# USB drive as extra RAM in XP



## CrystalRaine

hey everyone, this might be a stupid question but I thought I would pose it anyway. I have an HP Pavillion PC with AMD Athalon 64 Processor 3800+ 2.39GHz and 1 GB of RAMm it's 2 years old (well technically 960MB because integrated grahics) and I'm finding it's being incredibly slow lately, even after spyware scans and uninstalling unused software... 

I have a 2 GB flash drive and I was wondering if it's possible in XP SP2 to use that as RAM. And if it's possible is it safe and can it be undone if I wanted to use the flash drive for something else.


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## magnethead

you could probably go in and map it as page file....


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## sobeit

see the following article about using usb drive as ram.

http://ask-leo.com/can_i_use_a_usb_ram_stick_to_increase_system_memory.html

a couple of points to remember, it will run slower since usb is slower than system memory in addition, reading and writing on the flash drive is even slower. IMO, you will not gain anything by using the drive, in fact you may lose even more speed. 

Your best bet would be to do some computer cleanup and add another gig of real ram.


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## CrystalRaine

Thanks  I was hoping that their be some way around having to buy actual RAM, as I have no money. The trials of being a poor college student. I guess I'll have to wait until I get some cash and buy some RAM.


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## sobeit

In the meantime, try a little computer cleanup. Get rid of all the temporary files on your computer, uninstall any programs you do not use, get rid of any startup that you do not need or can be started manually when needed. IMO, you need about 10-20 percent free space on your drive )depending upon the drive size). Do a defrag.


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## magnethead

agreed with sobeit. clear up some of the crap files and free up some general resources. Can you post a screenshot of the performance tab of task manager?


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## CrystalRaine




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## magnethead

That's a fairly high peak level- 1297784. that's 1.23 GB. You have 1 GB of physical ram and 1.23 GB of hard drive page file/virtual memory, i take it?

I would suggest putting a pair of matched 1GB sticks in the computer.


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## MyKobalt

I know in Vista, under the "properties" of any usb stick you plug in, there is an option called "ReadyBoost" to use it as memory. Is there anything like that in XP?


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## magnethead

not that i know of


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## belfasteddie

look here:http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/02/03/readyboost-technology-for-windows-xp/


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