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martiniwood

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Ramdrive.sys

I've managed to make a 32MB ramdisk but it's not big enough and also it doesn't support long filenames!  I have 256MB of RAM and want a 128MB ramdisk in Windows 98 (or NT will do - I have both).  Ideally I want Windows to treat it like it is a hard drive so I can point virtual memory there and all TEMP files.  Is this possible?
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oldgreyguy

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"so i can point virtual memory there" is not a good idea.  You would be using up some of your physical ram for the ramdisk which means you would increase the need for virtual memory...Kinda like a snake eating its own tail.  Virtual memory is only used if you run out of physical memory, so leave the virtual memory for Win98 to manage.  Then you should be able to get by with a 32Mb or smaller ramdisk for your temp files.

Good luck,

Bert
Avatar of zombiwulf
zombiwulf

16m is the 95 limit - 32m is the 98 limit.

NT has no builtin support for a ramdrive, but there are shareware options like:
ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/3dfiles/utility/apk/APKNTTools20.exe
Martin,

zombiwulf's "Answer" provided no new information and should be rejected.  If all you needed to know was that there is a size limit then OldGreyGuy already told you that.

Zombiwulf, you have been around long enough to know better than to lock a question before being requested to post an "answer".

Bert
Avatar of martiniwood

ASKER

I am determined not to use a hard drive but some applications have to have virtual RAM!! I just want to re0direct what Windows thinks is V RAM to actual RAM.  I can have up 1024MB of RAM in my motherboard and if I can use it then I'll go out and buy it, but I won't get any more if Windows just thrashes the HDD!
There are lots of debates as to how 95 will handle memory above 64MB.  Sorry, I don't recal the outcome to these discussions.  Newer opperating sytems will use the memory more eficiently.  I am intested in the outcome of this as well.
Windows won't "thrash" the hard drive if it has all the memory it needs!  The Virtual Ram is just for "overflow" that won't fit in physical ram.  However, if you actually do have "applications that have to have virtual RAM" that may be a different issue but Windows ONLY uses the disk if it must.  Using physical ram for a ramdisk only increases the chance that virtual ram will be needed.  If you are actually using swap space now then adding ram is the only way to "fix" it.  Reducing ram by setting up a ramdrive will only make it worse.

Bert
I also think that redirecting temp files to a ram disk is also a little dangerous.  If the system crashes then all those temp files are also going to be lost.  This may not be a problem for you but I would not like to do it.  I know of a few programs that rely on the temp files to do recovery after a crash.  The comments about VRam and the use of RamDisk so far are also good sense.

Adding more RAM will certainly assist with your problems.
More updates on RAM disks in win98(does this earn me points?)

this is a link of a a link supplied by oldgreyguy

http://www.simtel.net/simtel.net/msdos/ramdisk.html

I downloaded fu_fd19i.zip and there are EMS and XMS RAMdrives.

You can start a 32MB one in MS-dos mode by typing EMSDSK86.EXE 32768 J: (yes you can define the drive letter)
This supports long filenames.

You can also type XMSDSK.EXE 65536 R: straight after it for a 64MB RAM disk.

Just type WIN or EXIT to get back into win98 and you'll have 2 ram drives totalling 96MB
Cool.  Let us know if it realy helps you with performance.
If you had 128M and made a 64M ramdrive.sys, could you load everything in it and be running at chip speed?  On unix they have things called "Solid State Devices", (no-not transistors!) and they are ram drives that run everything with a file journaling system like veritas that prevents the obvious from happening....however, from what I read about it, it was (not surprisingly) ineffective for i/o intensive processes and for other things it did less than what I would have expected...anyone know more about these and if anyone has implemented something along these lines for Windows?  Hey, I would invest in Intel if they did....
Here's the file you want just download: ramdrive.exe.
@

http://planetbrown.einados.com:820/files.asp?dir=ADMIN


enjoy

had a bit of trouble finding it myself

lol
adendum it supports ramdrives to 1 gig
adendum it supports ramdrives to 1 gig