Just manually save the disk image whenever you add or update an app. The RAM disk will be wiped every time your PC powers down, but if you’re storing only temporary files on it, that’s hardly a major loss.Īlternatively, if you want to store apps on the RAM disk but keep their output-such as documents or game saves-on a traditional drive, you can save time by loading the disk image at startup but disabling the ‘Save at shutdown’ option. Remember that doing so can add a significant amount of time to your PC’s startup and shutdown if you don’t plan on using your RAM disk often or for critical saves, consider leaving those options unchecked. Likewise, check the Load Disk Image at Startup option and make sure it’s pointed to the same location if you want the software to reload your saved data to the RAM disk automatically when you boot the computer. If you want the software to save your RAM-disk data to a traditional hard drive when you shut down the computer, check the Save Disk Image on Shutdown option and choose a location for saving the disk image. If you decide that you like Primo Ramdisk, a personal license for two PCs will set you back $30. Most utilities save the entire RAM-disk image every time your PC shuts down, which is what takes so long. The program includes a Quick Save feature that updates your existing disk image and saves only new or altered data. If that sours things for you, give the free trial of Primo Ramdisk disk a whirl. A 4GB RAM-disk image, for example, takes several minutes to copy to a 7200-rpm hard drive. This arrangement works well (unless you suddenly lose power), but it adds considerable length to the PC’s startup and shutdown times, especially if you’re running a large RAM disk on a traditional hard drive. Most RAM-disk utilities bypass this problem by including an optional feature that automatically saves the contents of your RAM disk to a hard drive during shutdown, and then reloads the data to the RAM disk during startup. Since RAM disks are volatile, they lose their data every time the PC loses power. That means most people won’t be able to set up a RAM disk that’s larger than 4GB. Size limitations are a significant drawback: The size of the virtual drive is constrained by your system’s total RAM, and you’ll want to leave at least 4GB of memory untapped and available for general computer use (more is recommended). The storage capacity is severely limited in comparison with that of a standard hard drive, and the inherent volatility of random access memory can be a headache if you store important files or programs on your RAM disk. Of course, running important programs from a RAM disk has some notable disadvantages, too. Games run more smoothly from a RAM disk too, although coaxing Steam titles into working with a RAM disk is a bit of a hassle, and storing a whole game in a virtual drive requires a big chunk of memory. For example, moving Word, Excel, Firefox, and Acrobat off of my laptop’s 7200-rpm hard drive and onto a RAM disk resulted in the apps’ loading nearly twice as quickly, rivaling the opening speeds on an SSD-especially when opening large files. The biggest everyday performance gains occur when you fully install a program on a RAM disk. That makes a RAM disk a wonderful tool for hastening operations in which your machine must read and write a lot of data, such as media encoding or editing large batches of photos. RAM disk read/write speeds blow away the speeds of even top-of-the-line SSDs.
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