit Windows 7 is 1 GB RAM for 64 bit Windows 7 it is 2GB RAM.With your processor and such a memory intensive task like video editing your going to have issues no matter what. With that many page faults more memory would help but i can't say it will help enough to make running windows seven the right thing to do for your system. It's not that your system can't handle this OS it is that this new OS is more intense and the app is intense already, but if you are not running your CPU hard at these times another 2 GB RAM is not a major hit (as low as $22.00 @ crucial.com) and may get you up to speed The OS won't quite use all four but it will get close as long as your board will support the upgrade.

Go here: Memory upgrades from Crucial.com - About Crucial:Media Toolbox
and scan your system to find out how much RAM your board will support you may not have any decision to make as any board running one of the older P4's may be maxed out at 2GB already. Beyond that you are the only person that can decide if it's worth the money to upgrade more RAM will help with video editing but don't expect an increase in encoding speed since that is more processor intensive.
 
2GB RAM is the most my computer can use according to crucial.com, and I upgraded a week ago from 1GB to 2GB.

There's one thing I don't understand. Even when I run primiere with 7 it doesn't use more than 1GB of ram, so it's like I'm not using a whole RAM stick, maybe I should lower the pagefile size?


Thanks again,
Noam.
 
Probably not going to help by lowering the Pagefile something else would get tossed out into memory most likely you might benefit in this case from uninstalling the program and reinstalling it in compatibility mode for XP. There are some different memory allocation parameters for Vista/Seven than XP that may help. I'm not sure that this behavior is abnormal there is a limit percentage wise to how much RAM seven will alocate to one application but i have no idea what it is exactly.
 
Probably not going to help by lowering the Pagefile something else would get tossed out into memory most likely you might benefit in this case from uninstalling the program and reinstalling it in compatibility mode for XP. There are some different memory allocation parameters for Vista/Seven than XP that may help. I'm not sure that this behavior is abnormal there is a limit percentage wise to how much RAM seven will alocate to one application but i have no idea what it is exactly.

What you say have given me doubts about moving to Windows 7. On one hand, it runs perfectly fine on everyday use, surfing, watching videos, even playing games, I get only a bit less FPS than in XP. On the other hand my CPU is just outraging, even on idle. I added a picture of the task manager with only firefox and skype active. Does it look normal, or should I move back to XP, where everything is calmer?
 
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