At seemingly random times, Windows slows down or even stops responding for a few seconds, during which time I can distinctly hear my hard disk thrashing. What's going on, and how do I stop it?
When Windows uses up all your memory, it starts using a portion of your hard disk as " virtual memory." Since hard disks are much slower than memory (RAM), this causes a noticeable drop in performance. Of course, adding RAM will help significantly; the more RAM you have, the less frequently Windows will resort to using virtual memory.
The thrashing problem is caused by the way that Windows handles disk virtual memory by default. The space Windows sets aside for virtual memory is called the swap file or paging file , which grows and shrinks as needed. As a result, the swap file can become very fragmented, reducing system performance and increasing the thrashing sound you've been hearing significantly.
You can effectively eliminate the problem by first defragging your hard drive (Start --> Programs --> Accessories --> System Tools --> Disk Defragmenter), then setting a fixed swap file size.
Open the System control panel, choose the Advanced tab, and click the Settings button in the Performance section. Choose the Advanced tab here, and click the Change button to show the Virtual Memory window (Figure).
Highlight your drive in the list and select "Custom size" below. At the bottom of the window, take the "Recommended" paging file size and add 512. Type this number (e.g., 1534 or 2048 ) into both the "Initial size (MB)" and "Maximum size (MB)" fields, and then click the Set button. If you typed 2048 , it should now say 2048-2048 under "Paging File Size (MB)" at the top of the window. When you're done, press OK in each of the three dialog boxes to confirm your choices. If Windows suggests that you restart your PC, do so now.
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