- Iramdisk 3 6 8 – Create A Ram Disk Drive
- Iramdisk 3 6 8 – Create A Ram Disk Drives
- Iramdisk 3 6 8 – Create A Ram Disk Recovery
- Iramdisk 3 6 8 – Create A Ram Disk Hard Drive
RAM drivesoftware allows part of a computer's RAM (memory) to be seen as if it were a disk drive, with volume name and, if supported by the operating system, drive letter. A RAM drive has much faster read and write access than a hard drive with rotating platters, and is volatile, being destroyed with its contents when a computer is shut down or crashes[1]—volatility is an advantage if security requires sensitive data to not be stored permanently, and to prevent accumulation of obsolete temporary data, but disadvantageous where a drive is used for faster processing of needed data. Data can be copied between conventional mass storage and a RAM drive to preserve it on power-down and load it on start-up.
Ram Disk Creator is a tool to create Ram Disks. This feature was available in Mac OS 9 and below, but since Apple released Mac OS X this capability, unfortunately, disappeared from our Macs. IRamDisk 3.6.8 – Create a RAM disk. IRamDisk uses a part of your RAM to create a new volume shown as an ordinary drive that can be mounted and used independently in your. February 26, 2018.
Overview[edit]
Features[edit]
Features that vary from one package to another:
- Some RAM drives automatically back up contents on normal mass storage on power-down, and load them when the computer is started.[2] If this functionality is not provided, contents can always be preserved by start-up and close-down scripts, or manually if the operator remembers to do so.
- Some software allows several RAM drives to be created; other programs support only one.[2]
- Some RAM drives when used with 32-bit operating systems (particularly 32-bit Microsoft Windows) on computers with IBM PC architecture allow memory above the 4 GB point in the memory map, if present, to be used; this memory is unmanaged and not normally accessible.[2] Software using unmanaged memory can cause stability problems.
- Some RAM drives are able to use any 'unmanaged' or 'invisible' RAM below 4 GB in the memory map (known as the 3 GB barrier) i.e. RAM in the 'PCI hole'. Note: Do not assume that RAM drives supporting 'AWE' (or Address Windowing Extensions) memory above 4 GB will also support unmanaged PAE (or Physical Address Extension) memory below 4 GB—most don't.
FreeBSD[edit]
md - memory disk[edit]
This driver provides support for four kinds of memory backed virtual disks: malloc, preload, vnode, swap. Disks may be created with the next command line tools: mdconfig and mdmfs. An example of how to use these programs follows.[3]
Iramdisk 3 6 8 – Create A Ram Disk Drive
To create and mount memory disk with mdmfs:
To create and mount memory disk with mdconfig:
To destroy previously created disk:
Linux[edit]
shm[edit]
Modern Linux systems come pre-installed with a user-accessible ramdisk mounted at
/dev/shm
.RapidDisk[edit]
RapidDisk is a free and open source project containing a Linux kernel module and administration utility that functions similar to the Ramdiskadm of the Solaris (operating system). With the rxadm utility, the user is capable of dynamically attaching, removing, and resizing RAM disk volumes and treat them like any other block device.[4]
tmpfs and ramfs[edit]
An example of how to use tmpfs and ramfs in a Linux environment is as follows:
Once the mount point is identified the mount command can be used to mount a tmpfs and ramfs file system on top of that mount point:
Now each time /var/ramdisk is accessed all reads and writes will be coming directly from memory.[5]
There are 2 differences between tmpfs and ramfs.[6]
1) the mounted space of ramfs is theorically infinite, as ramfs will grow if needed, which can easily cause system lockup or crash for using up all available memory, or start heavy swapping to free up more memory for the ramfs. For this reason limiting the size of a ramfs area can be recommendable.
2) tmpfs is backed by the computer's swap space
1) the mounted space of ramfs is theorically infinite, as ramfs will grow if needed, which can easily cause system lockup or crash for using up all available memory, or start heavy swapping to free up more memory for the ramfs. For this reason limiting the size of a ramfs area can be recommendable.
