Portable Memory Sticks

Using a flash drive as extra memory. Is it the same as adding actual memory sticks?

I saw on a video a simple way to add memory to your XP machine. Using a flash drive, and either use some or all of the flash memory. Is it the same as adding memory sticks, or is it different? I have an 8gb flash drive. How much more memory would i put in my machine, if i were to use that as the extra memory? Would it be 8gb? I don't think my machine could handle more than 2gb if i added memory sticks. Please clarify this. Is it adding memory, or just virtual memory?

Public Comments

1. its virtual memory. your processor will have a limit as to how much ram it can actually use. also, flash memory is slower than normal slotted memory. id say give it a go and see how it runs :)
2. no
3. yes
4. i think the highest a flash drive can fit is 15 gb, and those are pretty expensive, my external drive can fit 300 gb but its pretty big
5. bullsh.. a pendrive or a CF drive are never any memory add ons. They are storage devices. You can not increase ram or speed up anything in your machine with a pendrive or a Flashdrive. A storage device is made to store files you want to secure in another place then your computer or you want to carry around and copy elsewhere. If you have a device that takes 8 Gb you will have some 7.6 GB of storage where you can put files, nothing more, nothing less and what you do with those files is irrelevant. Flasdrives in CF format go up to 100GB in size, SD drives up to 32GB
6. You can use Flash media to add to your OS resources. This can be done in Vista and XP. There is a cap to the memory you can add in terms of the total listed OS balance. XP and 32 bit Vista can only read and report 3 gigs of RAM to your system viewer. 64 bit OS's are much higher. Recommendations on using Flash Media to "increase" the resource pool hinges on a few things: If you already have less RAM then you need. Consider having about 512mb and running vista: I recommend adding more physical RAM rather then virtual. The speed will be considerably slower. Digital/virtual RAM will not buffer or process it's contents as quick as physical. ALSO: using Flash memory in your system WILL subsequently slow your USB hub down and limit the power remainder. So it is best to add Virtual ram in quality, NOT quantity. Add an 8 gig, not four 2 gigs. Also remember all Windows Based OS's use the Page filing system. Regardless of how much Virtual RAM you have: you're only going to process as quick as the L2 cache on your processor.