Moving swap file

Im trying to find a better way to change my swap file location to my secondary drive in OS X.5. Currently I have set a symlink to /Volumes/MacOS_Swap/.vm from the origional /var location (after removing the previous directory).
It seems to work well enough, however my system log cycles errors until the drive/partition is properly mounted. Any ideas on a better method?

Systems ship with the minimum needed to boot, and not much else.
You don't have a choice on what type of RAM to use, but prices have climbed down a lot in the two years since the introduction of Mac Pro.
http://support.apple.com/kb/SP11
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304235
And to get an indication of how much memory you are using
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107918
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/Mac-Pro-Memory

Similar Messages

Moving swap file, any advantage?

Hi all,
I have a late 2008 unibody mac book pro with sl 10.6.4. I have a custom setup:
optibay with OCZ vertex 2 120gb PRIMARY DRIVE
momentus xt 500gb secondary drive
Given the alleged problems that ssds encounter after a while without trim support I was wondering if moving the swap file to the xt would help. I have three questions:
1) Would it actually help?
2) Would performance be worse because I am moving the swap file to a slower drive?
3) How do you move a swap file?
Thanks!

VM is merely memory reserved by the system, not necessarily used as swap space. So you will always have a sizeable VM showing in the monitor application, since it allocates the page file space without necessarily using it.
The thing to watch is the page outs, as you realize. That is actual data being written to disk. Or just go into private/var/vm and see how many files and how much space is being used.
Ordinarily, it only makes sense to move swap space if you are frequently using a lot of actual swap file space, and if you have a substantially faster drive to move it to. I don't really know how well a SSD drive will handle intensive swap thrashing, so it may not be an issue, or, perhaps you'll still get the best performance with it instead of the slower hard drive.
If you do decide to move it, be sure to have a reliable up-to-date backup available too. As I mentioned, if the move is not done correctly, down the road a bit after booting you may find yourself with a spectacular failure and all sorts of data corruption (orphaned symbolic links are often very bad things).
I would say monitor your VM use and system performance for a bit, especially once you start working your system as hard as you think you will normally be doing. Then, as long as you have a backup to go to, you can try the alternative and see if it even makes any difference (I'm highly skeptical that it will, but I don't honestly know).
Message was edited by: Michael Black

Over 3GB of swap files with 16GB of RAM?

Just bought a MBPr with 16gb of RAM (more for futureproofing than any actual need right now). I'm constantly checking Activity Monitor and "Free RAM" is always around 8GB or more. I notice, however, that the "Swap used" totals are quite high. I don't have any pageouts so why do I have so much swapspace being consumed? With an SSD drive in here, should I not be worried that the OS is using swapspace so much when it probalby doesn't need to?
Thanks!

megagram wrote:
K as far as I understood modern OS's, they write memory to disk when physical RAM is exhausted. My physical RAM has not been physically exhausted and yet I still see high numbers of pagefiles. This is my concern; especially since I have an SSD that can't be replaced I'd rather not accelerate its demise with unecessary writes.
That's the thing - it is way more complicated than that. That is how virtual memory worked 20 years ago. It is best to avoid looking too closely at memory values. When people do that they start seeing problems that aren't there.
I'm not sure how you can say mountain lion's virtual memory is optimized for SSDs and that most of the swap space doesn't exist, even though it exists in the form of pagefiles without backing it up with concrete sources.
I say that because Apple is moving to SSDs for their new machines, so that is where the focus is. Even with 16 GB, any application could exhaust your memory if allowed. MacOS X uses those swap files to keep that from happening.

New SL install on SSD; moving user files over

I installed a new SSD and now have a fresh SL install up and running. I'd like to use the SSD for applications, and the older "regular" hard drive (still in the box) for user files. What would be the easiest way to get rid of all the application and SL stuff on the older hard drive, leaving it strictly for my user files (music, video, docs, etc.)? Should I just wipe the drive clean and pull the stuff in from Time Machine? Or is there some other approach to use? Thanks.

