Today, we are gonna see how can you Use Memory Card or SD Card from your mobile as a RAM (Random Access Memory) in your Windows Machine or PC. This trick will work on all Windows XP/ 7/ 8/ 8.1/ 10 Desktop as well as Laptop computer having Readyboost installed by default.
Things you need:
- SD Card. Any SD Card will work. microSD, SD, etc.
- SD Card Adapter (You May Need it depending on your computer)
- SD Card Slot on your machine. Though you can use external SD card reader but I don’t recommend it.
- Windows 10/8.1/8/XP computer.
- Readyboost software. (Inbuilt)
- 5 minutes 🙂
I have 2GB memory card and dedicated all of it. I suggest you to do the same.
Follow the steps given below to use memory card as RAM in Windows 10/ 8.1/8/7 PC:
- Insert memory card in adapter (if needed)
- Insert that into your computer SD Card Slot.
- Backup important data from your Memory Card/ SD Card.
- Open ‘My Computer’ or ‘This PC’ depending on your version of Windows Operating System.
- After getting your SD card detected by Windows, Right Click your SD Card.
- Click Format.
- Keep the format as NTFS only.
- Format the Memory Card.
- After formatting, right click Memory Card drive and select properties.
- Click ‘Readyboost’ tab at upper left corner.
- If you are seeing ‘This device can not be used for readyboot’ then click test again. If you are still seeing same error, visit Tensbit for resolution.
- I recommend ‘Dedicate this device to readyboost option’.
It means whole device will be used by readyboost to improve your PCs performance. You won’t be able to use it for another tasks like storing files, movies, writing, etc. - Click OK.
- Then you will see the Memory Card drive fully filled.
- You are done!
You won’t see any noticable difference if you are using PC for regular tasks like web browsing, watching movies, writing articles, etc. But when it comes to heavy tasks like development, video editing, programming, high graphics gaming, you’ll notice difference. It may not be huge but you’ll notice some difference in performance!
Does Using Readyboost Help? Is Readyboost Worth it Windows 10, 7, XP, 8, 8.1?
I’m developing android apps on my Dell 3148 Windows 10 Laptop powered by Intel core i3, 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD. Before using my memory card as a RAM, I was constantly seeing my android studio (IDE for Android Development) was used to hang after few minutes of programming.
After installing readyboost, it stopped hanging. I won’t say its performing buttery smooth but there is definitely improvement in performance and most importantly it stopped freezing.
Important things to keep in mind while using your Memory Card/ SD Card as RAM in Windows 10/ 7/ 8/ 8.1/ XP
- Make sure you backup your Memory Card. Copy important data in your PC since you will be formatting your Card, you’ll be losing all of your data on memory card.
- Make sure you have uninterrupted power supply. Interrupt in power supply may damage your memory card.
- Choose best SD card for readyboost
I mean, fast. Make sure its fast enough to be able to perform fast enough. Don’t use slow cards else you won’t see the difference or may see negative difference. - Don’t forget to comment and share this article with your friends.
Great article on minor speed upgrade! It worked great on my Dell 5599, Core i5 7500U 2.50GHz Kaby Lake, 4gb, 1 TB, Ati R7 M440.
I’m glad I could help. Make sure you subscribe to get regular updates!
Bro After doing this if i don’t want my memory card as ram how to change it from ram to use it to store files,etc..
Right-click your memory card drive -> Properties -> Readyboost -> Just select ‘Do not use this device for readyboost’. You are done! 🙂 Just let me know if you have any other difficulty.
Hi Bro,
I am using blender software. During rendering operation It take long time to capture the picture. Its run on CPU. In my laptop there is no GPU. My ram size is 2 GB. If I change the My pendrive as a RAM, will the performance of the operation improve?
As I told you in the article, it should impact the performance of the operation positively but you may not notice the significant boost.
my blue stack apapplication refuse to work
Can you tell more details?
Thank you for your post Amey.
I took your advice using a 15GB Sandisk MicroSD card with adapter. I have an Acer Aspire XC-603G with 8GB of RAM and a 2TB & a 6TB WD MyBook drive on USB II & III respectively. I use Camtasia Studio 8 and Ableton Live 9 often. Before I started using ReadyBoost, both applications used to hang my PC, especially when compressing audio/video files. After using ReadyBoost, my PC rarely hangs. Even doing an audio/video compression WHILE surfing the net it doesn’t hang. I also noticed that defragmentation is considerably faster, and I didn’t change any of the settings for Auslogics DiskDefrag. Just my unbiased results. Thanks again Amey!
Ill be trying this today for some video editing. Will report back. PS do you recommend taping the slot up something so my kids dont pull it back out or what is actually gonna happen if it is pulled out?
If you pull it back out, your PC will use the same amount of memory which it was using before.
bro, do it work normally if we replace it again
Hi, this article sounds like a dream come true to me – however I have an issue: My ScanDisk MicroSD UHS-I Card does not have the inbuilt Ready boost software, so I’m stuck. Could it be that different locations just dont have this? – am in Germany.
Thanks in advance.
I should add, am using a:
– 32GB card
– Acer Switch 11 notebook with Win 8.1
I don’t think so windows is restricting that feature in Germany or country wise. Can you email me the screenshot when you go to properties of your MicroSD Card Drive? My Email ID is amey@technoclever.com
Would this work on Kindle Fire tablets?
I’m not sure. But still, you can try and let us know.
I have tried this but my Win10 laptop is not showing the readyboost tab. Don’t know if this need to be activited during BIOS/UEFI boot up
Just update your windows and let me know.
I decided to try your suggestion to give my HP laptop more memory and disregarding the 8 GB memory maximum for my laptop. I was suffering frequent slowdowns, very slow access to HDD and pages. My laptop was fairly under resourced with several MS applications running all the time and a large number of multiple web page tabs open and the only option was to buy another laptop which I refuse to do as this one works fine.
Inserting a new SD card and formatting it and dedicating it for ReadyBoost has made such a big difference to its performance. I added a 32 GB Ultra High Speed Class 10 SD card and it has done the job.
Thank you for posting this. It has saved me a lot of money having to buy a new laptop unnecessarily.
I’m glad I could help! Stay connected 🙂
On step 11: There is no such button, icon, or whatever to click on in my tablet running windows 7 on this screen which is supposed to be displaying the ReadyBoost tab!
i dont have the ready boost tab in my 8gb sd card
Hello Daniel! Make sure your Windows is updated.
So I did everything stated here, I encountered no problems, but when I go to look at how much RAM I have in the Control panel (Control Panel > System Security > System), it’s the exact same, is this supposed to happen? Is it just the amount on the computer itself? And if so, is there any way I can make 100% sure it’s there too? I’d assume if it updated the RAM on the computer it would count it regardless, any clarification is appreciated, thank you!
Hello Jay! I’m glad you followed the tutorial. You will not see any difference in the RAM via control panel. But you’ll surely see some increase in overall performance as I mentioned in the article.
Hope it helps. Stay connected 🙂
sir, my micro sd card is showing that it was write protected can you please help me sir
thank you in advance
Hey there, when I put my micro SD card into the adapter and the adapter into my computer, it shows it as a “New Folder” in my C drive instead of showing it desperate from my C drive. Is there a fix so I can still put the ram onto my computer? It’s a 128GB micro SD card.