Use your USB flash drive as virtual RAM

Today I´m gonna show you how to use a usb thumb drive as a virtual RAM device for your pc.
The thumb drive I used is a 2 Gb from Kingston. The size should be less than 4 Gb.
When you look at the sreenshots below you have to consider that it is in German.
Step 1:
Rename your thumb drive  as "RAM DRIVE", so you can see that it is the one which is used as RAM.
Step 2:
Delete all the stuff one the pen drive. Look also after hidden once.

Step 1: Step 3

Step 3:
Right click on "My Computer" --> Properties

Comments

[jacobclinester]

why not just use windows ready boost in windows 7 but for xp this would be great.

[dodo91]

The problem for most people is a lot of flash drives aren't compatible to do this. I don't know why they aren't. I've tried 5 drives so far, and only one would work.

[nojtuag]

happen if your computer only support 4GBrams? If you add virtual rams on it; does it incr the ram as well?

[zico0]

ok now ive done everything as u said but when i check on my ram i still get the readin 1gb ???????????? . .

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/535/91066704.jpg/
. .
http://img843.imageshack.us/img843/883/afsb.jpg
. .  what should i do ?

[MoritzB]

Hi zico0,
you have missunderstood something.
This instructable doesn´t enlarge you pc-ram with the storage of an usb thumb drive, but the virtual ram of your pc. This is something different.
Because of that, you computer has still 1gb of hardware ram, but more gb of virtual ram.
Moritzb

[nojtuag]

3 questions:

1. So if 200GB is converted to rams; it would be about 199.9GBRAM because it's subjected by 5mb? I know I'm not gonna use up that much, but just pretend if it does hold that much.

2. Compare the performances against the real rams...

3. Can the virtual ram gets full without using it as a partition harddrive?

[MoritzB]

1. It would be 199995 MB (200GB= 200.000MB --> - 5MB). But I don´t know if this works.
2. Try it out.
3. I think if you use a 2gb drive it can get full but not 200gb.

Moritzb

[muberblob]

Hey can anyone tell me why it should be less than 4gb? If so thanks a million!

[Flobot-74]

You can take the drive out after you turn the computer off correct? Also, can you put other files onto the drive after you do this?

[MoritzB]

When you use your usb thumb drive as a virtual ram device you shouldn´t put files on the drive.

[CaptainMcClellan]

Good Morrow speakers of English, Guten Tag Herr Moritz! To Flobot and Moritz: Yeah, you can actually, just partition off 2GB for use as virtual ram and then the rest for standard FAT32 file storage. There are How-to's on how to do this, so please refer to those as it would take me making my own to explain it all. Oh, and if you do this you can use the flash drive as a flash drive while also using it as Virtual Memory. As always and to every one, I wish you well with your endeavours. (I nearly slipped up and said "good luck" again... luck is bad, don't trust it.)

[MoritzB]

Thank you for your knowledge.

[Grooby]

You can't put extra files on the drive if you use the whole drive as virtual memory. but if you only use part of the drive you can.

[Flobot-74]

But you can still remove it after it's turned off?

[Grooby]

Yes but after you have used it make sure there is enough space left on the drive to fit the page file

[CaptainMcClellan]

I am not terribly sure if this technically counts as "RAM" and thrashing may be a serious problem with this method, 'specially as there are processor consuming services involved with communicating with USB drives, still it beats using a large chunk of my Hard Drive as virtual memory as before. So: Danke schoen, mein freund. Und Gute Nacht. (Don't hash me to hard in Deutsch, I am still learning, as with the other seventeen, and I'd say I'm probably still learning English, to some extent. I use what little I can, when I can, in order to help myself learn, and I kinda feel like an idiot/jerk that I cannot better express myself, and that so much of these comments are in English, but it cannot be helped and it's not like anyone but myself is teaching me on a regular basis. )

[imBobertRobert]

my drive isnt showing up. help?

[CaptainMcClellan]

Hey. In some case registry errors or intentional filters may prevent access/detection of a drive. Check with someone about cleaning you registry or if you're confident do it yourself. (Look especially for Keys named "UpperFilters" or "LowerFilters", again advanced users only or your computer could crash, die and/or explode.) Best of luck.

[The nerdling]

can you still use it as a thumb drive?

[MoritzB]

You have to try it out.
It can be, that the computer will just use the rest space of the drive.
But the computer also could get damage. It´s your own risk to try it, i don´t take any responsibility.

[ANKURX]

HI Moritz
i want to know , how to speed up my ram,
i have two pc one with xp and other with windows 7
please help.

