What are the risks of an inadequate RAM disk size?

Started by Deb

Good day.
I am very tempted to use a RAM disk for the browser cache and Windows temporary files as suggested on this website. However, I am limited by the 8 GB of RAM on my laptop. I was thinking of creating a 1 GB RAM disk, but I was wondering about the following: if the RAM disk size is less than needed, what will happen?
Thank you for your attention.
SoftPerfect Support forum - Andrew avatar image

Re: What are the risks of an inadequate RAM disk size?   16 July 2022, 22:47

It really depends on the apps using it. If the apps use up all the space, generally it would be the same as a full hard disk drive.

Web-browsers usually take up to a certain percentage of the available space for their cache, so there should always be some space for temporary files. But it depends on the particular browser, what its developers made it do.

If you run out of space, you may see some error messages. If that's the case, you may then want to move the temporary folder out of the RAM disk or increase its size. But most likely there will always be some space available. Simply keep an eye on the available free space for some time, to make sure things work properly with your browsers and your browsing routine.
Thank you for your prompt reply.

In fact, a well-informed poster in another forum claims that "even a 200 MB RAM disk is perfect for Temp directories", although that post is from 2012! As long as all I get are "low disk space" warnings rather than the dreaded BSOD or the inability to load Windows at startup, I think I will give it a try.
Thank you for your interest.
SoftPerfect Support forum - Ann avatar image
Ann

Re: What are the risks of an inadequate RAM disk size?   18 July 2022, 09:23

Another thing you could do would be to set the browser to clear its cache, cookies and other temporary files when it is closed. This would further decrease the chance of running out of space or seeing any errors, especially if you tend to close your browser occasionally during the computer use session rather than keeping it open from startup to shutdown. As a bonus, this would improve the privacy of your browsing.

If this example is of any help to you, on my personal laptop I too have 8 GB of RAM and 1 GB RAM disk, which is used for browser cache (cleared every time the browser is closed, as suggested above), for Windows temp files and for several other applications. And so far there have never been any issues. But of course every user has a different setup and different working habits, therefore everyone's experience would be different.
Thank you again.

As a minor aside, I cannot help but notice that the final "Thank you" sentences in my original posts have been moved to a new line. Interesting.

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