2) tmpfs is backed by the computer's swap space
There are also many 'wrappers' for the RAM disks for Linux as Profile-sync-daemon (psd) and many others allowing users to utilize RAM disk for desktop application speedup moving intensive IO for caches into RAM.
Microsoft Windows[edit]
Non-proprietary[edit]
ImDisk[edit]
ImDisk Virtual Disk Driver is a disk image emulator created by Olof Lagerkvist. It is free and open-source software, and is available in 32- and 64-bit variants. It is digitally signed, which makes it compatible with 64-bit versions of Microsoft Windows without having to be run in Test mode. The 64-bit version has no practical limit to the size of RAM disk that may be created.[7]
ImDisk Toolkit is a third-party, free and open-source software that embeds the ImDisk Virtual Disk Driver and adds several features.[8]
ERAM[edit]
ERAM is an open source driver that supports making a drive that is up to 4 GB of the total amount of RAM, uses paged/non-paged memory and supports backing up the drive to an image. It works on Windows XP/NT/2000/7/10 (32 and 64-bit). Its driver and source code can be found by going to https://github.com/Zero3K/ERAM.
Proprietary[edit]
AMD Radeon RAMDisk[edit]
AMD Radeon RAMDisk is available in free versions (RAM drive up to 4 GB, or 6 GB with AMD memory), and commercial versions for drives up to 64 GB. The free version is 'advertising supported'. Creates only a single drive (does not support multiple RAM drives). Can be backed up periodically to hard drive, and automatically loaded when the computer is started. AMD Radeon RAMDisk is a rebranded version of Dataram RAMDisk.[9]
Dataram RAMDisk[edit]
Dataram's RAMDisk is freeware (up to 1 GB (reduced from 4 to 1GB - per October 2015 site visit) disk size) and was originally developed and marketed by John Lajoie[10] through his private consulting company until 2001, when he sold his rights to Cenatek, before being acquired by Dataram. RAM disks larger than 4 GB require registration and a USD $18.99 single-user license. When purchasing physical RAM from Dataram, the RAMDisk license is provided free of charge. (Per DATARAM Government Sales on 4/25/2014, this is no longer the case.) Compatible with all 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Server 2003.[11]
Dimmdrive RAMDisk[edit]
A RAMdisk built specifically for gamers which features real-time file-synchronization, Steam integration, 'USB3 Turbo Mode'. The interface was designed to support both technical and non-technical game enthusiasts. Cost is $29 at Dimmdrive.com and $30 on Steam. ($14.99 on Steam as of 2018) [12]
Gavotte RamDisk[edit]
Can use Physical Address Extension to create a virtual disk in memory normally inaccessible to 32-bit versions of Microsoft Windows (both memory above the 4 GB point, and memory in the PCI hole).[13] There is also an open source plugin that replaces the RAM drive on Bart's PE Builder with one based on Gavotte's rramdisk.sys.[14]
Gilisoft RAMDisk[edit]
RAMDisk software for Windows 2000/2003/XP/Vista/Windows 7 (x32 & x64)/Windows 10 with simple setup, permits mounting-and-unmounting of RAMDisk images to/from drive-image-files, and automated/convenient startup/shutdown features, $25[citation needed].
