[030108]

On http://lowendmac.com/eubanks/07/0312.html I read "...Mac OS X...uses the free space on your hard drive as "virtual memory", and it depends heavily on that virtual memory to run efficiently."

I have Leopard installed on a 50gb partition of my 250gb hard drive that I use exclusively for Leopard and applications. It has 27.95gb available.

If the quote is correct I assume that Mac OS X uses ONLY the free space on the 50gb drive partition where Leopard is installed as "virtual memory". Is there a simple way to designate/change which partition Mac OS X uses for "virtual memory" irrespective of what partition Leopard is installed on?

note: Changing partition size is not a suggestion I need.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kV59_...eature=related

[Chuckit]

macosxhints.com - 10.5: Move swap files to another partition under 10.5

Also, please don't overuse formatting tags.

[030108]

Thankyou for responding.

Originally Posted by Chuckit 

macosxhints.com - 10.5: Move swap files to another partition under 10.5
Also, please don't overuse formatting tags.

I am sorry, but I really do not understand what you might be objecting to. I created a post that appealed to certain presentation ideas that I have in mind while, at the same time, accentuating certain information in the post that I want to stand out.

[Chuckit]

Your whole post is green. That's what I'm referring to.

[030108]

Actually I used "darkslategray", but so what. Why is that relevant enough to attract a comment such as yours?

I see you are a Moderator, but, again, why is the color of my post relevant. Are forum users restricted only to colors that a few Moderators like?

Of course I appreciate your showing me that I could find the "swapfile" answer on another website, but I just really fail to see what your point is when it comes to the text colors I chose to use Chuckit.

Maybe that is the best color for MY EYES to see. Is my post, devoid of smilies or graphics as it is, somehow a drain on "system" resources?

[reader50]

Originally Posted by 030108 

On 11 Ways to Optimize Your Mac's Performance I read "...Mac OS X...uses the free space on your hard drive as "virtual memory", and it depends heavily on that virtual memory to run efficiently."

This is very oddly worded. OSX creates swap files as needed if you overflow your RAM. But the bulk of the text sounds like a mistaken description of how excess RAM is used.

If you have more RAM than you currently need, the free space will be used as a sort of smart disk cache. When RAM is released, if a block can be mapped to a block on disk, the OS keeps track of that mapping and doesn't fully reuse that block unless it runs out of free space.

If you proceed to open a file (or reopen an application) the OS first checks to see if that block is still in RAM somewhere. If it is, it isn't pulled from disk. You can see this happen after a reboot. Open an application, and time the opening. Quit it, then relaunch it. The relaunch will go much faster.

RAM used for this purpose is titled "Inactive" memory, as opposed to "Free", "Active", or "Wired". If you use a memory tracking utility like Memory Monitor, you will gradually see the Inactive grow, until the OS keeps only a small amount of true Free space on hand.

It keeps a few megs of true Free on hand for rapid allocation when an application needs it. If more is needed, older Inactive blocks are freed and reallocated.

So if you have plenty of RAM installed, it can significantly speed up OSX after you've been up awhile.

[mduell]

Virtual memory and swap are two different things. Virtual memory is just address space; you can easily have more virtual memory than available disk space.