Abstract: Determining and using the ideal size of memory to be transferred from high speed memory to a low speed memory may result in speedier saves to the low speed memory and a longer life for the low speed memory.

Abstract: A delay of starting up of certain applications may result in improving the overall performance of a system. The applications to be delayed may be placed in a container object or box such that they can be tracked and that other applications dependent on the delayed applications can be appropriately handled.

Abstract: The invention is directed towards a system and method that utilizes external memory devices to cache sectors from a rotating storage device (e.g., a hard drive) to improve system performance. When an external memory device (EMD) is plugged into the computing device or onto a network in which the computing device is connected, the system recognizes the EMD and populates the EMD with disk sectors. The system routes I/O read requests directed to the disk sector to the EMD cache instead of the actual disk sector. The use of EMDs increases performance and productivity on the computing device systems for a fraction of the cost of adding memory to the computing device.