What is RAMDisk? How to Create It?
Achieving faster storage is the dream of every computer user. Most people now have the option of using SSD. But they are much more expensive than standard SATA hard drives. In return, do you have a lot of RAM in your computer idle? It can be a great resource for creating some super-fast storage media that is even faster than SSD.
An excess of unused RAM on your system can be used to create a RAM Drive or RAM Disk. You can take advantage of reducing application load times, improving performance while playing games, or storing 4K movies for better playback.
What is RAMDisk or RAM Drive?
The RAMDisk is a name given to a virtual drive created on the system that uses blocks in your physical RAM to store data. Attempts to create storage media using RAM date back to the 1980s. Of course, he got his share from the developing technology.
We have RAM-based hard drives. However, due to the high cost of RAM storage and the need for a continuous power supply, these were not as popular as magnetic hard drives and later SSDs.
Why is RAMDisk used?
The reason why RAM is a separate piece of memory on your computer is due to its high speed. Creating a RAMDisk allows you to save data on the fastest possible storage on your computer. You may notice from the first moment that the programs you install on a RAM drive have a significant reduction in loading times.
This is because you do not need to transfer files from your hard disk to RAM. One of the important aspects of the RAM Disk is that it completely erases the data after shutting down your computer. RAM is temporary memory and nothing can remember after power failure. This eliminates all the software and files you have stored on the RAM Disk.
Well, if this is the case, you can think about whether I should create a RAMDisk every time I open it. Here, as well as creating a RAM Disk, we will show you how the RAMDisk software works, which stores the data that copies the RAM Disk to your hard drive every time you turn off your computer and turn it on again.
You can choose from a variety of RAMDisk software, and some have been compared by Raymond. To create a RAM Disk, make sure your computer has enough RAM. This is because the Windows system needs about 2 GB of memory to function properly. And for other software, you have to leave a 1GB backup memory. Therefore, to create 1GB of RAMDisk, your computer must have at least 4GB of RAM.
Creating RAMDisk
There are lots of paid and free RAMDisk software for Windows 10 and earlier versions. You may have heard of Dataram RAMDisk, offered with free and paid options. Using this software, you can set up a RAMDisk as follows:
Install Dataram RAMDisk
The default look is a bit confusing. To change this, you can select the Advanced option from the View tab at the top.
Now, under the Settings tab, select the size of it. In the free version, it can only go up to 1023 MB. However, the paid version supports up to 64GB.
Under the Load / Save tab, make sure that Load Disk Image at Startup and Save Disk Image at Shutdown are checked. This ensures that your files do not disappear when you shut down your computer.
Now you can browse the Options tab or click Start RAMDisk for your virtual disk to take action.
The RAMDisk you created will appear as a normal local disk when you enter My Computer.
In this way, you can fully use your RAM as a hard disk. You can stop it at any time by using the software of RAMDisk. You can also close the Dataram window.