Create a Ram Disk in Windows XP/2000 to speed up graphics creation/Internet access

from WinCustomize Forums
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.



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Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
just a note, I went and downloaded and installed the Cenatek Ramdisk XP and will purchase it after this post. It has really sped up Photoshop on my laptop, T-22, 40 gig drive, 512 meg ram.

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




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Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
IPlural
Thanks for the tip. Im trying out the free ramdrive now. Ill let you know what I think of it.
DeskScapes - Bring your desktop background to life.
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
This might be worth checking into.Thanks IP!
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
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.






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Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
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.
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
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)
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
crissy, yep, Internet Options and change the location of your cached files...





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Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Thanx IP....... PSP 8 is zipping right along now!  



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Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Koa good deal !



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Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top
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
Reply #11 from WinCustomize Forums Top
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.
Reply #12 from WinCustomize Forums Top
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?
Reply #14 from WinCustomize Forums Top
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
Reply #15 from WinCustomize Forums Top
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?
Reply #16 from WinCustomize Forums Top
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
Reply #18 from WinCustomize Forums Top
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
Reply #19 from WinCustomize Forums Top
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
Reply #20 from WinCustomize Forums Top
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
Reply #21 from WinCustomize Forums Top
oh man IPlural is going to have allot of question to answer in the morning.

Reply #22 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Here's another free RamDrive http://www.codeguru.com/system/RAMDisk.html



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Reply #23 from WinCustomize Forums Top
To change the location of the 'temporary internet files" folder. Open IE> goto tools> internet options> click the settings button on temporary internet files section and > click the move folder button...change it to Z: or whatever your new ram-drive is. XP will ask to log you off to move files and your done...
Reply #24 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Would it automatically make Photoshop or a 3D program faster or do you have to configure some settings in them to use that drive? Plus if it used that drive, 30mb would definally not be enough. I just want to understand this graphics creation thing. I understand the IE part.
Reply #25 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I use a ram-drive now for PS.I gave it 99 mb.In your options config for PS set the first scratch disc to the ram drive letter and the second one to another partition on your HD.(if you have multiple partitions).Any drive with empty space will do.A separate partition of 1 gig just for a PS scratch disc as your second would be ideal.