Free Ramdisk for Windows Vista, XP, 2000 and 2003 Server
- Parameters registry is
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\RRamdisk\Parameters\
Why RRamdisk? Because XP SP1 contain a Ramdisk driver for XP Embeded.
- Parameter: DiskSizeM, DiskSizeK
Your desired disk size, the unit is M bytes or K bytes. The DiskSizeK has higher priority.
- Parameter: MediaType
The reported drive type:
1 — RAM Drive
2 — Fixed Media (default)
3 — Removable Media
4 — Floppy Diskette - Parameter: DriveLetter
Name say it is, default is R:
- 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.
- Parameter: Image
Maintained by rdutil utlilty, mainly for preload NTFS image. Eg:
- Load ramdisk, don’t write anything.
- Format the ramdisk
FORMAT /FS:NTFS /Q /V:RamDisk /A:512 R:
- Adjust logfile to minimum size
CHKDSK /L:2048 R:
- Reset access rights
CACLS R:\ /G: BUILTIN\Adminstrators:F
- Create necessary structure
MKDIR R:\TEMP
- Pack the disk image and save to registry
rdutil R: registry
Notes:
- You should leave RamDisk as clean as possible before packing, the max packed image size is 64K.
- The disk image only valid to same RamDisk size, you should re-create disk image when size changed.
- The driver internal formater will disable if this registry present, corrupt/size-mismatch value leave an un-formated disk.
rdutil Utlility Usage:
- Backup registry image
rdutil save filename
- Restore registry image
rdutil load filename
- Report packed image size
rdutil R:
rdutil registry
rdutil unpacked_fileSecond command reading DriveLetter from registry, while the third is packing an unpacked image file.
- Packing image & save to registry
rdutil R: registry
- Packing image & save to file
rdutil R: packed_file
- Unpacking image
rdutil unpack packed_file unpacked_file
- Link NTFS junction to Ramdisk
rdutil link temp \
- 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.
- 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.
- TEMP directory - You should set TEMP/TMP directory to TEMP sub-directory, don’t use the root directory.
- NTFS junction point to RAMDrive - You can’t create NTFS junction point to RAMDrive media type, Fixed & Removable Media type should work.
- Connectix VirtualPC compatibility - Someone report problem with VirtualPC+physical volume/disk. Please set MediaType to RAMDrive/Removable.
- 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 Ramdiskrdutil link C:\TEMP TEMP
link C:\TEMP to \TEMP at Ramdiskrmdir C:\ramdisk
rmdir can remove the link without clear target contentNoDriveLetter configuration isn’t recommended, because most AntiVirus software cannot realtime scan Volume w/o Drive Letter.
Pages: 1 2
MDL blog postings now continue at Tip and Trick, and readers are welcome to join My Digital Life Forums.
Related Articles
- Download Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 for Free
- Windows Updates Downloader 2.25 Released for Free Download (WUD)
- Windows Server “Longhorn” Beta 3 Free Download
- Restore Windows NT Backup (ntbackup) .bkf in Vista and ‘Longhorn’ Server 2008
- Best and Worst Microsoft Products
- Restore Windows XP and 2003 .bkf Backups in Windows Vista and Longhorn Server with NT Backup Restore Utility
- Install Windows Server 2003 Administration Tools Pack (adminpak) on Windows Vista
- How to Install Recovery Console as NTLDR Boot Startup Option on Windows XP/2003/2000
- How to Install KMS Server to Activate Windows Vista Business or Enterprise
- Download Key Management Service (KMS Host) for Windows Server 2003
Pair of Samsung 225BWs, now running beautifully 
Entries (RSS)
February 27th, 2008 15:34
no
February 27th, 2008 14:47
Sorry, for typing error, it was ‘uninstalled’ in Window safe mode.
February 27th, 2008 14:45
Dear Robert, this program failed to run in my machine running Window Vista Business 32 bit. I attempted a few setting of xxMb to no avail but returned with an error ‘blue screen’ message and rebooted. I have to run in Window safe mood every time to install the program. Any ideas what’s wrong? and how to overcome? Thank you.