Gizmo Central[edit]
Gizmo Central is a freeware program that can create and mount virtual disk files. It also has the ability to create a RAM disk up to 4GB in size as Gizmo is a 32 bit program.[15]
Passmark OSFMount[edit]
Passmark's OSFMount supports the creation of RAM disks, and also allows you to mount local disk image files (bit-for-bit copies of a disk partition) in Windows with a drive letter. OSFMount is a free utility designed for use with PassMark OSForensics.[16]
Primo Ramdisk[edit]
Romex Software Providing a fancy interface which is working with all windows environments from (XP to windows 10) and all windows servers editions from (2003 to 2019 currently) supports up to 128 Disks up to 32GB for Pro Version and 1TB for Ultimate and Server editions, supports to use invisible Memory in 32bit versions of windows, with saving at shut down or hibernate, Paid and trial versions available [17]
QSOFT ( WinRamTech ) Ramdisk Enterprise[edit]
A RAM Disk compatible with all Windows Workstation and Server OS versions (32- and 64-bit) starting from Windows 2000. Prices vary from $9 to $11. The content of the RAM Disk can be made 'persisted' i.e. saved to an image file on the hard disk at regular times and/or at shutdown, and restored from the same image file at boot time. Because of the built-in disk format routines and the built-in load of the image file, this ramdisk drive is already fully accessible at the bootstage where Services and automatically started programs are launched. Certain concurrent running benchmarks of two ramdisks at the same time reveal that this ramdisk is almost the fastest version. A fresh full-featured evaluation version is provided every year around August and allows users to update their nearly expiring version. Although the development of this RAM Disk was ended on 2017 the ramdisk version 5.3.2.15 may still be purchased.[18]
SoftPerfect RAM Disk[edit]
Available for Windows 7, 8 and 10; and Windows Server from 2008 R2 to 2019. Can access memory available to Windows, i.e. on 32-bit systems the RAM disk is limited to the same 4 GB as the 32-bit Windows itself. To use physical memory beyond 4 GB you must instal SoftPerfect RAM Disk on a 64-bit system. Multiple RAM disks can be created, and these can be made persistent by saving contents to and restoring from a disk image file.[19]
StarWind Software Virtual RAM Drive Emulator[edit]
StarWind Software makes a freeware RAM disk software for mounting memory as actual drives within Windows. Both x86 and x64 versions exist.
Ultra RamDisk[edit]
RAMDisk software which can also mount various CD images formats, like iso, ooo, cue, ccd, nrg, mds, img.[20] The application has two versions, paid and free where the latter allows to create a single ram disk up to 2GB in size.[21] Rwby: grimm eclipse 1 2.
VSuite Ramdisk[edit]
The Free Edition (limited to Windows 32-bit Win2000 / XP / 2003) is able to use 'invisible' RAM in the 3.25 to 4 GB 'gap' (if your motherboard has i946 or above chipset) & is also capable of 'saving to hard disk on power down' (so, in theory, allows you to use the RAM disk for Windows XP swap file and survive over a 'Hibernate'). Whilst the free edition allows multiple RAM disk drives to be set up, the total of all drives is limited to 4096 MB. The current version, VSuite Ramdisk II, has been rebranded as 'Primo Ramdisk', all versions of which are chargeable.[22]
Microsoft source code[edit]
Ramdisk.sys sample driver for Windows 2000[edit]
Microsoft Windows offers a 'demonstration' RAM disk for Windows 2000 as part of the Windows Driver Kit. Limited to using the same physical RAM as the operating system. It is available as free download with source code.[23]
RAMDisk sample for Windows 7/8[edit]
Microsoft provides source code for a RAM disk driver for Windows 7 and 8 [24]
Native[edit]
Windows also has a rough analog to tmpfs in the form of 'temporary files'. Files created with both FILE_ATTRIBUTE_TEMPORARY and FILE_FLAG_DELETE_ON_CLOSE are held in memory and only written to disk if the system experiences high memory pressure.[25] In this way they behave like tmpfs, except the files are written to the specified path during low memory situations, rather than to swap space. This technique is often used by servers along with TransmitFile to render content to a buffer before sending to the client.
Solaris[edit]
Ramdiskadm[edit]
Ramdiskadm is a utility found in the Solaris (operating system) to dynamically add and destroy ramdisk volumes of any user defined sizes. An example of how to use ramdiskadm to add a new RAM disk in a Solaris environment is as follows:
To destroy the RAM disk:
All created RAM disks can be accessed from the
/dev/ramdisk
directory path and treated like any other block device; that is, accessed like a physical block device, labeled with a file system and mounted, to even used in a ZFS pool.[26]DOS[edit]
- FreeDOS includes SRDISK
- MS-DOS 3.2 includes RAMDRIVE.SYS
- PC DOS 3.0 includes VDISK.SYS
- DR-DOS included VDISK.SYS
- Multiuser DOS included an automatic RAM disk as drive M:
References[edit]
- ^'AMD Radeon RAMDisk: How it works'. Radeonmemory.com. Archived from the original on 2013-10-12. Retrieved 2013-11-17. – invalid link !
