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RAM Disk To Reduce Number of Writes To An SSD Drive

Using a RAM disk can help optimize performance on computers with solid state drives (SSDs) by reducing write operations to the SSD. A RAM disk stores frequently written files like caches in system RAM rather than on the SSD. This improves SSD lifespan and performance by moving cache writes from the SSD to the faster RAM. The document provides steps to create a RAM disk and configure Windows, Firefox, and Internet Explorer to use the RAM disk for caching rather than writing caches directly to the SSD.

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Florin Ancuta
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103 views4 pages

RAM Disk To Reduce Number of Writes To An SSD Drive

Using a RAM disk can help optimize performance on computers with solid state drives (SSDs) by reducing write operations to the SSD. A RAM disk stores frequently written files like caches in system RAM rather than on the SSD. This improves SSD lifespan and performance by moving cache writes from the SSD to the faster RAM. The document provides steps to create a RAM disk and configure Windows, Firefox, and Internet Explorer to use the RAM disk for caching rather than writing caches directly to the SSD.

Uploaded by

Florin Ancuta
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Use A Ram Disk To Reduce Writes On Solid

State Drives
The write speed of Solid State Drives is usually low er than the read speed. Many w rite operations on
SSDs can slow dow n the system performance and reduce the longevity of the drive. Specialized
programs such as SSD Drive Tw eaker or Flash Fire aid the user in optimizing the system for Solid State
Drives.

We have also covered tips to optimize Windows for Solid State Drives in the past which suggested
among other things to move caches from the SSD to another drive.

That tip w as problematic, especially for users with only SSDs connected to their computer.

A workaround for those users is to use a ram disk for caching purposes. Ram disks, sometimes also
called ram drives, are storage devices that use computer memory to store the data.

This is obviously only a feasible alternative if the PC has enough system memory that can be spared for
the ram disk. Any PC with three or more Gigabytes of computer memory should be able to run a ram
disk for caching purposes.

This article covers the creation of the ram disk and explains how to move the cache from the SSD to the
ram disk.

Window s users can select from a variety of Ramdisk applications. We have covered Ramdisk.sysin the
past for instance but w ill use the Dataram Ramdisk software this time.

The free version of the program supports ramdisk up to a size of 4 Gigabytes. This is sufficient for
moving the cache to the ram disk and for most other uses as well.

Start the Dataram RAMDisk Configuration Utility after installation. The tool is listed in the Dataram
Ramdisk start menu entry.
ramdisk

The ram disk is configured in the Settings tab. The size, file system and boot sector settings can be
defined in here. How much memory should you turn into a ram disk? That depends on the memory
installed and the required size of the caching directories.. Users w ith four or more Gigabytes can use at
least a One gigabyte disk.

One option to find out how much of the memory can be used is to open the Window s Task Manager by
pressing Ctrl-Shift-Esc, sw itch to the performance tab and look at the physical memory section. Using
half of the ram under the available section is usually a safe bet.

The file system can either be Fat16 or Fat32. Users w ho prefer NTFS or another file system need to
select unformatted and format the disk in Windows after it has been created.

A click on Start RAMDisk will create the disk and assign a free drive letter to it.

ram disk

The f: drive in the screenshot above is the newly created ram disk.

The second step of the process is to configure the applications and operating system to make use of
the ram disk by changing the cache directories to a location on the new ramdrive.

We give examples for the Windows temporary file folders, Firefox and Internet Explorer caches.

Windows Temporary Folders


The Windows temp directories are stored in the system’s environment variables. The easiest w ay to
open the configuration window is by pressing Windows-Pause on the keyboard and selecting Advanced
System Settings from the sidebar of the w indow that opens.

Locate the Advanced tab in System Properties and click on Environmental Variables. Here we have user
variables and system variables.

environment variables

Candidates here are for instance the TEMP and TMP system and user variables. They can be edited by
selecting each one of them and clicking on Edit. Simply enter the new path in the variable value field
and leave the variable name as it is.

changing windows temp folder

Changing Firefox Cache

Open the Firefox web browser and type in about:config in the Firefox address bar. Enter
browser.cache.disk.parent_directory in the filter field and double-click the parameter.

Now enter a location on the ram disk to make Firefox use that as the caching folder.
firefox cache location

Internet Explorer Cache

Open Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and click on Tools > Internet Options. The Internet Options are also
accessible from the Windows Control Panel.

Click on Settings next to brow sing history in the General tab and on Move Folder in the next w indow to
move the temporary Internet Files folder to the ram disk.

temporary internet files

There is another benefit of using a ram disk for caching locations. The ram disk will automatically be
cleared on shutdow n which makes recovery of those caching files afterwards impossible (unless a
snapsnot of the ram is taken shortly after shutdown).

Solid State Drives benefit from the reduced write operations and it might even speed up some
operations marginally.

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