Hidden partitions? How to...

**arch0nmyc0n** · November 1st, 2004, 06:52 PM

Recently I've tried a suggestion I read about and on my home computer I've created a partition at the beginning of the primary hard drive that's 4 gigs in size. I setup Windows on the second partition and then instructed Windows to use all of the 4 gig partition as the swap file. Now it's been a while since my system was formatted, but I'm quite sure this has increase overall performance. That way the swap doesn't have to compete with installed programs and other things. What I was wondering was; Can I set it up so that the "Swap Partition" is hidden? And that the "Windows Partition" is actually shown as C:?

The first thought that comes to mind tho, that if the swap drive is hidden, will windows still be able to use it as a swap drive?
The second thought that comes to mind; If the windows is installed to D: then changing the drive letter (if it's even permitted) would be catastrophic because of registry links to D:

Any thoughts?

**Gabriel** · November 2nd, 2004, 04:06 AM

Hi,
IMHO - Putting the Swap file on a seperate partition not only does not contribute to performance but slows things up.

If you really want to Increase page file performance you should put it on a Second Drive "sitting" on a different controller.

About changing drive letter,
For me it proved catastrophic - after I did it (on a Windows 2k Machine - I believe it will be the same on a XP machine) I had to Change many things in the registry. But i had to do it. Don't go there...

Cheers,
Gabriel

**GreenGrime** · November 2nd, 2004, 10:15 AM

I remember Powerquest bundling a utility with Partition MAgic which could swad drive letters like that.

But like the previous poster said, it's still sketchy at best.

**CeeBee** · November 2nd, 2004, 12:52 PM

If you have the system partition letter D you're stuck with it, changing it will screw windows (assuming you manage to change it). I would either put the swap file on a different physical drive or set it to a fixed size and use the page file defragmenter from Sysinternals .

**arch0nmyc0n** · November 2nd, 2004, 12:55 PM

Well in another thread we were discussing the HP and their restore functions... they have a partition hidden from windows and the second partition as drive C:... just figured there might have been an "easy" way to do it...

As for the swap file... I don't know what you did but it helped my system quite a bit... My games load areas faster than before... but I do agree a seperate drive on another controller is much better... unfortunately I don't have the money to shell out for another hard drive... and not to be rude, but I wasn't really asking for an opinion on the swap file location itself just how to hide it.. either way thanks for your opinions ont he question at hand...

**arch0nmyc0n** · November 2nd, 2004, 12:56 PM

Originally Posted by CeeBee

If you have the system partition letter D you're stuck with it, changing it will screw windows (assuming you manage to change it). I would either put the swap file on a different physical drive or set it to a fixed size and use the page file defragmenter from Sysinternals .

Thanks, that looks like a good link... I'll try that!

**geoscomp** · November 2nd, 2004, 02:30 PM

Back to your original question, you can't hide a partition and have it seen and utilized by windows at the same time..hiding it removes it from windows view..you have to access it from a boot utility or, like the HP partition, boot from it by pressing f10 at system start.

**arch0nmyc0n** · November 2nd, 2004, 06:03 PM

Yeah I figured as much but I was hoping for a different answer... oh well...

The idea of different drives on other controllers is an alternative that I may use in the future. I had a maxtor promise controller around that is PCI. Not knowing a heck of a lot about how onboard controllers work. Would this offer a little bit faster than say adding a drive to the secondary controller? I assume they all move through the PCI bus anyways so it should be the same speed, but I'm not sure if the primary and secondary controllers are completely independant of each other.... Any thoughts about this?
Gabriel?

You offered an opinion on this already, care to answer about it now with regards to my questions?

EDIT: PCI latency timer... 32 is standard I've read... obviously I know changing it could be hazzardous but anyone mess with it and find better performance?