Michael Winner wrote:
The info on the "test" symbolic link directory I've created on the SSD indicates that it's an alias. Is that OS X shorthand for the symbolic link, or could I have actually created an alias rather than an SL?
If you are referring to the "get info" finder dialogue then yes - it calls links aliases, and also calls aliases aliases confusing if your trying to determine specifically which it is. I don't actually know how to create aliases from the cli - but ln is a generic nix tool so i doubt it would have been aded to that.
Ideally the only non-symbolic link folder remaining on the SSD will be the library folder, correct?
Within a user directory (like you said) yes - in my opinion, as the user library is more like an extended part of the system and apps than bulk user data. Some system and app performance will depend on the speed that files within the user library can be accessed.
I'm not going to do any web publishing, so I can drop the Sites folder entirely, correct?
I don't think there should be any harm in that - although the OS does default to that directory when enabling web sharing - not sure what the side effects of it not existing might be.
Earlier in the thread it was recommended that I create one user account entirely on the SSD, so that I'll be able to log in if the HDD gives me trouble. Thoughts on this? I've cloned the current, pre-symbolic link install on the SSD, so that should work as a fallback, no?
If the contents of a user directory are unreadable and even unwritable then the OS will still allow the user to log in - except it will get the default preferences. but in your case because you are keeping the Library on the SSD it wont matter if the HDD is there or not until you go and use the other directories... as all your preferences and caches etc are in your library.
Since you've been so generous...guess I'll ask if you have any other advice for getting this setup "right" and taking maximum advantage of the SSD.
There isn't much else to do that will make a vast amount of difference... The important thing is to remember is not to let it get filled up to much... try to keep it's default state as empty as possible. There are two reasons for this..
Firstly wear levelling; it is only effective on the free space - if you fill up almost all of your SSD with static data and then use the last remaining space for temporary data storage then it will wear out that remaining capacity comparatively quickly (the wear levelling mechanism can juggle the nand page allocation for pages being re-written - but for the most part the pages holding the static data aren't going to get any use.)
(take this with a pinch of salt - you can safely fill 3/4 of your drive and then use the remaining for temporary data, but it's healthy to keep in mind - only extreme cases are likely to wear out the drive very quickly)
Secondly performance: This is to do with garbage collection and 'TRIM' - i wont get into the details here but as you may already know SSD performance degrades with use as data is mixed into pages - this is a reversible performance degradation but it is exacerbated by lack of free space.
There are various articles and forum threads on the web to do with Mac OS tweaks for SSDs, but pretty much all of these are centred around increasing the life span of the SSD - or more specifically decreasing write amplification due to the number of writes opposed to quantity of data written.
One quick tweak that makes absolute sense to do is enabling noatime … as with most unix file-systems HFS+ will write the access time of a file to the file-system every time a file is read - this means one write for every read (check your activity monitor to see this, you will always see a write operation when there is a read operation). access time isn't exactly of great use and there are no effects from disabling it… to do so you can use this launch daemon:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN"
"http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Label</key>
<string>com.noatime</string>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
<string>mount</string>
<string>-vuwo</string>
<string>noatime</string>
<string>/</string>
</array>
<key>RunAtLoad</key>
<true/>
</dict>
</plist>
What this does is add the noatime option as a default when the mount command is called for root
You need to save this as a unicode file in your /Library/LaunchDaemons directory and change the owner ship and group to root:wheel… but i've written simple mini script to do it all for you, copy and paste this into your terminal then enter your password and it will write it to the correct place for you:
echo '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN"
"http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Label</key>
<string>com.noatime</string>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
<string>mount</string>
<string>-vuwo</string>
<string>noatime</string>
<string>/</string>
</array>
<key>RunAtLoad</key>
<true/>
</dict>
</plist>' | sudo tee /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.noatime.plist
sudo chown root:wheel /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.noatime.plist
if you ever wanted to disable it for some reason simply delete the file "/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.noatime.plist"
Other tweaks are mostly to do with creating ramdisks and moving certain system directories containing logs and temp files to them… however this is beyond the scope of a quick copy and paste script, you must understand specifically what you are doing so you can adjust the sizes of the ramdisks appropriately and make important files restorable (because ramdisks are volatile)
Personally i don't think doing this is worth the effort, also if you don't have masses of RAM… or usually make use of all of it anyway then theres a good chance your ramdisk will be paged out to a swap file which kind of makes it pointless.
Anyway - hope that helps, enjoy your SSD !

I moved itunes file to external hard drive and want to move the file on my pc to recycle bin. When I move i get an error message that it cannot delete ituneshelper.dll access is denied. Can I move that file to the recycle bin?

I am trying to free up space on my pc and moving itunes files to external hard drive. I have followed instructions and believe I have file copied to new drive, but I am having trouble moving file to recycle bin as the instructions say. I am getting the following error message: cannot delete ituneshelper.dll:access denied, make sure disk is not full or write protected and file not in use. I know the file is not in use when trying to move. Any help would be most appreciated. I am on Windows XP.

