Create a Ram Disk in Windows XP/2000 to speed up graphics creation/Internet access
Tuesday, September 9, 2003 by IPlural | Discussion: WinCustomize Talk
I ran across this at one of the Tech sites I visit and thought it would be some use to people here for speeding up graphics creation and such.
Actually purchasing a 3rd party Ram Disk application would help more because of expanded size, but this is free and it will make a difference in graphics creation used as the first swap disk. It will also help those that just want to put their Internet CACHE on it so that IE finds info at ram speeds instead of disk read speed or conversly writes also.
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TO CREATE A RAM DRIVE ON WINDOWS XP/2000
Download this: http://download.microsoft.com/download/win2000ddk/sample01/1/NT5/EN-US/Ramdisk.exe
Extract it. (Note the location of which you extracted the files)
Go to Control Panel -> Add Hardware -> Choose From a List -> Other Devices -> Have Disk.
The disk, is the location of which you extracted the files
*Windows XP does not have Certifications for this.
Your RAM drive is installed, however you will only get 1MB on it.
*To Adjust RAMDRIVE SIZE:
Start Regedit in your :\windows\regedit
Go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Ramdisk\Parameters
"DriveLetter" is set to Z: *You may change this.
Change "DiskSize" to 1f00000
This should give you about 30MB.
NOTE:
If you want a larger RAM-drive, you will need to buy it from here.
http://www.cenatek.com/product_ramdisk.cfm
Glad to finally give a conclusion to the question BTW, this is pretested, it's working on my system right now.
Little tip, you can change the location of your cache files for Internet Explorer. If they go to the RAM Drive, it will help process web pages faster, and all you have to do is shut down the computer to clear the cache.
Actually purchasing a 3rd party Ram Disk application would help more because of expanded size, but this is free and it will make a difference in graphics creation used as the first swap disk. It will also help those that just want to put their Internet CACHE on it so that IE finds info at ram speeds instead of disk read speed or conversly writes also.
------------------
TO CREATE A RAM DRIVE ON WINDOWS XP/2000
Download this: http://download.microsoft.com/download/win2000ddk/sample01/1/NT5/EN-US/Ramdisk.exe
Extract it. (Note the location of which you extracted the files)
Go to Control Panel -> Add Hardware -> Choose From a List -> Other Devices -> Have Disk.
The disk, is the location of which you extracted the files
*Windows XP does not have Certifications for this.
Your RAM drive is installed, however you will only get 1MB on it.
*To Adjust RAMDRIVE SIZE:
Start Regedit in your :\windows\regedit
Go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Ramdisk\Parameters
"DriveLetter" is set to Z: *You may change this.
Change "DiskSize" to 1f00000
This should give you about 30MB.
NOTE:
If you want a larger RAM-drive, you will need to buy it from here.
http://www.cenatek.com/product_ramdisk.cfm
Glad to finally give a conclusion to the question BTW, this is pretested, it's working on my system right now.
Little tip, you can change the location of your cache files for Internet Explorer. If they go to the RAM Drive, it will help process web pages faster, and all you have to do is shut down the computer to clear the cache.
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crissy14
Reply #2 Tuesday, September 9, 2003 3:15 PM
Reply #2 Tuesday, September 9, 2003 3:15 PM
IPlural
Thanks for the tip. Im trying out the free ramdrive now. Ill let you know what I think of it.
Thanks for the tip. Im trying out the free ramdrive now. Ill let you know what I think of it.
I.R. Brainiac
Reply #3 Tuesday, September 9, 2003 4:00 PM
Reply #3 Tuesday, September 9, 2003 4:00 PM
This might be worth checking into.Thanks IP! 
IPlural
Reply #4 Tuesday, September 9, 2003 6:26 PM
Reply #4 Tuesday, September 9, 2003 6:26 PM
crissy, i.r I hope it does help, seems to have made a big difference here so far.
