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the system . If you have disabled your swap file, then leave at least 4GB to
5GB for the system to avoid out of memory errors. You can then assign the rest of your RAM to the RAMdisk.
(A quicker way to get there is to type Task at the search bar of your START button and the shorcut to the scheduler will appear on top).
Run it and click Task Scheduler Library on the left pane. Don't select any of the subfolders under that name, just click the name itself. Right-click on the right pane and
select "Create Task". Make it look like the screenshot below and click OK - don't forget to change the number 25000 to whatever RAMdisk size in megabytes you are
configuring for your own system, and to also enter a description if you want to.
NOTE: Your own user name will be next to the Author field, and also next to the Change User Or Group button. I have erased my own details from the screenie below to
avoid confusion:
Select the Triggers tab next and click New. Make it like the following screenie, and click OK:
Select the Actions tab next and click New. Make it like the following screenie. Not all arguments are visible in the above picture, so I am supplying examples below:
On the Add Arguments (optional) field, paste the command structure as it is on the two examples below. The 25000 number should be changed to your desired
RAMdisk size, which should be a number lower or equal to the total size of your RAM minus 3GB. This will ensure that Windows has 3GB left to use. For
example, if you only have 4GB of RAM then you should create a RAMdisk of around 1000MB. In this case just change the 25000M parameter to 1000M. You can also
choose a different file system, and also change the letter assigned to your new RAMdisk (make sure you don't specify a letter that is already in use by Windows for another
device).
For example, for a 1000MB RAMdisk using the exFAT file system and having the letter R assigned to it:
-a -s 1000M -m R: -p "/fs:exFAT /q /y"
Or, for a 1000MB RAMdisk using NTFS and having the letter Z assigned to it:
-a -s 1000M -m Z: -p "/fs:NTFS /q /y"
After defining your desired arguments as described above, leave Task Scheduler open. Just miminize its window, we'll get back to it in a minute. At this point you have to
make sure that your computer is configured to show file extensions. If it is not then go to the Control Panel, first, run the Folder Options applet, and under the View tab
make sure to remove the tick from the Hide extensions for known file types box. Apply and OK the change, then close Control Panel and run Windows Explorer. Navigate
to the root of your C: drive, create an empty notepad text file there, and name it ImDisk TEMP FOLDER.txt. Open it and paste the following lines in it:
@echo off
R:
mkdir TEMP
label R: RAMDISK
On the above lines you can change the drive letter; just make sure it is the same letter as the one you used earlier in Task Scheduler, and of course you can also
change the label to a different one, again making sure that the label you choose is short.
Save the text file, close it, and change its extension to .bat. Windows will warn you about changing the extension, you can ignore this and proceed with the change. Now
you should have a file called ImDisk TEMP FOLDER.bat at the root of your C: partition.
Go back to the Task Scheduler (which you had left open and minimized before), and under Actions click New once more. This time make it look like this:
Also make sure that the RAMdisk creation action that we created earlier is on top, with the .bat action under it.
Click OK and you're done! Now a RAMdisk with the size, file system, drive letter and label of your choice will be automatically initialized every time you start your
computer, and a TEMP folder will also be auto-created in it. REMEMBER, ANYTHING RESIDING IN YOUR RAMDISK WILL BE LOST WHEN YOU
REBOOT; SO YOU SHOULD NEVER STORE ANY IMPORTANT DATA ON THE RAMDISK THAT YOU HAVEN'T ALSO SAVED ELSEWHERE. You can
also configure an image file to be saved/loaded at each shutdown/restart but this can seriously increase your system's startup and shutdown times; so I recommend
saving/loading an image manually, and only when it is really needed. You can save an image file from the ImDisk applet in the Control Panel, or just by right-clicking on
the RAMdisk itself.
You can now change the default TEMP folder that Windows uses to the RAMdisk TEMP folder. If you do this program installations will fly, and you will be saving your C:
drive from a lot of unnecessary hits. To do this right-click on My Computer icon and select Properties. On the top left of the next window click Advanced System Settings
and click the Environment Variables button at the bottom. Change both top variables to R:\TEMP as shown in the picture below:
Remember to scroll down the lower pane under System Variables and find the TEMP and TMP variables again, make sure those two are set to R:\TEMP as well.
You can also specify your web browser's temporary folders to reside in the RAMdisk. You have to go to your browser's options and change the location of its temporary
folder accordingly. If you choose to do this just make sure you don't try to download any files larger than the capacity of your RAMdisk.
