From: ccx020@cck.coventry.ac.uk (James Nash)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.novell
Subject: Windows local permanent swapfile (or temporary?)
Summary: Which is best, and technical problems
Keywords: windows swapfile
Date: 13 Aug 92 08:16:47 GMT
Organization: abUSENET, Coventry University, Coventry, UK


We have a bunch of 386SX & DX machines, spec of 5Mb RAM and a
40Mb hard disk. We have decided to run Windows from the
network because of the inordinate amount of work involved in
keeping local versions of Windows up to date.

These machines now have room for a large swapfile and all those
gorgeous temporary files Windows loves to create. I assumed that
it would be best to create a permanent swapfile on the hard disk
and let the networked copy pick it up.
[N.B. We run Windows from the network by keeping the INI & GRP
files for each user in their own MAP ROOTed home directory and
adding a search path to the main shared Windows directory on the
network. BTW we use Novell 3.11]

Would I be better off letting Windows create a temporary swapfile
on the hard disk at startup? My opinion is that the permanent one
is stored in contiguous space and therefore likely to be much
faster. Addmittedly, if you start using the SWAPFILE you have
already hit the performance bucket but some of our machines are
still 2 Meg waiting for an upgrade.

Having decided to have permanent swapfiles on these machines, I
came to delete the local version of Windows which had laid
dormant for a couple of months on one of these machines. Windows
on the network no longer picked up the swapfile on the hard disk
however many times I deleted it and re-created it. I traced this
down to SPART.PAR being non-existant (I deleted it when I deleted
the local Windows directories and was erasing it on the network).

SPART.PAR points to the location and name of the permanent
swapfile (C:\386SPART.PAR) but does it also point to the start
and end sectors on the hard disk? i.e. is it used to bypass the
FAT?

The reason I ask is that the solution to my problem invloves
either creating a system-wide SPART.PAR and copying it to
everyone's home directory on the network, or creating a
SPART.PAR on the local machine and copying that up to the user's
directory every time Windows is run. (exact procedure below) The
reason for erasing and copying each time is that the same user
may go and use a different machine where the swapfile is located
in a different place.

Which is technically best? I know the latter is a pain in that it
means keeping *another* system file locally.


James Nash, Computing Services, Coventry University, England
ccx020@uk.ac.cov.cch
--That's forward slash (bottom left to top right) 'user', spelt u-s-r...


The exact procedure I used to create a SPART.PAR for the local
machine is (after local Windows has been deleted), run WIN /R
from the user's home directory and ALT+F,R,SWAPFILE, etc. then
exit Windows. Copy the SPART.PAR from the network to C:\BIN and
erase the SPART.PAR on the network (all using a directory program
like OverView or Norton's because they keep the RO attribute and
I detest the attrib command). In the (long) batch file that calls
Windows, I do a test for SPART.PAR in the home area, flag it as
r/w and erase it; copy up the SPART.PAR from C:\BIN and flag it as
r/o. Yikes!
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU