Tips To Improve the Impact of Fastboot and Fast Resume

 < Day Day Up > 



While Fastboot and Fast Resume are welcome features in any system, they suffer from the usual limitations. By far the biggest factor is having adequate RAM and a fast disk drive. In order to prefetch, for example, the system must have sufficient RAM to prefetch into. Unfortunately, 64-MB systems generally prove inadequate to take advantage of XP prefetching. At least 128 MB is recommended, although for some this is nowhere nearly enough. Additionally, the speed of the disk can make a big difference to prefetching gains. As the operating system image must move from the disk to memory, the faster the disk drive the better. A switch from a 5400- to a 7200-rpm disk will probably save several seconds during boot time. Larger disk drive buffers may also help. It is interesting to note that a 128-MB/5400-rpm configuration gives better performance than 64 MB/7200 rpm. Lack of memory leads to more paging and this slows the boot process. Enough memory, therefore, is essential with XP. It should also be noted that high-end PCs with high-capacity, multiplatter hard drives may take longer to boot up and resume. Further, due to their architecture, SCSI systems tend to boot slowly.

What about the processor? Regardless of the size of CPU, performance will barely be impacted during the first half of boot. A faster CPU, though, does help speed the Winlogon phase of the boot, as the processor is typically operating at 100 percent utilization at this time.

As noted, Windows XP has been enhanced to provide speedier boot ups, as well as faster resumes from standby and hibernate modes. Fastboot techniques, in particular, have been found to increase performance by as much as 40 percent. Over 90 percent of the gains, though, come from prefetching — fetching and loading files in advance in a manner similar to caching. Layout optimization, on the other hand, is a minor enhancement to prefetching. Because the layout optimization process is being conducted on a small number of files that are always run sequentially, these files can be placed in specific locations on the drive to good effect. File placement optimization technology, however, should only be used in such limited environments. When attempted more widely, it sometimes consumes more system resources than it saves in terms of reduced disk I/O.



 < Day Day Up > 



Server Disk Management in a Windows Enviornment
Server Disk Management in a Windows Enviornment
ISBN: N/A
EAN: N/A
Year: 2003
Pages: 197

flylib.com © 2008-2017.
If you may any questions please contact us: flylib@qtcs.net