I went to Borders and picked up a couple of mags from the UK I look for every month. Left the laptop running with PS loaded and just got back. The system isn't laging a bit and PS is still reacting very fast, which is a huge change for my system. It would always chug along after not being touched for a couple of hours because it would swap PS out of memory and have to reload. With the swap disk it swaps to memory and *blink* reloads extreamly fast.
I went to Borders and picked up a couple of mags from the UK I look for every month. Left the laptop running with PS loaded and just got back. The system isn't laging a bit and PS is still reacting very fast, which is a huge change for my system. It would always chug along after not being touched for a couple of hours because it would swap PS out of memory and have to reload. With the swap disk it swaps to memory and *blink* reloads extreamly fast.
Dreamdesign3d
Reply #5 Tuesday, September 9, 2003 10:16 PM
I guess I'm not as savy as you how would I do this.
Reply #5 Tuesday, September 9, 2003 10:16 PM
| Little tip, you can change the location of your cache files for Internet Explorer. If they go to the RAM Drive, it will help process web pages faster, and all you have to do is shut down the computer to clear the cache. |
I guess I'm not as savy as you how would I do this.
crissy14
Reply #6 Tuesday, September 9, 2003 10:26 PM
Reply #6 Tuesday, September 9, 2003 10:26 PM
Dreamdesign3d
My guess on how to change the location of the cache files would be: Go to internet options and on the general tab under temp internet files click on settings and then move folder. Move the folder to "z" (ramdisk)
My guess on how to change the location of the cache files would be: Go to internet options and on the general tab under temp internet files click on settings and then move folder. Move the folder to "z" (ramdisk)
IPlural
Reply #7 Tuesday, September 9, 2003 11:26 PM
Reply #7 Tuesday, September 9, 2003 11:26 PM
crissy, yep, Internet Options and change the location of your cached files...
Koasati
Reply #8 Wednesday, September 10, 2003 7:54 AM
Reply #8 Wednesday, September 10, 2003 7:54 AM
Thanx IP....... PSP 8 is zipping right along now! 
John Chan
Reply #10 Saturday, November 15, 2003 10:57 PM
Reply #10 Saturday, November 15, 2003 10:57 PM
hey! this really works! my internet is so much faster now! ok - i have 256 meg of ram, and now i installed the Z drive. does that mean i have only 226 mb ram left?
what if i view more than 30mb in internet files? will my system crash? this is because i just cleaned the cache and moved the temporary file folder to the Z drive and in 3 minutes of browsing, i've already used 2mb of the 30 already! so what happens if i browse the internet for like 3 hours? i'd be sure to go over the 30mb limit. if so, does the system automatically clear some memory for the new temporary files? or will the system hang?
thx for the ramdisk idea! my internet is now twice as fast
what if i view more than 30mb in internet files? will my system crash? this is because i just cleaned the cache and moved the temporary file folder to the Z drive and in 3 minutes of browsing, i've already used 2mb of the 30 already! so what happens if i browse the internet for like 3 hours? i'd be sure to go over the 30mb limit. if so, does the system automatically clear some memory for the new temporary files? or will the system hang?
thx for the ramdisk idea! my internet is now twice as fast
kongit
Reply #11 Saturday, November 15, 2003 11:14 PM
Reply #11 Saturday, November 15, 2003 11:14 PM
the only problem I had with it was if i put the internet
files onto it I could only download files smaller then the randisk size.
files onto it I could only download files smaller then the randisk size.
joetheblow
Reply #12 Saturday, November 15, 2003 11:23 PM
Reply #12 Saturday, November 15, 2003 11:23 PM
Is this the same thing as setting up multiple drives on your computer? Like a swap drive?
Tech TV showed a program called Partition Magic and it is suppossed to do this I guess.
Am I right?
Tech TV showed a program called Partition Magic and it is suppossed to do this I guess.
