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.