Free Ramdisk for Windows Vista, XP, 2000 and 2003 Server

  1. Parameters registry is

    HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\RRamdisk\Parameters\

    Why RRamdisk? Because XP SP1 contain a Ramdisk driver for XP Embeded.

  2. Parameter: DiskSizeM, DiskSizeK

    Your desired disk size, the unit is M bytes or K bytes. The DiskSizeK has higher priority.

  3. Parameter: MediaType

    The reported drive type:

    1 — RAM Drive
    2 — Fixed Media (default)
    3 — Removable Media
    4 — Floppy Diskette

  4. Parameter: DriveLetter

    Name say it is, default is R:

  5. Parameter: SectorsPerCluster

    Your desired cluster size, zero for driver pickup:

    <= 2M FAT12, cluster=512
    <= 32M FAT16, cluster=512
    <= 64M FAT16, cluster=1k
    <= 128M FAT16, cluster=2k
    <= 256M FAT16, cluster=4k
    <= 512M FAT32, cluster=2k
    <= 16G FAT32, cluster=4k
    and more...

    You can specify smaller cluster size, force pre-format as FAT32.

  6. Parameter: Image

    Maintained by rdutil utlilty, mainly for preload NTFS image. Eg:

    1. Load ramdisk, don’t write anything.
    2. Format the ramdisk

      FORMAT /FS:NTFS /Q /V:RamDisk /A:512 R:

    3. Adjust logfile to minimum size

      CHKDSK /L:2048 R:

    4. Reset access rights

      CACLS R:\ /G: BUILTIN\Adminstrators:F

    5. Create necessary structure

      MKDIR R:\TEMP

    6. Pack the disk image and save to registry

      rdutil R: registry

    Notes:

    1. You should leave RamDisk as clean as possible before packing, the max packed image size is 64K.
    2. The disk image only valid to same RamDisk size, you should re-create disk image when size changed.
    3. The driver internal formater will disable if this registry present, corrupt/size-mismatch value leave an un-formated disk.

    rdutil Utlility Usage:

    1. Backup registry image

      rdutil save filename

    2. Restore registry image

      rdutil load filename

    3. Report packed image size

      rdutil R:
      rdutil registry
      rdutil unpacked_file

      Second command reading DriveLetter from registry, while the third is packing an unpacked image file.

    4. Packing image & save to registry

      rdutil R: registry

    5. Packing image & save to file

      rdutil R: packed_file

    6. Unpacking image

      rdutil unpack packed_file unpacked_file

    7. Link NTFS junction to Ramdisk

      rdutil link temp \

  7. You can re-format RamDisk except RAMDrive media type. Eg:

    FixedMedia type:
    FORMAT /FS:NTFS /FORCE /Q /V:RamDisk /A:512 R:

    RemovableMedia type:
    ECHO Y | FORMAT /FS:NTFS /FORCE /Q /V:RamDisk /A:512 R:

    You can place your format command to startup script. I don’t recommend re-format to FAT, the pre-formated RamDisk is more efficient than other format utililty.

  8. Pagefile support – You can set pagefile to FixMedia type disk w/ pre-formated system. If you need other MediaType or re-format, use the addswap.exe utility:

    addswap r:\pagefile.sys 16 32

    Create pagefile r:\pagefile.sys with min=16M max=32M.

  9. TEMP directory – You should set TEMP/TMP directory to TEMP sub-directory, don’t use the root directory.
  10. NTFS junction point to RAMDrive – You can’t create NTFS junction point to RAMDrive media type, Fixed & Removable Media type should work.
  11. Connectix VirtualPC compatibility – Someone report problem with VirtualPC+physical volume/disk. Please set MediaType to RAMDrive/Removable.
  12. Mountpoint without DriveLetter

    Clear DriveLetter registry value will not create Drive Letter for Ramdisk.

    Attn. Don’t delete the DriveLetter registry, which fall to default R:. You can setup mountpoint/junction linking to this unnamed Ramdisk. Eg:

    rdutil link C:\ramdisk
    link C:\ramdisk to root of Ramdisk

    rdutil link C:\TEMP TEMP
    link C:\TEMP to \TEMP at Ramdisk

    rmdir C:\ramdisk
    rmdir can remove the link without clear target content

    NoDriveLetter configuration isn’t recommended, because most AntiVirus software cannot realtime scan Volume w/o Drive Letter.

Pages: 1 2

130 Responses to “Free Ramdisk for Windows Vista, XP, 2000 and 2003 Server”

Pages: 1 ... 4 5 6

  1. Speeding up build times in ASP.NET with RamDisk : Wagner Danda Weblog
    November 13th, 2009 03:50
    130

    [...] using a free implementation that can be found here. You can follow these steps for a details explanation of this tool and installation [...]

  2. Kirk Enston
    November 11th, 2009 03:56
    129

    Strinzi, did you have a closer look at BootLand thread (all posts) mentioned in my post from Nov-08?

  3. strinzi
    November 10th, 2009 07:24
    128

    I get a failed msg. under vista 64 with admin rights. I cant install the driver…..

    Gavotte_RAMDisk_1.0.4096.5_200811130

  4. Kirk Enston
    November 9th, 2009 19:25
    127

    Two tips for new users of this forum.

    1) When you submit a new post, it will appear immediately, but at the top of the page and not at the bottom.

    2) Do not include URL links in your post. They will initially appear in full, but will be later deleted. I guess this is done to keep the thread clean of those viagra links and other garbage.

    Links to screenshots ending with .png are apparently allowed, at least for now.

  5. Kirk Enston
    November 8th, 2009 19:06
    126

    Ying, google “BootLand Gavotte’s RRamdisk, New version is out” then look for post #36, the zip file is at the bottom.

Pages: 1 ... 4 5 6

Leave a Reply

You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

Subscribe to comments feature has been disabled. To receive notification of latest comments posted, subscribe to My Digital Life Comments RSS feed or register to receive new comments in daily email digest.

New Articles

Incoming Search Terms for the Article

ramdisk - ram disk - ramdisk xp - Gavotte Ramdisk download - ramdisk vista - Free Ramdisk - windows ramdisk - gavotte ramdisk - ramdisk.sys - windows ram disk - qsoft ramdisk - ramdisk windows 7 - xp ramdisk - rramdisk - ram disk windows xp - windows xp ramdisk - ramdisk free - ram disk windows - ramdisk download - ramdisk windows xp - free ram disk - ram drive vista - ram disk software - ram disk xp - ram disk drive - ramdisk for vista - ram disk windows 7 - ram drive xp - ramdisk windows - windows xp ram disk - ramdisk.sys download - virtual ram disk - ramdisk software - ramdisk.exe - ramdisk vista 64 - ram disk vista - ram disk free - ramdisk xp free - vista ramdisk - xp ram disk - windows ram drive - ramdisk windows 2003 - ramdrive vista - windows 7 ramdisk - free ram drive - free ramdisk software - ram disk - all - free ramdisk windows 7 - windows 7 ram disk - ramdisk for xp - xp ram drive - ramdisk.zip - gavotte ramdisk 64 bit - ramdisk for windows - ramdrive free - windows xp ram drive - windows 2003 ram drive - create a ramdisk in vista - ramdisk - freeware ramdrive - qsoft ramdisk download - ram disk download - ramdisk freeware - ramdrive windows xp - vista ram drive - gavotte ram disk - ramdrive windows 7 - ramdisk xp freeware - ramdisk - ramdrive xp - RAM DISK FOR xp - vista ram disk - windows vista ramdisk - cenatek ramdisk -