Can installing some programs on a RAM disk be beneficial?

Started by PrestonLMcClain

Can installing some programs on a RAM disk be beneficial?   08 May 2020, 06:24

Hey, folks! I hope everyone is ok in these troubled times. (It really worries me.)

Well, here's my question. It has been stated in this forum that it's possible to install programs onto the RAM disk I create with SoftPerfect.

I was speculating that I should only install 1-2 programs that slow down my computer the most. I'm not sure but that would appear to be my antivirus program (Bitdefender) and my backup program (Resilio Sync) which is continuously syncing all the data on my hard drive with a network drive. I don't want to install any more programs than that because I'm guessing that my boot time would get to be too long. Is that correct?

I had a question about this installation process that I hoped you guys could help me answer: Installing what type of programs onto the RAM disk would benefit me the most?

Wouldn't it be a program that frequently accesses the main code that is located on the hard drive? If the main code is actually installed on the RAM disk, things would be much faster now since it's using RAM instead of slower hard drive storage, right? I'm also guessing it would be pretty tough to determine which program is accessing the main code a lot.

Would Bitdefender and Resilio Sync be good programs to install? Or, should I install something like Adobe Acrobat because it's slow to open PDFs and Microsoft Office that I used a lot?
SoftPerfect Support forum - Andrew avatar image

Re: Can installing some programs on a RAM disk be beneficial?   08 May 2020, 09:37

It is generally advisable not to place/install applications on a RAM disk. There will be little benefit and a range potential issues. By design, Windows executes program's code in RAM and is smart enough to cache frequently used programs. Say, you have launched some APP.EXE for the first time. Here is what happens:
  1. Windows loads APP.EXE file from the hard disk into RAM.
  2. Windows loads its associated DLL files from the disk into RAM.
  3. Windows prepares the code in RAM and starts its execution.
  4. The files loaded in steps 1 and 2 stay in the disk cache (in RAM) while the computer is on.
If you launch APP.EXE again during the same session, Windows will quickly fetch the files from the disk cache. That's why it usually takes longer to start a program for the first time, but subsequent starts are faster.

If we place APP.EXE on a RAM disk, of course it would start faster for the first time as Windows would be copying data from RAM to RAM. But then we had already spent time copying APP.EXE to the RAM disk e.g. when reading the associated image file. As you probably know RAM disks are volatile in nature and having persistent data on them requires an image file whose contents are read upon startup and written back upon shutdown. There are also potential issues with applications that include kernel drivers and services: the OS may attempt to start those before the RAM disk (where they are kept) is ready, so it will fail.

In your specific case the reasons that Bitdefender and Resilio Sync slow your computer down are likely because Bitdefender tries to scans every file you open or write to and match against its virus database. This takes a lot of your computer's resources. Likewise, Resilio Sync does a lot of computations and file transfers in the background, expectedly taking additional computer's resources. There is no simple solution to that, unfortunately.

So the bottom line here is that we don't recommend placing applications on a RAM Disk. Instead it's better to set up your applications so that they use a RAM disk for their temporary data. This process differs from application to application, but here we have some advice on how to boost PC performance with a RAM Disk.

Re: Can installing some programs on a RAM disk be beneficial?   09 May 2020, 06:25

Thanks for your informative post!

What you said makes complete sense! For programs like Bitdefender and Resilio Sync, knowing that they are constantly turned on in the background and used constantly, they would have a lot of their code already installed in RAM. So, it wouldn't make that much of a difference.

What about resource-heavy programs that isn't set up to be kept in RAM. For example, how about a PDF reader like Adobe Acrobat. It takes a decent amount of time to get a document opened. You look at the document for 1 minute and then completely close it. Then, a minute later, you might have the need to open a different PDF which would also take a long time to open. In this case, wouldn't the longer boot time (due to installing the entire Adobe Acrobat program onto the RAM disk) justify the constant opening and complete closing of Adobe Acrobat throughout a normal work day? This might also apply to a program like Microsoft Word. It's take some time to open (not as bad as Adobe Acrobat) and you frequently open and close it completely many times a day.

So, wouldn't these sorts of programs be good candidates for installing into a RAM disk? First, they are large programs that take a long time to start and they completely close when you exit the program. Second, you open and close them many times a day. Would programs that fit these traits be good candidates to install a RAM disk?
SoftPerfect Support forum - Andrew avatar image

Re: Can installing some programs on a RAM disk be beneficial?   11 May 2020, 10:29

If you really want to try it, you can place frequently used programs on a RAM Disk and see if it is beneficial. Though I am not sure how much improvement you will get exactly.

For that you would need to create a so-called persistent RAM disk, which preserves data between sessions. Then install your programs on the RAM disk and see if that improves performance. Bear in mind: your computer must have enough RAM to hold multi-gigabyte installations of the heavyweights like Adobe and MS Office.

Alternatively, you could consider replacing some products with lightweight alternatives. For example, PDF-XChange Editor or Foxit Reader over Adobe Acrobat Reader. They are much more compact, fast and free.

Re: Can installing some programs on a RAM disk be beneficial?   13 May 2020, 06:56

Sorry for the late reply, but it seems that I screwed up my computer really bad, trying to get this to work or something else happened by coincidence. I had used Primo RAMDisk first to create a RAM disk but for some reason, the 4 temp folders on my C drive couldn't/wouldn't find the temp folder on the RAM disk. So, after a while, I gave up. I went back and reversed everything or so I thought. My entire computer went haywire a day or so later. And, I've been taking the last few days to get my computer to work (while working). It's still screwy. My Chrome browser keeps crashing after half a day to a day. I'll uninstall and install and it'll start working again. Then a day later, it'll start crashing again. I don't know why.

I've downloaded like 10 antivirus/antimalware programs. The first major thing they found was a keylogger. Everything else was minimal although there was quite a few malware. I still can't figure out what's going on. My computer seems slower than before and occasionally, a few processes go nuts (takes up my memory, power usage, etc.). My Windows Search Indexer, my antivirus program, and other processes. I've got two data backups so I'm ok in that dept but I am hoping to god that I don't need to reinstall my OS. I hate doing that since it wastes a whole day. I have to make sure I save all my settings and other info, then I have to reinstall Windows, and then start tweaking which takes hours and hours....

Anyway, sorry for the long post. I'll try your suggestion. I'll see if Adobe Acrobat actually speeds up and let you know. That's the program that I use the most that is annoyingly slow to open and close every 5 minutes. I upgraded to 64 GB of RAM for the sole purpose of creating a RAM disk so I think I have enough. Thinking of keeping 24 GB in ram and 40 GB in a RAM disk.

Thanks for your help again, I appreciate it.

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