Yes. And you should not have moved that folder. Put it back. To move your iTunes library move the folder from User's Music.
tt2

Moved jpeg files to other folder, now iPhoto can't find them

I dragged/dropped some original jpeg files into a new folder to aggregate certain files together, but since they are now in a different folder iPhoto 9 can't find them. The thumbnails in iPhoto still remain, but results in the large black/grey "!" when I try to open them. I'd rather not rebuild the enormity of my entire photo library over this, so is there some other way to re-link thumbnails to files?
iTunes makes this easy with music. When I click on a file name and it can't find the file, it offers to allow me to locate the file myself, and then it re-establishes the link between the iTunes library item and the file. No problem.
How does one go about doing this in iPhoto for, say, a couple of dozen files without having to start over with an ENTIRE rebuild? I know exactly where the files are, and it seems ridiculous that iPhoto isn't equipped to track the whereabouts of an unchanged file that's simply been dragged from one folder to another.

Did you do the moving of the image file in the Finder or do you have a reference library as asked by Larry? In either case moving the files is a recipe for disaster as you've found out. You must either move the files back to their original locations or try to get those photos back into iPhoto as follows:
1 - Find the folder you moved the files into and COPY it to the Desktop.
2 - in iPhoto delete the photos that you're having the problems with as you normally would even though you can't see see them. Also delete all the photos that are in the folder you moved the other files into.
3 - drag the folder on the Desktop into iPhoto to import them as one event. If you get a duplicate warning I'd let it import the duplicate and use Duplicate Annihilator to find them so you can cull out the duplicate you don't want.
Other than that you might have to start over from scratch as follows:
Creating a new library while preserving the Events from the original library.
1 - Move the existing library folder to the desktop
2 - Open the library package like this.
3 - Launch iPhoto and, when asked, select the option to create a new library.
4 - Drag the Originals folder from the iPhoto Library on the desktop into the open iPhoto window.
OT

I have a dilema i use a programme called Mackeeper i accidentally moved several files to my trash,i would like to put the files back where they belong but put back option is in grey and wont work??

I have a dilema i use a programme called Mackeeper i accidentally moved several checked files to my trash BUT i didnt delete them,i would like to put the files back where they belong but the put back option is in grey and wont work?? i have spoken to Apple and to no avail !!!
Mackeeper moved my files to my trash so i pulled them out of my trash to my desktop it has copied them to my desktop as well as kept them in my trash!!
im so confused and things are not working properly anymore such as my google chrome for example...all my book marks are gone BUT i can go to the google file which is out of place on my desktop and view all my bookmarks data...ALL of my files still exist but they are just out of place now which is making it hard for certain options on my computer to work...
the files includeAccounts,address book plug-ins,addressbook,Adobe,AIM,Alfred,Anquet Maps,Apple,Asramsoftware,Audio,Automatically add to itunes,facebook,facebook 15-53-13-329,faxfresh,five details,flipping book photo album, font collections, fonts, forismatic,Garageband,Gimp,Google,Google 15-53-13-344,icloud,icons,idocument lite,ilife media browser,ilifepage layout,internet plug-ins,ip scanner,itext express,itunes,iweb,Keyboard layouts,Keychains,launch agents,Librarian,limit point software,logs,mail,mail 15-53-13-895,messages,metadata,mobile documents,mobiscope,moso,movie effects,mozilla,MPlayerx,mywebcamBroadcaster,Native instruments,Skype and LOADS more......
HOW do i get this stuff back to where it is supposed to go so that these programmes work properly again???? i also used delete and command but that did not work either,like i said i have not emptied my trash and ALL the info is there its just totally out of place and the put back option will not work sor some reason!!??? im running 10.8.5 imac someone PLEASE help me!!
i have not set up time machine either but i do back up to a site called backupblaze...

