Does RAM clear itself after reboot?

Question

Does the computer RAM clear irself completely after a reboot, weither it is software reboot or hardware reboot?

What I meant was, is the data stored in the physical memory still accessible in any way after a reboot?

Some say yes some say no, i would tend to believe that it might stay in the memory if the power isnt physically restarted but i cant seem to find confirmation of this

Answer 1

I think that on the hardware side of RAM, it is not cleared simply by rebooting, as power is still getting to the the RAM. The only way to be completely sure it is clear is to turn the power off for around 30 seconds.

Just to add to this, and to confirm that technically, on the hardware level, RAM is not cleared by just a reboot.

On some computers (never seen it on a PC) you can create what is know as a Ram Disk. This uses a part of the RAM, and treats it like a disk. Data can be stored in this, and accessed really quickly. The data will even survive a reboot, so is usefull for storing commonly used things, that need to be accessed at high speed, but obviously not for permenant things, as they are lost on power down.

One computer that I know does this is the Amiga. There may be more.

Just a bit of more info I got from a quick search.

A link to an interesting article related to this issue

http://www.dmacattack.com/blog/2004/11/08/is-your-data-vulnerable-due-to-ram/

Answer 2

RAM is cleared on shutdown. Software is reloaded on reboot. The program Autoruns from www.sysinternals.com will show you exactly what loads.

Answer 3

Hoover the spiders out of the case, the fans and the CPU heatsink. That'll help with the 100% CPU reboot problem. Others have already suggested answers to your HDD / Memory problem.

Answer 4

Yes, the information in RAM goes away.

Answer 5

Yes. It does.

Answer 6

yeah