Enhancement of Ram Using USB

7/27/2019 Enhancement of Ram Using USB

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ENHANCEMENT OF RAM USING USB FLASH DRIVE

Introduction

Today’s technologically intensive world demands speed, style and simplicity from any gadget or

invention. Thus it is no surprise that lightning fast responses would be expected from modern

devices. The perpetual quest for speed ended with constant enhancement of RAM or Random

Access Memory of the computer systems.

Need for extra RAM

RAM is the main memory of the computer onto which programs and data can be stored and

retrieved quickly. Additional RAM provides us with the following benefits:

Augmented speed

Ability to run larger number of programs simultaneously

Heavy programs and large files can be opened faster

Decreased frequency of swapping of programs in memory

RAM Enhancement Techniques

The methods used to enhance the RAM using a USB flash drive differ depending on the operating

system. Here, the methods for few of the major operating systems are covered in detail.

Windows 8/Windows 7/Windows Vista

Windows 8, Windows 7 and Windows Vista utilize a very straightforward and elegant feature known

as ReadyBoost for extending RAM. ReadyBoost is a feature introduced by Microsoft in its operating

systems from Windows Vista. It is a disk cache component of Windows NT and facilitates the use of

portable flash memory devices as cache thus bestowing the RAM extensibility feature with

simplicity. This feature however was unable in older versions of Windows.

The USB drive used here has a capacity of 2 GB.

Using ReadyBoost to enhance RAM

ReadyBoost requires a minimum of 512MB of built-in RAM and at least 1GB of free space on the

flash drive. ReadyBoost also does not affect the files present on the drive.

Step 1: Attach USB drive and open Windows Explorer. Right click on external drive’s icon and click on

properties.



Step 2: In the properties window, open the ReadyBoost tab.

Step 3: In the ReadyBoost tab choose either “Use this device” option or “Dedicate this device to

ReadyBoost” option. It is always better to allocate the Windows recommended memory space for

the extended RAM for best performance. The “Dedicate this device to ReadyBoost” option devotes

the device solely for ReadyBoost purposes; hence the default value entered in the textbox is higher

than the value present in the “Use this device option”. But the optimum value recommended by

Windows remains the same in both cases though the value in the textbox differs. Windows Vista

does not offer the “Dedicate this device to ReadyBoost” option.



Step 4: Press “OK”. The USB drive is now configured for use.

Assessing if ReadyBoost is operational

Open the drive used as an extended RAM.

Upon opening you would discover the ReadyBoost cache file. The size of this file would be

approximately equal to the size allocated to it during configuration. Since this drive was formatted to

be a dedicated to the ReadyBoost, it should be approximately 1.8GB.



Reusing the USB drive for other purposes:

Step 1: Open Windows Explorer. Right click on the drive

Step 2: In the properties windows, open the ReadyBoost tab and choose “Do not use this device”.

Click OK. The device become empty and is now ready for use.



Windows XP:

Step 1: Insert USB drive.

Step 2: Open Control Panel. Open the System Properties window by choosing the “System” option.

Now click on the “Advanced” tab.

In category view: Performance and Maintenance-> System

In classic view: System



Step 3: Under “Performance”, click on “Settings”. The Performance Settings window opens up.

Step 4: Click on “Advanced” tab. Click on Change.

Step 5: In the Virtual Memory Window, choose the letter which represents your USB drive. You can

either choose custom size or system managed size.



In custom size you can enter the required amount by yourself. The operating system allocates the

size in case of system managed size. This is preferable as the system can choose the most efficient

and optimized size as per its own requirements.

Finally click on Set and then click on OK.

Step 6: Reboot the system to let the changes take effect.

In order to re-use the USB drive for alternate purposes, open Virtual Memory windows again using

the method described above and choose the “No paging file” option.

LINUX:

In Linux, the Swap partition can be utilized for this purpose. Generally the swap partition is found on

the hard disk drive of the computer. But frequent read-write cycles can decrease the life-span of the

drive. This is applicable to the USB drive as well but the hard disk with the larger capacity takes

priority.

Since Linux does not have a ReadyBoost equivalent, this task is performed with the help of few shell

commands. Here we create a swap file on the USB drive and use it as an extended RAM.

Step 1: Insert your USB drive. Ensure the drive is empty or format it. Now open a Terminal window.



Step 2: Unmount drive if auto-mounted using:

sudo umount /media/drive_name

or

sudo umount /dev/drive_letter

Use the following command in case you are unaware of the letter the drive is represented by:

sudo fdisk -l

Step 3: Create swap file on USB drive:

sudo mkswap /dev/drive_letter

Step 4: Turn on the swap file created by the previous command

sudo swapon -p 32767 /dev/drive_letter

Step 5: Use the following command to check if the swap is working

cat /proc/swaps

MAC OS/OSX:

USB drives cannot be used to enhance memory in Mac computers. When additional RAM is required

these systems utilize the free space on your hard disk as virtual memory. Hence it is always advisable

to leave at least 10 GB of free space in your hard disk.

Disadvantages of using USB drives for extending RAM

Though the idea of utilising a USB drive as an extended RAM may be very fascinating, this has certain

limitations. The most pertinent of all is the fact this greatly decreases the life-span of the drive. A

flash drive is a type of EEPROM or Electronically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory. Such

drives have a fixed number program/erase cycles. Program/erase cycles depict the number of times

a chip can be erased and then reprogrammed before it is rendered unusable. At present, the most

drives have up to 500,000 program/erase cycles. Once these are completed, the drive cannot beused anymore. When used as extended RAM, number of instructions executed lie in the range of

thousands. Hence, an extremely high demand of program/erase cycles is made on the drive. So,

ideally a USB drive must be used as an extended RAM only in the direst of situations.

Conclusions

Out of the various methods discussed, the ReadyBoost feature offered by Microsoft in its latest

operating systems is truly a swift, simple and user-friendly option.

Boosting up RAM using a flash drive is a temporary solution to be ideally used only in critical

situations. Though it may speed up your system, it is not the most desirable of answers. To augment

the performance of your computer, the best solution would be to extend your physical RAM by

installing RAM chips of higher capacity compatible with your computer.

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Enhancement of Ram Using USB