[MoritzB]

Just follow my instructable.
Greetings MoritzB

[The nerdling]

bummer

[MRedu]

While this is a good idea in some scenarios, but isn't it better to just disable virtual memory all together?

[MoritzB]

Why?

[rurice]

It dosent show my RAM DRIVE like on step 6?
I renamed it like it said but yet no its not there??

[MoritzB]

Hi rurice
Then check if it´s working on one other pc.
Otherwise i don´t know what to do else.

[timnitro]

when i click set it says"enter a maximum page file size that is equal to or greater than the initial page file size" what did i do wrong ps i have an 8 gb hard drive is this too big and can i do somthing about this

[MoritzB]

Hello timnitro, the amount of your usb stick has to be deducted with 5 MB.
IN my case the memory stick had 1932 MB --> you have to enter 1927 MB.
Greetings MoritzB.

[greengraff]

after i use/or shutdown my pc... can i plug it out on my pc???

[TheDutchOwner]

Yes, it will save a small file that contains the information that it's used as RAM and how much it is allowed to use from the drive

[imBobertRobert]

ps im using windows 7

[MoritzB]

Hello imBobertRobert,
maybe your USB-port in your pc is damaged.
Does you thumb drive gets enouph voltage and current?
Usually your usb drive has to be displayed in Step 6.
It also could be the cause of a broken thump drive.
Greetings, MoritzB.

[imBobertRobert]

no, it detects it when i plug it in, and it is shown in the computer tab.

[MoritzB]

Sorry, then i Cant help you.

[imBobertRobert]

ok. thanks for trying!

[pwilson5]

This will add to virtual memory or 'swap' for friends of Tux and not give you real RAM. Indeed, a budget USB drive may offer suboptimal performance and appear to slow the machine down because of the increased access time over normal hard drive.

Also if you do go down this route beware of removing the usb stick, particularly if windows is accessing it to stow pages of RAM. BSoD might say boo.

If you have a desktop machine install a second disk and put your virtual memory on that away from the disk with the OS installed, this will help parallelism (machine can do more multitasking simultaneously giving the impression of enhanced speed).

[repmantillion]

thanks for the information, but can you tell how to check if the usb is being used once it is switch the ram.

thanks

[MoritzB]

Hello repmantillion,
I didn´t really catch your question.
The USB RAm will be used, if the intern RAM of your computer is full.
Then the files which are left, get stored ad the USB RAM.
Greetings MoritzB.

[repmantillion]

OH!! one more question" usually when ram is full it uses the hard drive, now that i have the usb in it uses the usb. now when the usb is full will it still use the hard drive cause at the moment i'm only using a 1gb usb.

[MoritzB]

Hello repmantillion, that is dependent what you have set as virtaul ram:
If you only declared your USB drive as virtual Ram, only this device is used when the ram is full. but when you also activate your hard drive as virtual Ram it uses in my opinion both system when the ram is full.

[repmantillion]

thanks for replying" i was asking how to know that it is actually using the usb ram once it is set, is there a way to check the usb for how much space is being used. and thanks for letting me know that info as well, i understand now that it uses the usb after internal ram is full.

G-D Bless

[MoritzB]

Sorry, I didn´t know a way to check the usb for how much space is being used.
maybe there is a program, that can detect it.

[Austin1400]

I am going to try it out. After I unhooked my computer from the internet, it messed up my computer speed. If it helps, thank you very much!

[raynail]

thanks for this

[boyson2007]

what language is that

[imBobertRobert]

it said in the begining

[maruseru]

German

[flame boyyyy]

are you using windows 7 because mine says change not edit and i cant get it to work... can you help me plz

[Sachaw]

Hi my name is sacha that computer may be a windows vista hope that works :)

[suckafish]

i did it in windows 7 by right clicking the computer and going to properties it brings you to the system screen on the left hand side of that screen there should be an option to click that says advanced system settings click that and then follow the steps on here... but it makes the flash drive your RAM and doesn't use the installed RAM so if you already have 2GB of RAM using a 2GB flash drive is a waste of time..... because you will have less... so i would recommend using a bigger flash drive.... I hope that answered your question...

[MoritzB]

no sorry, im using xp
The number of the thumb drive you type in has to be 5mb smaller than its really is. (step 6)

[Sachaw]

Thanks for the help:)

[yowanvista]

This is just windows ready boost, nothing so spectacular about it
This is NOT virtual RAM but rather a disk cache

[f22archrer]

doesnt change much. i have 1gb RAM but not a great change. but you do have a nice homepage

[f22archrer]

awesome..man .it helped

[sohcheetiong]

how to do it??? i cannot do it well...

