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Can I move my TEMP and TMP data to a RAMDisk?

Anonymous
2012-01-07T12:43:18+00:00

Hi,

I have a RamDisk setup on my computer and want to know if I will run in to any problems if I move my windows TEMP directory to it?

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  1. Anonymous
    2012-01-07T13:15:10+00:00

    There are two TEMP directories. One is C:\Windows\Temp and another is C:\Users*username*\AppData\Local\Temp

    You can move both of them without any problem but you need to set the correct environment variable.

    Step 1 - Move the TEMP folder to your RAMDisk.

    Step 2 - Click Start menu, right-click My Computer, and select Properties. Select Advanced System Settings. You might need to confirm a UAC prompt. Then click the Environment Variables button.

    Step 3.A - If moving the C:\Windows\Temp folder, look under System variables and find TEMP and TMP variables. Change both their values to the path of the Temp folder on your RAMDisk.

    Step 3.B - If moving C:\Users*username*\AppData\Local\Temp folder look under User variables and find TEMP and TMP variables.  Change both their values to the path of the Temp folder on your RAMDisk.

    Step 4 - Confirm the change by clicking OK.

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  1. Anonymous
    2017-06-16T15:17:40+00:00

    Out of curiosity I asked a question in the SoftPerfect RAM Disk community to see if they could provide a way to test system performance before using their product and with using their product to see if it was worth purchasing.

    If I am working on a performance problem I want to measure things before and after adjustments to avoid somebody saying "I think it is faster", "It seems faster", "It might be faster".

    Sometimes I work on slow boot times and charge $1 for every second I can take off a Windows boot time - up to $50 (it usually only take a few minutes of analysis).  And if the boot time increases, there is no charge for my adjustments.

    Before I start I measure the time to the millisecond as the "before" and then when I get done adjusting measure again to get the "after" time and then there is no subjective guessing about "it might be faster" or "it seems faster".  You know down to the millisecond if things are faster and by how much.

    I can take a system in the back room for 30 minutes and eat lunch, bring it back out ans say "how does it look now" and somebody will swear it's faster when I have done nothing to the system.  It is a mind game.  That is why I measure before and after so I can know things are better than when we started.

    The reply from their Admin is (there's not a way or they don't have a way to measure before and after):

    As an Admin on their community for 11 years he referred to this article:

    https://www.howtogeek.com/171432/ram-disks-explained-what-they-are-and-why-you-probably-shouldnt-use-one/

    I'm not saying it's not a good idea but if I can't measure a performance increase I would wonder if it was worth it.

    They do have some other neat products too.

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-01-08T02:19:37+00:00

    I think I may have solved that problem.

    In:

    Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders\Cache

    it was pointing to a directory which no longer exists as the RAMDisk has a different letter assignment now to when I first created it. So I have changed the directory to the new location and it seems to have worked. Is that the right fix?

    Thanks.

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  3. Anonymous
    2012-01-07T16:01:08+00:00

    I am only running a 4GB RAMDisk, will that be sufficient for moving both of the directories to it?

    I am using DataRAM's utility which has an image save function so I can save and load the image of the RAMDisk on shutdown and startup. Would it be better to run it in that manner?

    Thanks

    Yes, even a 200 MB RAMDisk is perfect for Temp directories.

    Regarding your second question, I would recommend not using that utility. You lose the biggest advantage of moving Temp directories to a RAMDisk - automatic clearing. The temp folders do not contain anything important. They are just a temporary location where applications can save log files, installation files and other not important data. This data should be cleared on a regular-basis and using a RAMDisk is best for this job as useless data is cleared on every restart.

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  4. Anonymous
    2012-01-07T13:32:11+00:00

    Thanks so much for that!Exactly what I needed to know.

    I tried moving the C:\Users*username*\AppData\Local\Temp since asking the question and it has worked fine. I didn't realise there was the other one in the C:\Windows\Temp directory so I will try that now.

    A couple more questions though.

    I am only running a 4GB RAMDisk, will that be sufficient for moving both of the directories to it?

    I am using DataRAM's utility which has an image save function so I can save and load the image of the RAMDisk on shutdown and startup. Would it be better to run it in that manner?

    Thanks

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