GiliSoft RAMDisk 7.3.16

Overview

Ever feel like your system isn’t using the most of its Random Access Memory (RAM)? Well if your system is sporting more than 6 to 8GB of memory than there’s a good chance it is. RAMDisk is an application built to not only help make use of extra memory, but can also boost system performance by a significant amount. Because the memory in your computer has no moving parts to generate noise and heat it runs a much faster speed than traditional hard drives. RAMDisk provides a way to use a set portion of your systems memory for file usage, significantly increasing the read and write speeds of whatever you use within the RAMDisk partition. If you’re wondering what use would you would have with a small partition size of just a few gigabytes or less I’ll be glad to help toss some ideas your way.

Because your system memory is wiped every time you reboot the machine you’ll want to focus your newly acquired disk space on files that will be mostly temporary. For instance by setting your internet browsers cache to store in the RAMDisk partition your internet browsing speed should see a noticeable increase in speed. Setting your system and applications to store its temp files in the RAMDisk partition will also go a long way for speeding up installations and load time. If you use large databases that normally take a long time to load or update you could move the database to the partition temporarily while you work with it to gain the benefits of your system memory. You can even use to store sensitive information that you will want wiped clean after a system reboot. Often times it’s possible to recover deleted data off of a hard drive, but the same is not as true when it comes to your systems RAM.

RAMDisk is also easy to use, upon first launching the application you’ll be prompted to create a new image. This will be your new disk partition, once RAMDisk is finished creating the partition you’re ready to start using the disk space as if an external drive was loaded on the machine. It also has an option menu where you can set the partition to auto-save the current image and re-load it on restart. Meaning that even though your systems memory will be wiped clean on each reboot RAMDisk will do the work of backing up your files and reloading them to the partition itself.

Installation

RAMDisk is a small installation just over 4mb. Installation is standard with no adware or special configuration needed. RAMDisk 6.1 is compatible with Windows 2000, 2003, XP, Vista, Windows 7, & 8 both x86 and x64 operating systems. RAMDisk is able to format in FAT, NTFS, and exFAT.

Interface

You’ll be greeted with a small windows options to create a new image, delete the current image, and options how to manage your image. The UI looks nice and each option has a mouse-over detail to direct you on what that button does.

Pros

• Gives a significant boost to your read & write speed on the RAMDisk partition
• Extends the life of your hard drive by off-loading work
• Can protect privacy by a more thorough wiping process

Cons

• The drive can become unstable and difficult to close out.
• A high price tag compared to its competitors

Alternatives

DataRAM's RAMDISK is another utility that provides the same functionality at half the cost and has a free version that supports up to 4GB of storage space.

Conclusion

If you’re not currently using a Solid State Drive in your computer or simply want to preserve its life longer, RAMDisk is a great utility. I did have trouble deleting my image to recreate a new one at times because of windows explorer either using the program or because a part of the memory stick was in use possibly. You’re also limited to only image at a time, meaning if you decide you need more space or need to free up some memory you’ll have to go through the process of deleting the image to recreate it. It’s defiantly worth checking out the evaluation copy to see the performance improvement. Though the price tag is somewhat high, it’s still a promising application that does what it claims to.