[beehard44]

who is still using windows98 here?

[thekid]

Windows is a step behind Ubuntu in this respect... Ubuntu by default recommends creating a swap partition on your HDD when installing. but this works for the windows7 partition but kinda useles only because i already maxed out the ram on my Dell mini 10v, But good instructable :-)

[shikharsrivastava]

TATS awesome

[Mudbud]

uhm...this didnt make my pc faster it acutally makes it SLOW AS .....

[EnigmaMax]

I don't think flash drives should be used as RAM, they take too long to load/unload information. Plus, USB isn't a very fast connection when compared to RAM drives.

[wishbone34]

This sounds like a good idea, but isn't there a chance that all of the read/write cycles on the USB could wear it out quickly?

[MoritzB]

After a while using this method the flash drive could break because it was too much written and read.

[razzlekunai]

Will this work, even though my flash drive has 4kb of data in it?

[MoritzB]

You should delete them by going on "My Computer" --> your flash drive --> "Extras"--> "file settings"-->"view"--> "show all hidden files and data"

[guitarwizard94]

how would I remove it?

[MoritzB]

Go to step 6 and choose your USB thumb drive, than click "no swapfile" --> "Set" -->"OK" --> "Apply"

[DIY Dave]

go to my computer>right click on your RAM DRIVE>click eject

[DIY Dave]

Can I use a 512 MB flashdrive with windows 2000?

[MoritzB]

I don´t know if it works with windows 2000, but maybe there is a different way. Try it out, it should run.

[mikedoth]

I'm having trouble understanding why anyone would want to do this. USB2 is 480mbps, and a hard drive on a modern system is 1.5gbps (for SATA1, 3gbps for SATA2). Your best bet is to toss a second drive into the system and put the swap file on it (and remove the swap file from the primary drive). This might be worthwhile when USB3 becomes more prevalent. Just as a note, i've been using the second hard drive method for 10 years and it's never let me down. More often my slower system can keep up with faster machines in gaming thanks to it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ATA

[SpinozaQ]

The benefit depends on the quality of the flash drive you use. The interface, SATA vs USB really has little to do with it. No spinning hard drive can sustain 1.5gbps or 3.0gbps for that matter. Only a few 10,000 rpm drives can sustain more then 480mbps... but neither can a USB flash drive, so that's a moot point.

The benefit comes in access or seek time to a random piece of data. That's the most important part for virtual memory. A spinning disk takes on average 7 milliseconds or so to start moving data. A decent USB flash drive might take 300 microseconds ( 0.3 milliseconds ) to access some random data. That's a big boost!

Putting the swap file on a secondary spinning drive is a reasonable speed up. It lets swap stuff and program stuff occur in parallel. Before flash was large enough this was the only option.

The next big jump up is to use a quality SSD like the Intel X-25 that is designed for lots of hard work inside a computer. I began using SSDs for system drives last year... I'm never going back!

[ilpug]

my friend has a slow computer. he also has a large external harddrive. could he designate one on the alphabetical drives on the external drive as RAM DRIVE, and then use that drive for virtual RAM? and then keep the rest of the external harddrive for memory?

[wupme]

The external HDD will slow down everything. What your looking for is easy tho. Just put the Pagefile/Swapfile onto that HDD. Still you won't get anything out of it. Use the internal HDD for the Pagefile (like windows already does on its own) because it is way fast. Except if the external drive would be en E-Sata drive.

[yoyology]

I'm curious about this. Can you point to some information on how to do this with the Pagefile? Better yet, can you make an Instructable about it? :-)

[MoritzB]

Maybe it works, but be carefully when you do this. Don´t crash the pc.

[armynavy17]

This is a good instructable that is easy to follow. Also, your English is very good with the exception of a few small errors. I wish I was fluent in German; however, it isn’t offered at my school.

[Cracknel]

Why use a USB drive? USB is really slow. Better use your hard-drive. The access times on a flash drive are better, but via USB... Oh! And flash memories will fail if you write them too many times ;)

[TSC]

Nice but if I want to get back to my other hard drive how do I do it (That's with the PC)???

[MoritzB]

Go to step 6 and choose your USB thumb drive, than click "no swapfile" --> "Set" -->"OK" --> "Apply"

[TSC]

Ok Thanks I will vote for this is the usb contest!!