February 25th, 2008 06:41
This program fails to install on my XP Pro 64 bits machine. Any ideas why? Thanks guys.B.
February 20th, 2008 03:53
“Ramdisk.exe accepts a image file as its argument so that the image file can be loaded automatically into the Ramdisk from command line. Potential usage include adding of “ramdisk imgfilename” to system boot up script such as autoexec.bat to load the data into memory disk.”
I would love to do this. However, I read the instructions and could not understand them. Can someone please explain the instructions to me in another way. Thanks
January 30th, 2008 16:51
I have 4 gig of Ram on my new XP box. I made a 750 MB Swapfile on my new virtual drive. I opened the entiire MS Office suite and 13 other apps along with 2 major resource hogging games without a hitch. I then rebooted and the drive held it’s formatting. A million thanks!!
January 12th, 2008 16:20
on the other hand i think run as admin would help..
January 7th, 2008 18:05
Hmm..i have problem to remove ramdisk. It would return on next reboot. Any ideas..?
December 12th, 2007 08:24
[...] RAMDisk Guide I found a better, faster, and more compatable RAMdisk here, Free Ramdisk for Windows Vista, XP, 2000 and 2003 Server
October 14th, 2007 05:28
Hi mr. Gavotte, I like to compile the driver myself, would that be possible? I use VC Express and have 3790.1830 SDK and tried the Win2000 example from DDK, I asume you used the example to build your version of ramdisk.sys, can you make a little master-class for us to get some insight in the techniques used?
thx for the good work and grtz from Holland
October 9th, 2007 10:10
is there any way to load the image to the ram disk without using the GUI provided?
October 9th, 2007 09:39
okie..thanx a lot robert..appreciate your help
October 3rd, 2007 06:39
First, sorry for the delay. I’ve been out of my home.
Difference is only in bit responsible for media identification.
Some programs “don’t like” virtual disks but they look only at media identifier. If you set the identifier as fixed drive everything become O.K.
Luckily you solved the problem yourself.
Good luck and greetings from Poland
September 25th, 2007 09:23
It worked when I set it as “Fixed Media”. Previously it did not work because I set it as “RAM Drive”. hmmm what is the difference between these two types?
September 25th, 2007 03:21
Run ramdisk.exe.
Set it as “Fixed Media”. What size did you set?
In my case I set 512MB (I have plenty of RAM) and letter “Z”.
Try to run Memtest again with the following configuration:
At the very beginning of the test press C (config box will appear), then 2 then 3 then 3 and again 3. You will force thorough test of all memory.
Run the test for the whole night. In the morning you will have results.
September 24th, 2007 18:20
i already use the memtest.. no errors occured.. hmmm any extra configuration needed after creating the RAM drive? My RAM drive works when it is first created. Once I restarted my pc, windows report that the disk might be corrupted when i tried to aaccess the ram drive
September 24th, 2007 11:37
As the name says
http://www.memtest.org
http://www.memtest86.com
Using Google is recommended behaviour.
September 24th, 2007 10:44
Robert, I did not test the memory with Memtest. what is the purpose of Memtest?
September 23rd, 2007 18:50
[...] an image file into RAM either after starting or on boot up through an autoexec.bat argument. More configuration choices including registry editing are available [...]
September 21st, 2007 14:25
Did you test memory with Memtest?
September 20th, 2007 10:59
Anyone encountered this problem? After creating the RAM disk, I restarted my pc and windows reported that the disk might be corrupted or using a format tat is not compatible with windows. Anyway i am using windows XP.
September 20th, 2007 00:04
It would be nice to see a vista 64-bit version of this.
August 28th, 2007 02:07
Does not work in Vista 64-bit
August 22nd, 2007 07:32
Gavotte! Excellent job!
Your Rramdisk works very fine. It is even suitable to put Windows swapfile on it (what I’ve done).
Thank you.
Robert
June 5th, 2007 23:56
Man, I would really like to thank you for putting Gavotte’s work here. I have been finding a solution like this for the past 5 hours trying out Google-d Win 2K solutions and trial softwares, and most of the time I spent were on Googling and removing them (one almost killed my system). Once again, a big thanks - and I hope you can convey that to Gavotte himself too.