Am I right?
digital_trucker
Reply #13 Saturday, November 15, 2003 11:59 PM
Reply #13 Saturday, November 15, 2003 11:59 PM
Ok, now that it's installed, how do I go about configuring it to be the first swap disk?
kongit
Reply #14 Sunday, November 16, 2003 12:04 AM
Reply #14 Sunday, November 16, 2003 12:04 AM
joetheblow: it takes part of your ram and creates a drive from it. it doesn't affect your actual hard drive unless you save the image of the disk so it doesn't delete the contents of the ramdisk when you shutdown
joetheblow
Reply #15 Sunday, November 16, 2003 12:20 AM
Reply #15 Sunday, November 16, 2003 12:20 AM
ok, now I am officially lost.
The program create more RAM space where?
We are talking about random access memeory right?
Doesn't it have to write to the hard drive in order to create the new swap drive?
The program create more RAM space where?
We are talking about random access memeory right?
Doesn't it have to write to the hard drive in order to create the new swap drive?
crissy14
Reply #16 Sunday, November 16, 2003 12:39 AM
Reply #16 Sunday, November 16, 2003 12:39 AM
Ramdisk creates a virtual drive (fake drive), and uses that drive to store info. In short, gives your system (hopefully) a little more power, and more space to store data
digital_trucker
Reply #17 Sunday, November 16, 2003 1:03 AM
Reply #17 Sunday, November 16, 2003 1:03 AM
Fine, fine. Now how does one go about configuring it to be the first swap drive...for PSP, for example.
Zodiaq~
Reply #18 Sunday, November 16, 2003 1:19 AM
Reply #18 Sunday, November 16, 2003 1:19 AM
Ok...I really like the idea of having a ramdisk or scratch disk setup for Photoshop.
This sounds cool but on the Microsoft website for the Ramdisk app it said this:
*(Generally, the Windows(r) 2000 cache manager does a much better job of optimizing memory usage than Ramdisk does.)
So which is it? What is going to be the most efficient? Would it be best to set up a smaller hard drive as a scratch disk?
Thanks for all the info IPlural
This sounds cool but on the Microsoft website for the Ramdisk app it said this:
*(Generally, the Windows(r) 2000 cache manager does a much better job of optimizing memory usage than Ramdisk does.)
So which is it? What is going to be the most efficient? Would it be best to set up a smaller hard drive as a scratch disk?
Thanks for all the info IPlural
Weaksid
Reply #19 Sunday, November 16, 2003 1:49 AM
Reply #19 Sunday, November 16, 2003 1:49 AM
I thought Windows 2K/XP already had something like this installed within the system?
I have 640mb of Ram, Too bad I couldn't use half for the drive
I have 640mb of Ram, Too bad I couldn't use half for the drive
Keith Perry
Reply #20 Sunday, November 16, 2003 2:56 AM
Reply #20 Sunday, November 16, 2003 2:56 AM
ok, Z drive is set up, Only problem is when I go to change the cache folder to Z it says I have to set the cache volume between 1-0. ???? well those are the only two numbers I can select. What is wrong? I set the Disk Size to 1f00000
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Reply #1 Tuesday, September 9, 2003 1:48 PM
It will take a little tweaking I am sure, but once the correct setup is configured and the image of it save, it will auto load on bootup and be seen as a 32bit formatted Hardisk which is 100megs.
I know for a fact that Photoshop swpas to disk no matter how large the CACHE in ram you set for the program, it is hard code and the only way around it is to swap to a Ram disk as disk one for swapping, then the next cleanest/fastest drive(s) in the order you feel is best.
Just something some might want to try out...
The 30 meg limit that comes with the free verizon that Microsoft provides is way smaller than the 4 gig ramdisk you can setup with the program for those who want to shell out the money.
Maybe Stardock (hint hint) could actually create something like this to extend the NT flavors of Windows. ME and below come ready for Ramdisk included with the OS.
anyway... off to never never land with me