[wupme]

It should be mentioned that this is only intended by Microsoft for slow PCs with small RAM. On 32 bit with 2GB or more it is nearly useless. With 1 GB it could improve the performance. On 64 bit with 4GB or more its the same. And who would use 64bit with less then 4GB ram ? Windows Vista &7 already caches important files and applications you could use in the Pagefile. USB Drives got a way slower data stream then a modern HDD. They just got a faster acces time. So only use this on slow PCs, because on fast PCs there is no benifit from this method. One Method that really helps is actually putting the Pagefile of Windows on its own Partition. It prevents Fragmentation. Recommended Pagefile size is 1.5 times the size of your ram.

[maxpower49]

Is this only good on windows vista and windows 7

[MoritzB]

it should work on all windows systems

[Liskel]

What about the access-speed via USB? Isn't it too slow? Why not take local disk space? (faster?)

[wupme]

In fact you are right. The HDD is way faster then the USB drive. The Access time on USB is faster, but the Data Stream is way slower. If you got more then 2GB of ram, then Ready Boost is of no use. Microsoft only recommends it for PCs with less then 2GB Ram.

[MoritzB]

The access on the local hard disk takes more time than a USB thumb drive, because in the hard disk drive there are movable parts which steel important time.

[budabob07]

if you have an ssd drive it is faster than USB thumb drive, it is very fast (fastest is around 700MBps read speed)

[mobuto]

if you use your local disc drive it defeats the purpose of ram. to lighten the load of work on the HDD. doing this could burn out your HDD very fast and brick your computer.

[mobuto]

how would i remove the flash drive without crashing my computer. assuming i only need a boost of speed on occasions?

[MoritzB]

I think when the pc is turned off you can use it as a normal USB thumb drive, but when you start your pc, the flash drive must be plugged in and there must´n be data on it.

[wupme]

You can just pull it out. Because Windows stores nothing on there, wich it doesn't also backup on the Pagefile It doesn't have to be plugged in when you boot. Windows actually remembers the drive, and when you plug it back in while its running, windows will use it again.

[garrett10]

What if you get one of those new infinite GB flash drives/SD cards (its infinite because its connected to an online storage system) and used the same method? INFINITE RAM EPICSCAUSE!!

[MoritzB]

With sd cards it should work, too.

[XOIIO]

Whoa that's cool! How much are they?

[MoritzB]

If you have an empty usb thumb drive it doesn´t cost anything.

[XOIIO]

Crap it messed up, I was replying to something else.

[gun487]

Your processor can only handle so much ram, Most high-end processors generally are able to process 8gb ram @ The time delay for the drive to access the internet download or upload information would cause alot of slowing down.

[jono3000]

yh, and it isnt just your proccessor, its also the opperating system, even iwht proper dedicated ram cards, for instance windows 64 bit can handle much for ram than 32 bit ect, i think its around about 16 gb max, but i could be wrong

[technoguy94]

You should be able to click "OK", its just like clicking "Apply" but it closes the window after. BTW, can you do this on XP?

[MoritzB]

Yes, you can. I´m still using XP, only the design is Vista.

[Zephyris]

It is Vista and Win7 only (the feature is called "ReadyBoost" if you want to know more about it...

[Grooby]

if you disable superfetch service your unable to use it.

[n3rdd]

If a USB drive gets written to too many times, it will fail.

[Grooby]

Yes the accessing speed will be slower. flash drives them self don't do read/write at the same time very well. You will get better speed from a usb portable harddrive. but will still be slower than using a drive in the computer. if you have an old drive 40GB or less you could use the whole thing, this will prove you with better speed then using the C: drive. I use a 9.1GB Ultra Wide 3 SCSI i drive as my dedicated page file and it a lot quicker than having pagefile on the c: drive.

[REA]

keep in mind, never use this on your internal HDD. i believe this is why my first one died (allocated 10 gb to it and after restarting the OS wouldnt start).

[junits15]

keep in mind that even a an os can onlly have so much ram, so allocating 400gb isnt gonna d much good. Windows 7 pro and up 64 bit can oly have 192 GB ram max

[Bongmaster]

probably wont be very good for the lifespan of the drive ;) you can only rewrite to them so many times b4 they start to fail..

[Ranie-K]

I've done this trick myself and have used a SanDisk Cruzer U3 (4GB) for months without problems.

[Bongmaster]

it will still bork up eventually XD but if it works well enough for now then why not :)

[camintmier]

If you're on on Vista or Windows 7, it would probably be better to use the drive for ReadyBoost. This tends to hurt the flash drive less, while still giving a decent boost in performance. I currently use a 4 gig SDHC card in my laptop, and access times for programs shrunk significantly.