Slow VM because of I/O on host system? (VMEM file)

Hello!

VM: Windows XP

Host: Linux 64bit, 2.6.15.6

System: Opteron 175, 4 GB RAM, 2 fast disks in RAID0

I noticed a huge performance hit in the VM when the host system does disk I/O. Whenever I have some user on my FTP or use disk intensive tools like "updatedb", the VM slows down to unusable speed. I suspect my host system tries to distribute access to files/disks in a fair manner and blocks access to the memory file (something.vmem).

Can I use my VM without that file? I'd like to VMWare server to just use all the RAM I need.

If not, can I change my OS to give me more performance?

Thank you,

Carsten Otto