Computer Hardware Terms, Glossary and Dictionary

A RAM disk, ramdisk or RAMdrive is a segment of active computer memory, RAM, which is being used as secondary storage, typically a role for a disk drive. Access times are greatly improved, because RAM disks are approximately a thousand times faster than hard disk drives. However, durability of data through power loss is completely absent, because they are made of normal volatile RAM. As a result, RAM disks lose their contents once the computer is turned off. RAM disks are great places to store temporary data or to hold uncompressed programs for short periods.

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RAM disk