I just bought a second hard drive and am looking to install [insert Linux distro here] in addition to my Windows XP. I was wondering what you thought about this setup ~ install Windows on drive 1 and put its swap file on drive 2, then install Linux on drive 2 and put *its* swap partition on drive 1. Seems to me like this should improve performance, since the system can access program files and the swap space simultaneously...right??

Any advice?

Probably not going to be that big a deal. Most computers now don't really have a need for swap. If you have >512MB in your system, you're not going to hit swap that often (if ever).

Your theory is sound though if you still want to do this, but make sure you don't put them on the same cable as you'll just be defeating the purpose.

whoops.. sorry, deleted my first part.. I see what you're saying now...
I'm not a deep hardware expert, but I don't think that in terms of speed, it's going to matter whether you have the swap on the same partition/HD or the other.... Unless you're a professional movie editor for ILM and use the machine for some extremely intensive work.... But for normal day to day use, I think that each system on its own drive should work fine...

I have a dual boot XP/Fedora1. XP is on my main drive, and FC1 is on my second drive. I guess I've never noticed (or used an application that intensive) a speed slowdown from having a swap space on the same drive as the program files...

But, what you're suggesting will probably not harm the machine. I think you're just talking about a time difference in nano-seconds - ...

Cheers! Good luck!

He never said they would be accessed simultaneously.