How to Use a Thumb Drive as RAM

Using your flash drive like RAM can give you a performance increase without paying for an upgrade.

Random Access Memory, or RAM, is the memory space used by your computer to handle live data. As it pulls applications and files from the hard drive, it can store the active data in RAM, which can be accessed far quicker than the hard drive can. When you RAM starts to fill up, your computer has to start swapping data from RAM to the hard drive and back, which will slow you down greatly. To alleviate this issue, Windows 7 has a feature called ReadyBoost, which will allow you to use a USB flash drive to provide additional storage, like RAM. It isn't as fast as real RAM, but its faster than paging to the hard drive.

Instructions

1. Insert your USB flash drive into your computer. You'll want to use a drive that has at least one gigabyte of free space to provide a noticeable increase in your sluggish system's performance.

2. Click "Speed up my system" from the AutoPlay window when it opens. If your computer is not configured to AutoPlay your device, click "Computer" from the Start menu. Right-click your flash drive and click "Open AutoPlay" and then click "Speed up my system."

3. Click "Use this device" in the flash drive properties window that opens. Windows with display the recommended amount of memory to use from your device for optimal performance. Move the slider if you wish to select a smaller amount. Click "OK" to begin using your device for extra memory.

Tips & Warnings

• While using your USB drive for memory you will be unable to copy files to the reserved space.

References

• Windows: Turn ReadyBoost On or Off for a Storage Device
• Windows: Using Memory in your Storage Device to Speed Up your Computer
• Windows: ReadyBoost