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Suppose I have a 6 GB page file on an SSD and another 6 GB page file on a traditional mechanical 5400rpm SATA drive. Does Windows take into account the difference in the performance characteristics between the two drives when deciding which page file to use?

If it matters, I'm asking about Windows 7 and higher.

I reviewed this similar question but it doesn't appear to factor in the case of dissimilar storage speeds.

Community
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I say Reinstate Monica
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Well if they didn't change anything about page files from XP it should use the least active drive. So whatever drive has more usage it will pick the other drive.

The paging file on the less frequently accessed partition is used most frequently because it is on a partition that is least busy. - https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/314482

Also a page file is a fixed size if set by hand. So it getting bigger would not be an issue. Also having a page file on your SSD could potentially wear down your SSD quicker.

scj643
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    SSDs were almost unheard of when XP was released in 2001. I'm hoping this isn't the only factor taken into account given the tremendous speed advantages of SSDs. In fact, Microsoft developed ReadyBoost for this very reason. – I say Reinstate Monica Aug 14 '15 at 16:07
  • Well with this logic it should use the SSD since it would be used the least. Also I don't really see the reason for this big page file unless you are low on ram. – scj643 Aug 14 '15 at 16:11
  • A system can run out of memory if it has an undersized page file, even if it has gobs of available RAM. That's beside the point: suffice it to say it's a real world scenario to have page files split across multiple drives. – I say Reinstate Monica Aug 14 '15 at 16:15
  • Also page files have usually small reads/writes according to http://blogs.msdn.com/b/e7/archive/2009/05/05/support-and-q-a-for-solid-state-drives-and.aspx The only way I can see testing this is to have something monitor the writes to the page file on the two drives. Sadly I don't have an SSD to test this. – scj643 Aug 14 '15 at 16:18
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The best way would be to disable the page file on the HDD, and only enable the page file on the SSD. You probably gain nothing from having two separate page files anyway, especially from one that is on a HDD while you have a much faster SSD available.

Just uncheck "Automatically manage paging file size for all drives" in the Virtual Memory setting dialog, then set the settings manually.

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Chin
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    Do you have any references to confirm this? Obviously if all I could do was guess how Windows behaves, this is what I'd do. But SSD space is precious and I asked this question so I don't have to guess. – I say Reinstate Monica Aug 14 '15 at 16:03
  • How much RAM do you have? On most current systems, 6GB of page file is more than needed, not to mention 2 x 6GB page files. If you have > 4GB RAM, about 2GB page file should be fine, which is not that much even when SSD space is precious. – Chin Aug 14 '15 at 16:06
  • 12 GB on one system, 32 GB on another. My 6 GB examples are only examples. – I say Reinstate Monica Aug 14 '15 at 16:08
  • On an extremely high memory usage system it can make perfect sense to have a large HDD pagefile in addition to a smaller SSD one, compared with running out of memory and crashing things. – Slbox May 14 '22 at 01:41