- ^ abc'AMD Radeon RAMDisk FAQ: 'Q: Can RAMDisk use memory not available or seen by 32-bit Windows? A: RAMDisk cannot make use of memory that is not available in 32-bit Windows systems between 3 and 4 GB. [Commercial] RAMDisk can use memory not 'seen' by 32-bit Windows ABOVE 4 GB'. Radeonmemory.com. Retrieved 2013-11-17.
- ^'17.9. Memory Disks'. www.freebsd.org. Retrieved 2016-06-24.
- ^'RapidDisk Project Website'.
- ^'Creating a RAM disk with Linux'. Prefetch.net blog. January 2, 2012.
- ^'Overview of ramfs and tmpfs on Linux'. Thegeekstuff.com. November 1, 2013.
- ^'ImDisk VDD website'. Ltr-data.se. Retrieved 2013-11-17.
- ^'ImDisk Toolkit website'. Retrieved 2017-09-08.
- ^'AMD Radeon RAMdisk Web page'. Radeonmemory.com. Retrieved 2013-11-17.
- ^JLC, Inc. (January 1, 2001). 'John Lajoie Consulting'.
- ^'Official Dataram RAMDisk webpage'. Memory.dataram.com. Retrieved 2013-11-17.
- ^'Official Dimmdrive webpage'. Dimmdrive.com. Retrieved 2013-11-17.
- ^Homepage of Jens Scheffler (2012-06-30). 'How to use full 4 GB RAM in Windows 7 32 Bit (Gavotte RAMDisk in Windows 7)'. Jensscheffler.de. Retrieved 2013-11-17.
- ^'Sourceforge: Ramdisk plugin for Bart's PE Builder'. Rramdisk.sourceforge.net. 2008-01-04. Retrieved 2013-11-17.
- ^'Arainia Solutions website'. Arainia.com. Retrieved 2013-11-17.
- ^'OSFMount'. osforensics.com. Retrieved 2013-12-30.
- ^Romexsoftware. 'Primo RamDisk'.
- ^QSoft RAMDisk becomes. 'WinRamTech'.
- ^'SoftPerfect RAM Disk'. Softperfect.com.
- ^'Ultra RAMDisk - About'. ultraramdisk.com. Retrieved 2020-01-14.
- ^'Ultra RAMDisk - FAQ - Pro / Lite Edition What is the difference?'. ultraramdisk.com. Retrieved 2020-01-14.
- ^https://www.romexsoftware.com/en-us/index.html
- ^'ramdisk.sys'. support.microsoft.com. January 2, 2012.
- ^'RAMDisk Storage Driver Sample'. support.microsoft.com. April 2, 2014.
- ^'CreateFile Function'. MSDN. October 15, 2010.
- ^'Playing with RAM disks on Solaris 11.2'. Open Storage & Virtualization Magazine. February 14, 2015. Archived from the original on April 3, 2015.
External links[edit]
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_RAM_drive_software&oldid=980456606'
What is a RAMDisk?
A RAMDisk is a virtual drive that uses RAM to store information. This can be thought of as the RAM pretending to be an incredibly fast hard drive so you can install non-volatile games/programs on it or make it a scratch disk.
Deliverexpress 2 6 5 download free. In the simplest of terms, a RAMDisk is RAM in a hard drive costume. The RAM is still volatile, but builds and maintains an index throughout user-defined intervals in use; it will write to an index on non-volatile storage to keep data permanently.
Iramdisk 3 6 8 – Create A Ram Disk Drives
To put things into perspective: 1866MHz RAM has a peak data rate of approximately 15GB/s, so even matched against the world’s fastest consumer-class SSD (or enterprise-class, for that matter), RAM will far-and-away outperform it.
Advantages/disadvantages of a RAMDisk
Iramdisk 3 6 8 – Create A Ram Disk Recovery
A RAMDisk offers quite a few unique advantages and disadvantages. The largest advantage to a RAMDisk is the 100-150x transfer speed boost over HDDs and even ~25x over SSDs (goodbye loading screens!). Because RAM does not wear noticeably from I/O like regular drives do, it can be helpful to people who want to boost performance by using it in a read/write intensive situation, like as a scratch disk for Photoshop or Premiere.
