swap file
Disk-based RAM extension
A swap file is a file on a computer's storage drive that extends available memory by temporarily holding data that doesn't fit in RAM.
When physical memory fills up, the operating system moves inactive data to the swap file, retrieving it when needed.
This virtual memory technique allows running more programs than RAM alone would permit, though accessing swap is slower than accessing RAM: The system was sluggish because it kept hitting the swap file.
- thrashingDecisive, lopsided defeat
- virtual memoryDisk-backed RAM extension
- operating systemSoftware managing computer resources
- garbage collectionScheduled waste removal service
- kernelSeed or essential core
paging · hard drive · spinning disk · segmentation · prefetching · task manager · partition · defragmentation · device driver · memory management · bootloader · resource allocation · hibernation · Windows · load balancing · memory leak · out of memory · SSD
- filesfilename, folder, directory, subdirectory, source code
- memory managementbuffer, free, heap, stack, allocation
- system filesautoexec, kernel, driver, DLL, bootloader
- memoryremember, forget, recall, memorize, recollect
- filename partsextension, path, underscore, hyphen, dot
swap fileRAM
Temporary data storage hardware
main memory · DRAM · volatile memory · core memory · cache
swap, file, swaps, swapped, swapping, swapper, files, filed, filing