**gemstone** · November 3rd, 2004, 03:27 AM

All controllers are independant which is why you got the suggestion to put the swap on a different physical drive, not a partition on the same drive as your OS. Whatever you believe to be the case the way you have set it up must make it slower as the same set of heads now have to access two tables rather than the one had you left it alone. Using a different physical drive allows both the program files and swap file to be accessed contemporaneously and therefore faster.
Forgive my bluntness but I think if you ask a question you should be happy to accept the opinions of those more experienced with a good grace, you dont have to use them.
About latency. leave it alone 'fiddling' as opposed to researching and improving is why you have your swapfile where it is, inefficient and slow.

**arch0nmyc0n** · November 3rd, 2004, 10:02 AM

Thing is gemstone, I didn't ask that question at the time.... lately there have been a lot of people around here offering opinions on a subject without suggesting anything useful... I find that very frustrating. Most people come here looking for help, and most people just attack the reason for the question... not try to solve it. While I personally don't appreciate the tone of your message, the substance is something I will take under advisement and see if I can save up some money to get a second drive. As for your latency reply, maybe that's why I'm asking here so I can learn what to do with it rather than fiddle with it. I was hoping maybe someone had already "fiddled" with it and knows what to do with it. If you don't know, please don't answer.

**Vip2** · November 3rd, 2004, 02:03 PM

Originally Posted by arch0nmyc0n

Recently I've tried a suggestion I read about and on my home computer I've created a partition at the beginning of the primary hard drive that's 4 gigs in size. I setup Windows on the second partition and then instructed Windows to use all of the 4 gig partition as the swap file. Now it's been a while since my system was formatted, but I'm quite sure this has increase overall performance. That way the swap doesn't have to compete with installed programs and other things. What I was wondering was; Can I set it up so that the "Swap Partition" is hidden? And that the "Windows Partition" is actually shown as C:?

The first thought that comes to mind tho, that if the swap drive is hidden, will windows still be able to use it as a swap drive?
The second thought that comes to mind; If the windows is installed to D: then changing the drive letter (if it's even permitted) would be catastrophic because of registry links to D:

Any thoughts?

Yes, you will mess up Windows switching the drive letter to C: from D: however, you may be able to fix that. Look for a program called "Registrar Lite" it let you search and replace entries in the registry (very deadly if you do not know what you are doing). I have done this before with windows 95, 2000 and XP so I know its possible.

If you are using WinNT or DOS based windows. One suggestion would be to make your "swap" partition an extended partition. That way windows will treat it as the next drive letter not the first. Hiding the partition may or may not work depending on which windows you are using.

If you are using WinNT based windows. Another suggestion would be to leave the newly created swap partition unformatted (or format it with some filesytem windows does not recognize like ext3) and format it using windows after you install windows to your other partition. That way you will be able to assign your own drive letter to the new swap partition and windows should install to C:.

Good luck.

**bookmarkmns** · November 3rd, 2004, 04:54 PM

The program in with Partition Magic is Drive Mapper. I've used when deleting Partitions etc and found that it has worked well. The rider is that I have not tried to do what you are attempting using Drive Mapper.
Partition Magic now sold by Symantec. If you have some time why not Ghost your drive (or similar) and attempt it then report back ? But only if you have the time and nothing essential. Good Luck.

**confus-ed** · November 3rd, 2004, 06:39 PM

Originally Posted by arch0nmyc0n

..As for the swap file... I don't know what you did but it helped my system quite a bit... My games load areas faster than before...

You gain here a bit by having an mft with just one entry in it instead of about 30,000 like on your average windows system disk & a small partition is quicker to access than a large one

**arch0nmyc0n** · November 3rd, 2004, 07:44 PM

Some good advice... when I format again I'll experiment with using the Partition magic thing and see if I can find aything... and thanks -ed... I knew there was SOME reason why I did that :P

**confus-ed** · November 3rd, 2004, 08:05 PM

..when I format again I'll experiment ..

As I happen to think PM is pretty poohey here's a suggest for a freebie version Ranish Partition Manager (there's some really good links on that page too )