A user can also create simple batch files to automate the creation of specific folders on the RAMdisk, and also the copying of files or folders to the RAMdisk on every
startup. The syntax is very simple. In this example I just create a copy of my Skyrim game folder from drive D: to the RAMdisk (assuming that the letter has been assigned
to the RAMdisk):
@ECHO OFF
TIMEOUT 30
MD "R:\The Elder Scrolls V - Skyrim"
xCOPY "D:\##\The Elder Scrolls V - Skyrim" "R:\The Elder Scrolls V - Skyrim" /K /E /H /O /F
I have set this batch file to delay execution of its commands for 30 seconds after it is ran using the TIMEOUT command. The reason for this is that we don't want this batch
file to run before the Scheduled Task that creates the RAMdisk itself. I left 30 seconds to elapse which is more than sufficient for my system, change that value to what is
best for your own system. You can interrupt the timer and execute the commands immediately by pressing a key. Or, instead of specifying a command for the delay on the
batch file you could create a new Scheduled Task for this batch file and set the new task to run with a delay. Use the MD command and supply the paths for the folders you
want to create, then use xCOPY to copy your files/folders over. Save it as a batch file and make a shortcut for it at C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start
Menu\Programs\Startup in order for it to auto-execute with every reboot.
RAMdisk speeds will vary drastically from system to system, depending on its generation, hardware configuration, RAMdisk software used, as well as the size of the
RAMdisk itself. Here's some ImDisk benches on my X79 system:
http://thessdreview.com/Forums/software/2822.htm
Enjoy!
renosablast Guest
Will the presence of software such as FanchyCache (disabled) have any effect on being able to
create a RAMdisk, or do I need to remove this software enitrely first?
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Stickied...and thanks. I will try this at some point.
OS-Wiz Guest
Is there a version of ramdisk that saves what was on the ramdisk at shutdown and restores it at boot
up? This would seem to be a key feature, would it not?
Bad_Machine Guest
OS-Wiz said: ↑
Is there a version of ramdisk that saves what was on the ramdisk at shutdown and restores it at boot
up? This would seem to be a key feature, would it not?
There is a way to load an image, have a look at the first post here:
It's a shame that Olof, (the author of this software) hasn't added more options to it as it has a lot of
potential. A wizard to guide users into creating a RAMdisk and saving/loading an image would have
been nice, but hey, it's free, so I'm not complaining. I haven't used the image functionality myself as
I have no need for it. Other users have asked the same thing as Wiz and the author responded.
Apparently there is a way to auto-load and auto-save an image but it's not so straightforward. Look
here:
http://reboot.pro/6351/
http://diddy.boot-land.net/firadisk/files/imdisk.htm
BTW, Primo allows you to save and load an image file automatically, but then again it can't create
an exFAT RAMdisk - with Primo it had to be FAT32 or NTFS - and it is not free either. I don't know
if Romex have included exFAT in the latest version as I haven't tried it yet. The problem I have had
with Primo is its activation process which may be OK for most users who will just install it once,
activate it and leave it at that, but not for me, not the way I use my computer. I never include any
3rd party software on my basic clean backup, so everytime I restore it and install Primo again I will
have to go online to activate. I don't want to have to do this since at that point my computer has no
firewall or antivirus software installed, but even if I do how many times they will allow me to do
this with a single license??? If I try to activate again and again on a fresh Primo install on the same
restored system, I'm pretty sure it will not be accepted.
Romex can provide you with an offline activation file, but this is specific to a single install only. No
good for me when I switch between disk snapshots and backups all the time. Every time I restore
my backup or revert to a pre-Primo snapshot and want to install the latest Primo version I will have
to contact them again (from another PC if I have no firewall/AV installed at that point) and give
them the specific installation code which varies with each install, then wait a few days for them to
send me the new activation file. Not good. Also, how many times will they allow me to activate my
single PC license? I just wish their activation process was less cumbersome and that it allowed users
the ability to install multiple times on the same machine after multiple system restores. One
activation file that would work for that specific hardware configuration regardless how many times
you install the thing. It can't be that hard to implement. The fact that you need a new activation file
every single time because it is valid for a single install only is a major pain for me. It's far too much
hassle, so I have now switched to ImDisk.
Sean Guest
If you just need a RAM Disk up to 4GB, the Dataram RAMDisk utility offers this load/save ability
in its freeware version:
For over 4GB, the utility costs $15. As far as I can tell, it does not require online activation, e.g.
going by its FAQ, it just requires the license file to be placed in its installation directory to unlock
the 4GB limit.
FiftyOne Guest
OS-Wiz said: ↑
Is there a version of ramdisk that saves what was on the ramdisk at shutdown and restores it at boot
up? This would seem to be a key feature, would it not?
One way to do it would be run a sync script with a hdd or something. It really only needs to mirror
every now & again (I use goodsync & set the interval however I like) then set it to restore on restart
Buckeye Guest
I wonder if it would be possible to create RAM disk on boot then install Win 7 into the RAM disk
and have it image so you can actually run Win 7 from RAM.
