programs to create ram disk and your usage?

So for those who use their RAMdisk as they temporary internet file dump, do use create a disk using FAT, FAT32 or NTFS? I've read that 2GB and under could benift from FAT32 or even FAT, but haven't decided on which to create upon my clean install.

 

I use 2GB NTFS partition.

 

Exact same here as well with NTFS. Although I was using 2GB for some months and more recently switched to 1GB for a quicker shut down / restart of Windows for when it was saving that image file.

 

Switched to ImDisk Toolkit for Dynamic Memory Allocation.

 

I switched from Bond Disc to Ultra RAMDisk (http://ultraramdisk.com/en_download) which is faster than what I was using before and is still being maintained.

 

They have added exFat support, it is now compatible with Device Guard on Windows 10, a console version has been added, it includes Microsoft co-signed drivers, etc.

SoftPerfect RAM Disk v4.0.4 (October 12, 2017)
Website
Changelog

Spoiler: Changelog 4.0.0 - 4.0.3

2017-08-24 4.0.3

• Fixed a few issues when running under Driver Verifier.
• Where possible use NX memory allocations for added security.
• Added new EV digital signature and passed Microsoft driver certification.
• Added compatibility with Device Guard on Windows 10 and Server 2016.

2017-03-01 4.0.2

• Added /rem and /hdd command line switches in the console version.
• Fixed a stability issue when one or more system disks were dynamic.

2017-02-06 4.0.1

• Added console version to create on-demand RAM disks from a service or script.

2016-11-05 4.0

• Product is no longer free for home users: licence fee applies.
• Fixed memory allocation in a specific NUMA node when requested.

 

FWIW, I am using the co-signed kernel drivers from 4.0.4 with the previous free version successfully.since Windows 10 enforces co-signed drivers now I used my previous method of copying over the drivers in command prompt safe mode.

 

Nice
But i guess exFAT cannot be used with this "approach"
The new driver has support for it, but not the "old" executable from the previous version.

 

@mood I am not 100% certain regarding exFAT. There is a good chance that I can copy over the updated command line version (ramdiskc.exe) of the program to create and manage exFAT volumes. But you are right, there would be no exFAT support through GUI. I copied over all of the newer program files and drivers from a VM so I will try the command line options later and see if it can work or not.

 

@mood
hi
sadly SoftPerfect RAM Disk 4 is no free anymore
is there a very good alternative?
thanks

 

@mantra, you can try AMD Radeon RAMDisk (Freeware Version).
It is done by 'DataRam RamDisk' owner - in fact it is a Dataram Corporation product.
Info:
- «Anyone can download and install the program, and use it to create a single RAM Disk with up to 4 Gigabytes of space.»
- DataRam RamDisk versus AMD Radeon RAMDisk:
> DataRam it is more limited than AMD's version, as you may only create RAM disks up to a size of 1023 Megabytes using it.
> DataRam lacks features that AMD's version offers, such as selecting a drive letter for the disk.

Download

 

@majoMo
thank you so much , i will try it
even , i would like to use ram disk temporarily , just for example have the lightroom database on the ram disk
what should i do ? copy the lightroom database to the ram disk ,use lightroom , after , re-copy the lightroom database from the ram disk to the ssd?
believe make a big difference , lightroom become amazing fast
thanks

 

@ mantra,

Best way to do for your "lightroom database to the ram disk" issue is to use a junction!

1. Create a disk image, with ramdisk e.g. "C:\RAMDisk.img"
2. Move (not Copy) 'lightroom database' to Ram Disk e.g. "R:\lightroom database"
3. Save image then with 'AMD Radeon RAMDisk'
4. Create a Junction in your original "lightroom database" folder e.g. "C:\lightroom\database"

Then with Command Prompt:

mklink /J "C:\lightroom\database" "R:\lightroom database"

 

@majoMo
hi use a junction is a great idea

thank you , do think that a script that will copy my lightroom database will be copied on my disk when i stop to use lightroom or the ramdisk is a bad idea?

thanks

 

The problem is, I believe, that SoftPerfect RAMDisk is the only RAMDisk software right now that has the appropriate SHA256 digital certificates with Microsoft Windows cross-signing for the latest Windows 10. I assume that this is part of the reason why they stopped being free and went back to being paid since I know those certs can be expensive. I am considering buying a licence to support their development but their licence is on the expensive side with additional costs for "manual processing" or something like that.

 

I don't think it's a bad idea, if you want to do an aditional work, like to remember to click in the script...

Because with a 'Junction' you can forget to remember anything after 'Junction' done.

 

I was looking at some solutions today and yes, the solution by SoftPerfect is likely the only one which has a cross-signed certificate.

Overview of RAM Disk programs:

 

hi majoMo
i have still the last SoftPerfect RAMDisk free version , do you think work under 10 without issues
thank you !

 

Eight of their ten products, are paid now, like Networx, which was also previously free.

Of course, I also like to support development, provided the prices are reasonable, but they do seem to have gone from free to being on the pricey side.

 

So I finally decided to give the exFAT support a try through the trial version and I was surprised by the performance. My testing was specifically with my Chromium profile running from RAMDisk in exFAT file system. I did not run any browser specific performance tests as of yet, just simple responsiveness loading from browser cache. For example, closing out of Chromium with 12 tabs open, reloading Chromium and going to History and choosing the option which loads all 12 previously opened tabs at once. That blew my mind how sharp and quick that was compared to my Chromium profile stored in NTFS. There was a big difference there. Also, simply opening a new tab had zero delay when loading the default New Tab page.

I agree, it is quite pricey since it only covers updates for 1 year. If they were doing a yearly updates type of fee then it should be much cheaper and I believe that they would have more users paying for their product in the long term.

 

After 1 year the fee is reduced (50%):

Good to know

 

Slightly OT, but I wonder if that is their policy for all their products?

 

Yes, it is:

 

Using exFAT for Chromium profile ended up being extremely problematic that I had no choice but to return to NTFS. I don't know if that has something to do with exFAT implementation in SoftPerfect RAMDisk's kernel driver or if it has to do with Windows implementation of exFAT but either way, Chromium profile became less and less reliable.