Tutorial : Know about Ram Disk

sridatta · 16-02-2007, 08:18 PM

A RAM-Disk, Ramdisk or Ramdrive is a virtual solid state disk that uses a segment of active computer memory, RAM, as secondary storage, a role typically filled by hard drives. It allows you to create directories, copy files to and from it, etc.... Access times are greatly improved, because RAM is approximately a million times faster than hard drives. However, the volatility of RAM means that data will be lost if power is lost, e.g. when the computer is turned off. RAM disks can be used to store temporary data or hold uncompressed programs for short periods.

Believe me.. Any software that is installed on Ram Disk works with rocket speed... I installed Photoshop for trial..

A ramdisk can perfectly be used to store :

- web content of web servers
- temporary index files and tables of database servers
- temporary files ( TEMP and TMP environment variable ) and "Temporary Internet Files"
- the scratch disk for Adobe (R) Photoshop (R)
- games and programs in general (1), reloading parts and data occurs many times faster
- audio and video capture / editing
- creation and playback of slide shows
- data that has to be written to CD , to prevent underrun during the burn process
- all kinds of data that may be lost ( or MUST be lost for security reasons ) at shutdown

The installed software can also be reloaded automatically at boot time from an image file or by means of a backup program.

You can use any of the software to setup Ram disk on ur PC. Remember that you must have atleast 512 KB for nice performance although s/w vendors say 256 is sufficient.

Microsoft [sample] RAM DISK driver : (with source code!) for Win2k. I don't really recommend this unless you are a tweaker/developer. In its current form there is a maximum disk size of 32MB and unfortunately the new disk identifies it self as a "Ram Disk" -not- "hard disk" hence some applications may get confused and not see the disk. Also you have to change registry entries to configure it. The sample driver is good to learn how RAM Disks work however.

Ram disk9x / RamDiskNT : Whilst not free this software provides the richest feature set. There are lots of settings to optimize your Ram Disk including disk images. If you chose this software please read the documentation thoroughly as the various options are VERY powerful. Also it supports both the NT/2000/XP AND Win9x architecture.

RAMDisk for 2000/XP/2003 (and WinPE) : Freeware RAM DISK software based on Microsoft's sample driver but includes a graphical interface to easily change settings. Easy to install and the disk can be dynamically resized without a reboot. An extended version is available that allows for disks over 64MB and support for WinPE systems. The source for the standard version is also available.

Virtual Hard Drive : File and applications perform up to 340 time faster.Virtual Hard Drive Pro supports an unlimited amount of RAM.

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P.S : Pls post your queries and comments ...

EagerBeaver · 16-02-2007, 08:34 PM

ThankYou for the information. Do this RAM optimizer helps ?

sridatta · 16-02-2007, 09:44 PM

yes.. absolutely.. i tried by installing photoshop on the ramdisk which i created using Virtual Drive 10.. It works very faster than what u expect..
by da way.. its not ram optimiser.. Portion of the RAM is seperated as the disk and it cannot be used as Physical memory when u create a disk..

casanova · 16-02-2007, 11:24 PM

And wont this mean other apps have less ram to use as a portion is already dedicated to the RAM disk drive.

sridatta · 16-02-2007, 11:36 PM

yeah.. but.. if you wanna do something explicitly which require faster processing, then you can do this..

caleb · 18-02-2007, 07:28 PM

Nice tips...rep'd you.

But one question, I have 2GB ram and do quite a bit of video encoding and dowloding (linux distros) from the net so is that enough ram to try out what you are suggesting?