Tech Support > Microsoft Windows > Performance/Maintainence > Is a RAM Drive possible
Is a RAM Drive possible
Posted by Joe on December 16th, 2007


Is it possible to create a RAM drive (drive created using RAM/memory) in
Windows XP?

If so, can I place my pagefile on it?

I have a laptop with 4GB memory, and even with SQL server running with large
databases, it rarely goes over 1GB. Being able to create a RAM drive a use it
for the page file would increase the performance substantially!

Posted by Ken Blake, MVP on December 16th, 2007


On Sun, 16 Dec 2007 01:25:01 -0800, Joe
<Joe@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:


Yes.




No, it would not increase performance at all. In fact, it would *hurt*
performance. Doing what you suggest makes no sense. It's like
borrowing from Peter to pay Paul. You'd be taking memory away from
Windows use, then giving it back in the form of a page file in a RAM
drive. Since you would create extra need for paging in exactly the
same amount as the size of the RAM drive page file, you would
accomplish nothing except the extra overhead associated with the RAM
drive.

RAM drive software is available, but, except in special circumstances,
is usually counterproductive when running Windows. It is *certainly*
counterproductive to use it the manner you suggest.


--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP Windows - Shell/User
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