Step 1
Remove "MacKeeper" as follows.
"MacKeeper" has only one useful feature: it deletes itself.
Note: These instructions apply to the version of the product that I downloaded and tested in early 2012. I can't be sure that they apply to other versions.
IMPORTANT: "MacKeeper" has what the developer calls an “encryption” feature. In my tests, I didn't try to verify what this feature really does. If you used it to “encrypt” any of your files, “decrypt” them before you uninstall, or (preferably) restore the files from backups made before they were “encrypted.” As the developer is not trustworthy, you should assume that the "decrypted" files are corrupt unless proven otherwise.
In the Finder, select
Go ▹ Applications
from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-A. The "MacKeeper" application is in the folder that opens. Quit it if it's running, then drag it to the Trash. You'll be prompted for your login password. Click the Uninstall MacKeeper button in the dialog that appears. All the functional components of the software will be deleted. Reboot.
Failure to remove MacKeeper will result from neglecting any one of these points:
Quit MacKeeper before dragging it to the Trash.
Don't empty the Trash after dragging the application to it. Let MacKeeper delete itself.
Don't try to drag the MacKeeper icon in the Dock to the Trash.
Here are some general suggestions. If you want your computer to be usable, don't install crapware, such as “themes,” "haxies," “add-ons,” “toolbars,” “enhancers," “optimizers,” “accelerators,” "boosters," “extenders,” “cleaners,” "doctors," "tune-ups," “defragmenters,” “firewalls,” "barriers," “guardians,” “defenders,” “protectors,” most “plugins,” commercial "virus scanners,” "disk tools," or "utilities." With very few exceptions, this stuff is useless, or worse than useless.
The more actively promoted the product, the more likely it is to be garbage. The most extreme example is the “MacKeeper” scam.
The only software you should install is that which directly enables you to do the things you use a computer for — such as creating, communicating, and playing — and does not modify the way other software works. Never install any third-party software unless you know how to uninstall it.
Step 2
Restore from the last backup that predates the unwanted changes.

I bought a new laptop and used Windows Easy Transfer cable and moved all files from one computer to another. I installed iTunes and found my iTunes music Library. However, when I plug in my iPod it says it is already synced with another iTunes Library.

I bought a new laptop and used Windows Easy Transfer cable and moved all files from one computer to another. I installed iTunes and found my iTunes music Library. However, when I plug in my iPod it says it is already synced with another iTunes Library.
I don't see anything in Help that shows when you already have transfered all the files over. Why would it want to erase and sync when I already have all the music folder copied over? I didn't have an issue when I had another technician copy from one laptop to another. Home sharing is also on but not being recognized.

I suspect you only migrated the media folder instead of the complete working library. Either review the transfer process and copy over the entire iTunes folder from your old profile's music folder or see Recovering your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.
tt2

I downloaded a program on my macbook pro and moved the file now everytime i open the program it says repair now...how do i fix that

i downloaded a program and moved the file from which it was orignally downloaded now everytime i open it it says repair now...what do i do to get it to stop doing that...i hit repair now every time and it still says it everytime upon the programs startup

Photoshop needs to be in the folder within Applications in which it was originally created. Put it back where you got it.
Did you actually complete the download process or were you maybe running from the .dmg that you downloaded?

Is there any way to use iPhoto without it moving my files?

I tried to use iPhoto ONCE last yer when I bought my Mac Mini, and it moved all my photo files around as it pleased, is there any way to stop it fro moving my files? I like the folder/file structure I have given my pictures and I do not need to have that managed.
At the moment I am using Picasa but I would like to know if it is possible to use iPhoto without it deciding what to do with my files.
Thanks!

No
It is a SQL database and it must control its database - like any database program
as long as you think of managing files rather than managing photos it is not the program for you - once you think of managing your photos then having the poser of a database for that will be obvious - if that is not what you want then do not use it
BTW - iPhoto does not ever "move" your files - it makes a copy of each photo in its database and manages it there - your files are never touched
LN

HT4527 I recently moved my files from windows xp to a new windows 8.1 pc using PCMover Express. When I open up a file within itunes, the music doesn't start in itunes, it starts in xbox music player. How do I move my itunes file so it opens in itunes?

I recently moved my files from a windows xp pc to a new widows 8.1 pc using PC Mover Express. When I open up a file within the itunes folder, it opens to the default player xbox 360 media player. How do i transfer my itunes folder so it opens up in my itunes account?

Hi kozzie17,
If your music is no longer opeing in iTunes by default on your Windows machine, you may find the following article helpful:
iTunes for Windows: How to make iTunes the default application for music and audio files in Windows Vista and Windows 7
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3202
Regards,
- Brenden

I moved by iTunes files to an external drive because I was changing computers. I then moved the files to the new computer. My iPod is not linking with the files on the computer. What can I do?

