Hard disk drives are terribly slow performers and drag the speed of the PC down. SSDs are much better, but even they are not up to RAM speeds. Create a RAM disk for ultimate performance.
Disk drives lag behind other components in the PC in terms of performance and a computer would run a lot faster if it wasn’t for the slow disk drive. If only there was some way of speeding it up.
An SSD (solid state disk) is an option and replacing an HDD with an SSD is one of the best performance upgrades you can do. However, they cost more than disk drives and have a lower capacity. SSDs are becoming more common, but still many PCs are sold with hard disk drives.
If money is tight and your PC has lots of memory, some of it could be used as a super fast RAM disk. It offers fantastic performance compared to an HDD and it is faster than an SSD too, although the benefits are not as great.
What is a RAM disk?
A RAM disk uses part of the computer’s memory to simulate a disk drive. It appears to be an extra drive in your Windows PC and works just the same. Everything in the computer’s RAM is forgotten when it is powered off, so the RAM disk will be cleared, but there are ways to make the contents permanent, even after powering off.
As a RAM disk is just memory, and accessing memory is far faster than accessing a disk drive, and slightly faster than an SSD, the RAM disk will be incredibly fast.
- You could put your favourite software on the RAM disk and then it could be started much more quickly than running it from a disk drive.
- Photo and video editing will be faster if the files are on a RAM disk.
- Temporary files can be accessed quicker from a RAM disk.
- Portable software can be placed on a RAM disk and this will make them start extremely quickly compared to an HDD.
RAM disks require a lot of memory and it isn’t worth it if there is less than 8 GB of memory in the computer. Ideally you should have 16 GB or more. When part of the memory is set aside for a RAM disk, it means that less memory is available to Windows. Reduce Windows memory too much and the PC will slow down.
If you have 8 GB of RAM in the PC then a 2GB RAM disk would be fine and people with 16GB of RAM in their PC could create a 4 or even 8GB RAM disk.
SoftPerfect RAM Disk: This is a $29 utility that enables you to create a RAM disk – a virtual disk drive using the PC’s memory. If you have 64-bit Windows, and most people have, then any size disk is possible and only the amount of RAM limits the disk size.
AMD Radeon RAMDisk: A free version enables RAM disks of up to 4 GB to be created and there are paid versions - Standard, Gamer, Multimedia and Pro. These are fairly cheap and range from $9.99 to $18.99. The paid versions can load and save the contents, so you can power off the PC and reload the RAM disk contents next time.
ImDisk Toolkit: This is a free utility that enables you to create RAM disks and load and save the contents so it survives the PC being powered off. It isn’t the easiest tool to use, but it does work.
Create a RAM Disk with ImDisk Toolkit
This utility is a bit confusing and three utilities are provided: RamDisk Configuration, ImDisk Virtual Disk Driver and Mount Image File.
To begin, run RamDisk Configuration.
- Choose the size of the RAM disk at the top, such as 1, 2, 3… GB
- Select an unused drive letter for it
- Select the file system - NTFS is usually the best, but FAT32 could be used
- Click OK to create it
The RAM disk properties window appears and can be closed as it is just for information. The new drive appears in Explorer windows and it can be opened, files can be dragged to it, programs can open files on it, save files to it, and so on. It looks and works just like a regular drive, only faster.
There is an option to Allocate Memory Dynamically and this means that it only uses as much memory as necessary to hold the files. If the drive is empty, it will use hardly any memory, but if it is full, it will use the whole amount (depends on how big you make the drive).
Load and save RAM disks
When the PC is powered off, the RAM disk contents are lost. However, it is possible to save the contents as a file on the HDD or SSD. Open ImDisk Virtual Disk Driver and there is a Save to image file option on the menu.
Simply unmounting a RAM disk (stopping it running) displays a warning that the contents will be lost and it asks if you want to save everything to a file. Saving did display some warnings, but none were important (don’t save files to the RAM disk as you are saving the RAM disk contents, basically).
Load RAM disk images
There is a utility to create a RAM disk and load its contents - Mount Image File. It can even be set to do this automatically when Windows starts.
The Im Disk Virtual Disk Driver tool can do the same thing, but offers more features for expert users.
RAM disks are not for everyone and are best avoided by novices. However, they are not too difficult to get to grips with and in some circumstances that can provide performance benefits.
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