I've got a high spec computer for video editing with a lot of RAM so I decided to install a RAM
disk. I have not noticed a significant increase in speed by using the RAM disk, however, I hope that
I will extend the lifetime of my SSD by moving some cache and temporary files to the RAM disk.
This video will show you how I set up a RAM disk and also how to move windows temp folders,
Google Chrome cache and Adobe Premiere media cache to the RAM disk.
I decided to use ImDisk Toolkit which includes a RAM disk.
I chose it because it has the ability to backup the files on the RAM disk when you shut down
and then reload the RAM disk when you next start up your computer.
I have a lot of RAM and ImDisk allows you to set up a large
RAM disk - much larger than I actually require. You can download ImDisk Toolkit from Sourceforge
at the address shown at the top of the screen. After installation you will have three icons
added to your desktop. Double-click the RamDisk Configuration icon.
On the Basic tab you will need to set up the size of the RAM disk that you want to set up.
In my situation, I want a 16GB RAM disk. Ensure that Launch at Windows Startup is also ticked.
You can also define a different drive letter and file system
if required but I left these as default.
On the Advanced tab I left everything as the default.
The RAM disk will lose everything that is saved onto it when your computer is shut down. On the
Data tab if you tick the Synchronize at System Shutdown tick box your RAM disk's contents will
automatically be saved to a folder that you specify during the shutdown process. When
you restart your computer the contents of the RAM disk will be reloaded from the specified folder.
Saving the RAM disk will obviously extend the shutdown time and reloading the RAM disk
will extend the restart time of your computer. The Windows cache and the Chrome cache that I
will be saving on the RAM disk will be rebuilt automatically by Windows and Chrome so those
caches do not actually need to be saved. I've therefore excluded the folders where these caches
will be saved by typing the name of each of the folders on a new line in the excluded folders box.
The only cache that I actually need to save is the Adobe Premiere Pro media cache.
For a big editing job it can take a lot of time for the cache to be rebuilt when you open the file
so it's quicker to save the media cache and reload it when the computer is restarted.
Double check that you've typed the names of the folders correctly
and then hit OK. ImDisk will then mount the new RAM disk on your system.
This takes over 30 seconds on my computer. I've left this in real time in the video just to
reassure you that it's not your just your system if it takes as long on your system.
So you have to bear with it and just be patient
until finally Windows pops up a message saying that you need to format the drive.
You actually don't need to do anything with this window. You will very shortly afterwards get the
Properties window for the new RAM disk. This shows that the RAM disk has actually been formatted.
You can therefore Cancel the format disk window and click OK on the Properties window.
You must click Exit on the ImDisk window do not click OK otherwise ImDisk will unmount and then
mount the RAM disk again. In File Manager you will see the new RAM disk with the disk letter R:
if it is still called local disk just Refresh and it will be renamed to RAM Disk.
If you open the RAM disk you will see that there is a Temp folder that ImDisk creates
automatically. You will now need to create a couple of empty folders for the Windows and
Premiere Pro media caches. The Windows Temp folder must have exactly the same name as you used in the
list of folders to exclude on the ImDisk Data tab. You now need to set up Windows to use the RAM
disk by right clicking on the Windows icon on your taskbar.
My preference is for the taskbar to be auto hidden on the right of the screen so I right click on
my Windows icon at the top right and then click System in the Windows 10 Settings screen. Click
on Advanced System Settings in the Advanced tab click the Environment Variables button which opens
up a window which allows you to change both the TEMP and the TMP environment variables. click on
TEMP and then edit. Click on Browse directory and select the Windows TEMP folder on your RAM disk.
Repeat this for the TMP variable. Click OK to confirm these changes.
You will then need to restart your computer to get Windows to use the RAM disk for both TEMP and TMP.
After you have restarted your computer you can check that Windows is using the RAM disk
by checking the contents of the Windows TEMP folder on the RAM disk using File Explorer.
If the folder is no longer empty and contains files and folders that look similar
to this with the modified date showing the current date then you have successfully
moved TEMP and TMP to your RAM disk. To move Premiere Pro's media cache
open up Premiere Pro and go to Edit > Preferences > Media Cache.
Change the location of the media cache files using the Browse button at the top of the window.
You can use this to select the correct folder on your RAM disk.
You will also need to change the media cache database. You can do this by clicking
the Browse button about a third of the way down the window. Select the same folder on
your RAM disk that you used for the media cache files. You will be given the option
to move the existing database which I used. After that has been done click OK to accept
the changes and Premiere Pro will now be using your RAM disk for cache files.
Remember that the Premiere Pro media cache files will be copied to disk when you shut down
so that when you restart the media cache files will be copied to your RAM disk. This is because
this folder on the RAM disk is not listed in the exclude folder list when I set up the RAM disk.
I do this to avoid long delays rebuilding the media cache when you start Premiere Pro.
It was more complicated to move Google Chrome's cache to the RAM disk.
I read a lot of websites which recommended setting up a symbolic link to the RAM disk.
The mklink command at the command prompt sets up the symbolic link from the normal cache folder
to the folder on the ram disk. The arrow on the folder icon shows that the link has been set up.
I then opened Chrome but with version 95 of Chrome the cache does not move to my RAM disk. Checking
in File Explorer the arrow on the folder icon has disappeared indicating that the symbolic
link no longer exists. Chrome appears to delete the symbolic link and replace it with a folder.
It is possible to add switches to the run command for chrome to control the location of Chrome's
cache. You can do this by clicking on the Google Chrome shortcut and in the target box add space
dash dash disk dash cache dash dir equals double quote R colon slash chrome space cache double
quote to the end of the existing text in the target box. Alternatively it's much easier
to copy the text from the YouTube description. This will only change that particular shortcut.
You will also need to change any other shortcuts - for example in the taskbar or start menu
that you use to run Chrome. Alternatively you may want to
edit the Registry. Personally, I try to avoid Registry edits unless it's absolutely necessary.
In my case it's not necessary to edit the Registry because I use AutoHotkey
to control the layout on my monitors and it also starts Chrome when I start up my computer.
I had to alter the command in my AutoHotkey script by adding the red text as shown on the screen.
If you use AutoHotkey you can copy this from the YouTube description.
One final point of interest is how to remove a RAM disk with ImDisk. Before you do this you
must change windows TEMP, Chrome and Premiere Pro caches back to their default locations.
Then you can double click on the ImDisk RAM disk configuration icon.
I've temporarily set up a second RAM disk on S: for this clip. Next click
the Unmount button next to the drive letter. ImDisk will then unmount the RAM disk. It notifies
you that it is doing this with a warning window at the top left of the screen and also a status at
the bottom of the RAM Disk Configuration window. ImDisk will pop up a window to ask if you want to
save an image file before unmounting. For this demo I clicked No. The disk is then unmounted.
File Manager shows this very quickly because the S: drive letter disappears. Then a few
seconds later the warning window at the top left disappears and the status shows done.
At this point you must click Exit. if you click OK the RAM disk will be mounted again.
I hope this video helps you using ImDisk to set up a RAM disk
and also with moving the Windows, Chrome and Premiere Pro caches to use the RAM disk