I moved my iTunes files from my old computer to an external hard drive. I then moved those files to the new computer. My computer and iPad are not linking up (recognizing each other?). I installed the latest version of iTunes onto the new computer to see if that would help. It did not--I got the message that an iPad can only be linked up with one computer and the new download would not work with this iPod. So the iTunes' library and my iPod are not connecting, and I have no way of installing or removing new songs onto my iPad. What should I do to correct this?

Sorry, I had a typo. The last sentence should have read "iPod" (iPad): So the iTunes' library and my iPod are not connecting, and I have no way of installing or removing new songs onto my iPod. What should I do to correct this?

Fusion Drive & Swap files

From time to time on my new Mac Mini with 1 TB Fusion Drive, I am getting the following error: "Your Mac OS X startup disk has no more space available for application memory."
This would indicate an issue with being able to write swap files/virtual memory. If I understand how the Fusion Drive works, the virtual memory is stored on the 128 GB SSD portion. The SSD is full, considering I have 650 GB free on the 1.128 TB Fusion Drive.
Seems like a CoreStorage issue, as it's apparently not leaving enough space on the SSD for the swap files after the computer has been run for a while. I have 16 GB RAM in the Mini.
Restarting the computer solves the issue, although I often use the Mini in remote sessions and when this error comes up, performance on the Mini tends to be so sluggish that sometimes remote connections time out or drop, making it hard to even be able to restart the computer.

Your problem is excessive swapping of data between physical memory and virtual memory.
That can happen for two reasons:
You have a long-running process with a memory leak (i.e., a bug), or
You don't have enough memory installed for your usage pattern.
Tracking down a memory leak can be difficult, and it may come down to a process of elimination. In Activity Monitor, select All Processes from the menu in the toolbar, if not already selected. Click the heading of the Real Mem column in the process table twice to sort the table with the highest value at the top. If you don't see that column, select
View ▹ Columns ▹ Real Memory
from the menu bar.
If one process (excluding "kernel_task") is using much more memory than all the others, that could be an indication of a leak. A better indication would be a process that continually grabs more and more memory over time without ever releasing it.
If you don't have an obvious memory leak, your options are to install more memory (if possible) or to run fewer programs simultaneously.
The next suggestion is only for users familiar with the shell. For a more precise, but potentially misleading, test, run the following command:
sudo leaks -nocontext -nostacks process | grep total
where process is the name of a process you suspect of leaking memory. Almost every process will leak some memory; the question is how much, and especially how much the leak increases with time. I can’t be more specific. See the leaks(1) man page and the Apple developer documentation for details:
Memory Usage Performance Guidelines: About the Virtual Memory System

Moving iTunes files/library to an external hard drive

Hello,
My music library has outgrown my MacBook, so I've purchased an external hard drive which I'll use to store all my music. I've been able to find information on the apple site about consolidating and moving my iTunes folder to another location, which I've done. But this hard drive will not be hooked up to my MacBook, but to a MacBook Pro that will remain on my desk, mounted to the hard drive, while I access the tunes through iTunes on my MacBook.
The problem is uploading the transferred files into the iTunes software on my MacBook Pro. When I do this, I lose a lot of the tagging (numbers appear before song names, I lost information about track and disc numbers, and sometimes much more) and I certainly don't have my user ratings or play statsitics. How do I preserve this information while moving the files from my MacBook to an external drive and then uploading the library into iTunes on a different computer?
It's this last step of successfully uploading the files with all their correct data that I'm having trouble with.
Thanks

I just bought a new hard drive, since my old 250 GB drive was maxed out (mostly music - I have 50,000 songs). I tried to do the standard consolidation method to move the songs over, but after 10 long attempts I kept getting an error. I'm going to try this method though - seems to be much more straightforward - I don't have ratings for my songs, so all I care about is getting the songs onto the new drive and having them play in itunes.

I have over 200 hours of HD video on 5 different TB Thunderbolt GRaid hard drives. I need to reorganize my projects, moving large files from one drive to another. Advice?

I have over 200 hours of HD video on 5 different TB Thunderbolt GRaid hard drives. I need to reorganize my projects, moving large files from one drive to another. Advice?

Do some testing to get your method working right with some less than important footage.
Copy/paste files where you want then.
Use the FCE Reconnect feature to tell FCE where the newly copied files reside.
Make sure the new location and files are working as expected with your Projects.
Delete the original files if no longer required.
Al

Moving swap file

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