But RAMDisks are not without their fair share of disadvantages. The most immediate is decreasing the amount of available RAM to the host system; further, in the event of power loss, data on the RAMDisk that has not been backed-up will be lost in shut-down. RAMDisks can also drastically increase shutdown time if you are saving to an image on an HDD or SSD for permanent storage; if you’re loading that image on startup, it can drastically increase boot time.
These advantages and disadvantages should be taken into consideration before creating a RAMDisk. Some disadvantages can be mitigated through creative implementation and careful indexing, but they’re still present.
Iramdisk 3 6 8 – Create A Ram Disk Hard Drive
Unique Software Implementations
Different RAMDisk software takes different creative approaches toward the disadvantages of RAMDisks to try mitigate them as much as possible. One of these techniques is saving to an image so the user can retain data stored on the RAMDisk at shutdown. This is a fairly simple concept and some software even allows for auto-saving every “X” minutes (X is set by the user). But some software, like AMD’s RAMDisk, takes this a step further and keeps a running tab (record) of what is on the image; AMD’s RAMDisk then analyzes what, if anything, has changed and will only rewrite changes while leaving static data untouched. This leads to less wear on host drives and shutdowns taking much less time.
Another approach is featured by Imdisk, yet another RAMDisk solution. Imdisk uses dynamic RAMDisk scaling; in dynamic RAMDisk scaling, the user sets the max capacity limit for the RAMDisk, then as the user puts more or less data onto the RAMDisk, it’ll change the amount of RAM reserved. More RAM is accessible if your RAMDisk is empty, less if it is filling up.
NUMA can be useful for large server arrays, but for the majority of RAMDisk users, it will be completely irrelevant.
Who can best use RAMDisks?
RAMDisks are not usually for the average user. They appeal more to power users who want them for specific uses. Gamers with lots of RAM can benefit from the much lower loading times, users doing I/O-intensive tasks can also benefit from using a RAMDisk for quick retrieval of data or a scratch-disk, but outside of this, most users don’t need or want a RAMDisk.
We’ve got a series of RAMDisk benchmarks coming up in our next article on this topic, but as a bit of a spoiler, we’ve seen load times decrease as much as 2x-3x in games like PlanetSide 2 when using a RAMDisk.
Even if a user doesn’t have a purpose for a RAMDisk, I still suggest playing around with them just to learn about the process.
How to Create & Install a RAMDisk
You don't need to understand any complicated programming or scripting to create a RAMDisk, with thanks to programs like AMD RAMDisk, SoftPerfect RAM Disk, ImDisk, and many others. Creating a RAMDisk has become something quite simple and user-friendly.
To create a RAMDisk, you need to first download and install RAMDisk software. In this walkthrough, we will be using SoftPerfect RAM Disk since it’s free, fairly easy to use, and is my personal favorite. In this tutorial we will show how to make a RAMDisk that starts on boot-up and saves to an image.
Edgeview 2 v2 802. First, in SoftPerfect RAM Disk, go to image at the top and then select “Create Image.”
Type your image name, define where it will be stored, and set its size in MB. I generally don’t change the image type or file system.
Click “Disk” at the top after creating the image. Select “Add Boot Disk” and in this menu choose the image you just made (your RAMDisk will be the size of the image automatically), the drive letter, and make sure to check “Save Contents to Image” so you don’t lose any data you place on your RAMDisk.
Clicking “advanced” brings up a number of options. Most users need not worry about many of them except the option to save the contents of the RAMDisk to an image every x minutes. This will ensure there is no data loss in the event of a power surge.
For servers, NUMA may be be useful, but for the majority of users it won’t be and can be ignored. Now simply click “OK” out of those two windows and your RAMDisk is made! Navigate to “Tools” and then “Settings” to check that SoftPerfect RAMDisk is set to launch automatically with Windows so it’ll automatically load on boot. You can now install programs on your RAMDisk and use it however you see fit. I personally find that file-intensive games like Planetside 2 benefit greatly from being on a RAMDisk.
Our next article on RAMDisks will include benchmarks for RAMDisks and how they affect performance.
- Michael “The Bear” Kerns.