Ram drive and ready boost

[pegasis]

I created a 4GB ram drive and had the software
use a write backup image to the HD on shut down, and read it on start up.

this is to save the data that was in the Ram drive

This seemed to slow the shut down, and start up process 🙁

my next thought is to put the backup image on an USB 3.0 stick in the MB external port, and save the backup image to that drive

I also want to make that USB drive a ready boost drive, and have the back up and ready boost files on it

Is it better to have the USB 3.0 stick plugged into the MB external USB port, or to have it on a PCI USB 3.0 USB port which way is faster?

the goal is to have the OS boot quicker without using an SSD drive

 

[rumpleforeskin]

You could use HD tune to determine if there is a speed difference.
http://www.hdtune.com/


You may well hit the limit of the flash drive before the USB3 interface depending on the make/model.

Edit:
If you want the OS to boot quicker consider suspend to ram.

 

[John Connor]

Why would moving the IMG to USB make the Comp. boot quicker? You just slowed down the loading of the IMG data. If it's on the HDD it would be faster. Ready boost is for systems with low RAM.

What RAM drive software are you using?

I would get one of these or a SSD.

 

[pegasis]

The slowest thing in the computer is the read/write speed on the HDD

I am using the software Ramdisk

 

[Topweasel]

The slowest thing in the computer is the read/write speed on the HDD

I am using the software Ramdisk

Pegasis

What you probably need to understand better is that you HDD is going to be a bajillion times faster than most "thumb drives".

Even some of the fastest thumb drives aren't as fast as most 3.5" 7200RPM HDD's at reading. At writing they are even worse. You most reasonable bet is about 100MB/s reads and 30MB/s writes. What makes them great as a "ready boost" option is that reads are pretty good overall and there is no seek time which is punishing if your swap file is on an HDD.

But the reading of a RAMdrive at boot up and writing of it when shutting down is all sequential work. So their is no benefit to having it stored on a thumb drive. You have to remember that an SSD has basically an internal RAID array of several memory chips to reach the performance they do. Even then once they get away from the prime chip amount on the smaller drives (~128 and ~256 drives) write performance especcially takes a huge hit. Take a look at the write performance of a 128GB Evo (without the rapid perks) or a M500. Barely ahead of an HDD.

So the question is what are you storing on a 4GB RAMdrive? Are you sure whatever small amount of information your storing their is better served on a RAMdrive than keeping that memory available for the application itself? Have you thought about getting an SSD? A very flexible, very fast, and cheap 480GB M500 runs about $220 (130 for a 256GB M550 and $80 for a 128GB M550(must get the M550 at 480GB> as they use more chips with less capacity to keep performance high)), that's pretty fantastic. I think you would find that an SSD would be a great balance and knowing the other headroom an app or game would have there would be little difference in performance.

Again to reitterate. RAMdrive = 12GB/s, SSD = 500MB/s read 450MB/s writes, 7200RPM = 150MB/s reads 125MB/s writes, Thumb Drive = 100MB/s reads 30MB/s writes.

If all 4GB's is used this would be the difference in start up time. SSD= 8s, HDD= 26s, Thumb drive =40s. Again all 4GB used this would be the difference in shut down time. SSD= 9s, HDD= 32s, Thumb drive=133s (also known as 2+ minutes).

 

[pegasis]

Thanks for the info Very useful stuff 🙂

I wish this info was readily available on the internet somewhere

Basically I was trying to speed up my computer boot up trying different things. make it as fast as possible

SSD HD is a concern because I already upgraded my computer to windows 8.1;

the OS, apps and data are all on one 1.5 TB drive that I clone to an identical drive once a week (too big to buy (2) 1.5 TB SSD HDs)

I would need to migrate windows 8.1 to an ssd hd,
and put the apps on another SSD HD,

then use the (2) 7200 RPM drives as data storage and clone one to another weekly.

This looks like the best solution given the configuration I have for data cloning.

I don't like raid; as a virus on one drive is quickly written to another,
negating the purpose of an emergency backup drive :O

 

[Topweasel]

So many problems with your process I don't know where to start.

But that still doesn't answer the main question, what are you using the RAMdrive for? Does it really need to be on a RAMdrive.

As for a transition to an SSD. You have the information already sitting on a second drive right? If so just delete all the non-essential information from the drive before imaging it on onto an SSD and then re-clone the HDD from the second drive. Pretty simple work really.

I would reevaluate your backup procedures. Besides the distaste for RAID based on small situation, your backup scheme isn't well thought out. Instead of cloning the two drives at random increments, you would be better of doing an incremental image of one drive stored on the other. That way if you get infected an you don't know it right away you can go back several days or weeks or months to before the infection. This works really well with high compression image file as you can then store a lot more "backups" on the second disc.

But if you got an SSD it would be simpler. Don't copy anything to the other drives till you are confident it isn't a virus. You could also create a backup routine I noted above and have it saved on the other discs. It would take a fraction of the storage and it's the OS and Software that gets infected. A drive doesn't get infected it just has dangerous files stored on it. You can delete those at any time.

Also I find that 98% of the time with virus's its about a person playing fast and loose with their internet travels. Paying attention and going with your gut feeling when something looks weird will stop most infections.

 

[pegasis]

You and I are very different

I don't just want data copied on a second drive, I want an emergency drive with no loss of data of more than 7-10 days old.

I have used my backup drive Many times, it works very well for me

Viruses are everywhere, even major websites,
and Malicious malware is everywhere also

Again, my system is pretty bullet proof for my uses.
I don't use backup compression, and I don't like offline backups.

I clone my HD, and put it away for safe keeping for 7 days.
Very simple.. clone and forget 🙂

 

[Topweasel]

You say bullet proof but then leave no room for an infection that you don't realize right away.

Also you don't need offline backups. You can for the last 8-10 years get software that will do online backups of the full system state.

Viruses aren't just everywhere. Gray area websites that use bad advertisers and seedy websites are the issue. I will not get infected going to Microsoft or Apple.com or by coming to Anandtech. Having an Antivirus and not running questionable files is going to resolve 90% of your issues.

But this comes off as very paranoid balanced with a bout of laziness by keeping a simple backup procedure that will only come in handy in 2 of like 30 different reason's someone would need a backup. If you have "recovered" by using this system than I think it probably are feeding your own paranoia. An online (meaning running windows) incremental backup of the full system state by something like TrueImage would give you all the protection you are talking about here, would cover your but if you missed a virus, and allow you to even recover accidental deletions (or deletions that were intentional but regretted later). Something you only have a 7 day window for. If it works for you fine. But about the only part of your plan that makes sense for data integrity is putting the drive in a safe when not using it. Even the distaste for compression on an image file (not stored data on a computer) tells me you are out of the loop on most backup options and that maybe you should reevaluate your whole procedure.

But really this continues to get away from the core issue. Your problem was Windows increasing start-up and shutdown time because of your 4GB RAMdrive. Is that still an issue for you, you never really mentioned what it was that was getting stored there?