Manage temporary files to minimize file fragmentation

Directories containing temporary files usually see a lot of file operations, and besides causing an overhead for the HDD performing the operations, then it also increases the chance of file fragmentation. Therefore it is worth to consider where to place such temporary files.

Locations to place temporary files:

• Secondary partition, this will lower the chance of file fragmentation on the primary partition.
• Secondary HDD, this will lower the burden and fragmentation on the primary HDD.
• RAM-Drive, this will increase the speed of file operations and remove fragmentation (Though files will be lost a reboot).

Different types of temporary files:

• The TEMP folder : Controlling the temporary directory.
• The pagefile : Configure the page file for best performance.
• Temporary Internet Files : Controlling Internet Explorer's Temporary Files Cache.
• Disk Intensive Programs.

Note one should consider configuring Index-Service or AntiVirus-Service not to scan directories with temporary files as it increases the CPU load.

To create a RAM drive to store such files, one can use these free tools:

• DOS RAMDRIVE.SYS that have existed since DOS 3.3 (Included with Win9x and found here C:\WINDOWS. MSDOSDRV.TXT explains how to use it MS KB142546).
• XMSDSK is an extended version of RAMDRIVE.SYS for Win9x (DOS), which makes it possible to specify which drive to use for RAM-drive.
• ReSizeable RAMDisk is an extended version of RAMDRIVE.SYS for Win9x (DOS), which allows one to resize the RAM drive on the fly.
• MS KB257405 Win2k experimental Ramdisk.sys (Ramdisk with GUI controls).
• MS WinNT4 DDK RAMDRIVE WinNT4 experimental RAMDRIVE.SYS.
• PPSoft RAMDisk supports 95, 98, Me and 2000/XP (The download link is below the menu).
• AR RAM Disk it supports 2000/XP.
• Christiaan Ghijselinck RAMDisk supports 2k, XP and 2k3.
• Dataram RAMDisk - Supports 32 bit/64 bit Windows 2000-7.

There is also the RAM drives you can pay for:

• www.superspeed.com for NT and 2k.
• www.virtusoft.com for 9x.
• www.jlajoie.com for NT, 2K and 9x.

Related Configure cleanup profiles to remove unnecessary files