With SB-E systems I just finished a system with 32gb RAM which would be more then enough to
install Win 7. Then put your apps on SSD etc.
I think that might be some what limiting tho. Wait until Dual CPU systems come out where you can
double that RAM or have even more.
Sean Guest
In theory, this should be possible if someone created a boot-loader that automatically loads the disk
image in RAM prior to starting the boot process. It could then monitor any any writes to the
RAMDisk, so they are automatically written to the disk image file.
The main catch I see is the duration it takes to load this image into RAM during boot. For example,
if the SSD can sustain 400MB/s and the RAMDisk image is 24GB, then it would take just over 60
seconds to load this in RAM before the OS can start to boot. So while the OS will fly when booted,
the user will be faced with a HDD-like boot time.
Another thing I wonder is just how much faster the OS itself will run on a RAMDisk than with the
SSD. Once Windows has booted, only a handful of system files are accessed during use, such as
Windows updates, loading certain DLL files when an application launches, etc.
So in my opinion, I think it would be better to run the OS from SSD, but install frequently used
applications to the RAMDisk, especially disk-intensive applications that would further benefit from
RAM as well as move the Temp, Temporary Internet files, etc. directories to the RAM disk as
explained earlier in this post.
I have also benched Dataram RAMdisk a while ago, it is a good app but not as fast as Primo or
ImDisk. Primo's Direct IO access driver is the fastest so far with ImDisk a very close second, but in
truth you probably won't notice the difference unless you time the tranfer of very large files
renosablast Guest
Got this set up and running now. Moved temp files to the RAMDisk, and web pages are loading
VERY fast now. Only problem I am noticing so far is that Windows Media Player is unable to paly
wmv files attached to e-mails.
-
Got the Windows Media Player thing fixed. Had nothing to do with the RAMdisk; merely
coincidental timing. Was a failed Realtek Audio driver update.
Bad_Machine Guest
Sean said: ↑
In theory, this should be possible if someone created a boot-loader that automatically loads the disk
image in RAM prior to starting the boot process. It could then monitor any any writes to the
RAMDisk, so they are automatically written to the disk image file.
The main catch I see is the duration it takes to load this image into RAM during boot. For example,
if the SSD can sustain 400MB/s and the RAMDisk image is 24GB, then it would take just over 60
seconds to load this in RAM before the OS can start to boot. So while the OS will fly when booted,
the user will be faced with a HDD-like boot time.
Another thing I wonder is just how much faster the OS itself will run on a RAMDisk than with the
SSD. Once Windows has booted, only a handful of system files are accessed during use, such as
Windows updates, loading certain DLL files when an application launches, etc.
So in my opinion, I think it would be better to run the OS from SSD, but install frequently used
applications to the RAMDisk, especially disk-intensive applications that would further benefit from
RAM as well as move the Temp, Temporary Internet files, etc. directories to the RAM disk as
explained earlier in this post.
Click to expand...
I thought about this myself in the past, a boot sector resident driver that can load and save a
Windows image in RAM. But as you said Sean the benefits would be questionable once Windows
has loaded, and frankly most people wouldn't really notice the difference between an app loading
from a fast SSD or from RAM.
Gald you got it working Renos. Have you found what was causing the problem?
renosablast Guest
Bad: Once I created the <.txt> notepad file under 'run as administrator', you cannont get back into it
as administrator to change the exrtension. I simply saved it as <.bat> file immediately after creation
under 'run as administrator' and everything went a-ok. Apparently, under older versions of
Windows, this had to be done in two separate steps; but under Windows7 it can be combined as one
step.
Atom333 Guest
Thanks fro a concise writeup on ImDisk. However, I'm curious as to why you chose exFat over the
others. I'm sure you have your reasons and I just want to learn more about it.
Bad_Machine Guest
Atom333 said: ↑
Thanks fro a concise writeup on ImDisk. However, I'm curious as to why you chose exFat over the
others. I'm sure you have your reasons and I just want to learn more about it.
Welcome to the forum Atom333! I've ran benchmarks with both NTFS and exFAT. On my machine
numbers were improved by an average of 8% to 10% when exFAT was used.
Sean Guest
The extra overhead with NTFS likely has an effect also. Every time a read/write is made with an
NTFS volume, the OS needs to check if the user has the appropriate permissions to do so, which
includes inherited permissions from parent directories and whether auditing needs to be carried out
also. Like FAT32, exFAT does not support permissions, which means that read/write operations are
not delayed by these checks.
Sean, Feb 28, 2012
#18
Bad_Machine Guest
I'm very pleased to say that I have posted a link to this guide at the ImDisk forum, and I got very good comments from Olof Lagerkvist, the writer of ImDisk. He will now
link this guide to the programs' official page and also at the FAQ of their forum.
http://reboot.pro/17255/
OS-Wiz Guest