Creating a RAM disk and transferring the contents of the system folders “Temp” to it

There are different types of disks: hard, removable, virtual and others. The latter are emulated by special programs. One of their varieties is a RAM disk. What kind of drive is this and in what cases is it useful? What programs can you use to create such a disk?

What is a RAM disk and for what purposes is it used?

A RAM disk is a virtual drive that is actually created within the PC's random access memory (RAM), but is perceived by the system as normal local disk, on which you can save any type of information. This trick is used by owners of devices with a large amount of RAM, some of which is simply not used.

Why do you need such a virtual disk if it is possible to save all the data on a regular hard HDD or SSD? The fact is that the RAM disk, being a physical part of RAM, works much faster than any hard drive. The main purpose of creating a RAM disk, therefore, is to increase the speed of work on a PC.

Reading and writing data from a hard drive is slower than a virtual RAM drive

Table: advantages and disadvantages of creating a RAM disk

What data can be transferred to a RAM disk?

Since data from the RAM disk disappears when the PC is turned off, temporary files (cookies, browsing history in browsers, temporary files of the system itself in the temp folder, etc.) are most often stored on these drives. However, some utilities get around this drawback: when the device is turned off, they save the data on a regular hard drive in a special file, and when relaunch systems return information to its original place - the RAM disk. This feature is usually available in paid versions of programs.

Users also often post on them portable programs and a swap file, if, for example, some utility does not want to work without it, and there is no way to store the file on a regular hard drive.

Create and configure a RAM disk on Windows 10 using the SoftPerfect program

Before creating a RAM disk using any program, including SoftPerfect, it is recommended to make a restore point and prepare the installation disk of your Windows for possible recovery in case of a system crash.

SoftPerfect is a paid product from an Australian company of the same name. During the first month you can use all its options for free without restrictions. After this, you will need to pay for its further operation. The program is suitable for all the most famous versions of Windows: from XP to “ten”. The downside of the utility is that it only works with its own images in SVI format.

Using it, you can create a RAM disk that will be used for temporary files as follows:

1. Let's go to the official SoftPerfect resource to safely download the installer. Click on the green Download free trial button on the right panel to download the free test version.
   Click on the Download free trial button to download a trial version of the SoftPerfect program
2. Through the “Downloads” section of the browser, launch the installer and install the program by executing simple steps in the installation wizard: agree to the terms of use and, if desired, select a folder to save the utility.
   Check the box next to I accept the agreement and click Next
3. When the installation is complete, click Finish in the window where the checkbox next to Launch SoftPerfect is checked.
   Click on Finish to launch the SoftPerfect program
4. On top panel Click on the first icon with a big green plus.
   Click on the green plus on the top toolbar
5. A new small window will appear where you can immediately configure the parameters of the future disk. In the first line, be sure to indicate the size of the virtual drive. Below the line you will immediately see the currently available volume. You can enter this number or any smaller one. Remember that you need to leave 3-4 GB for the system itself for it to work optimally.
   Install right size drive and its letter
6. Select the drive letter from the drop-down menu. Using the “Hard Disk Emulation” option, you can create more than just logical partition, but a virtual hard disk. However, the developers do not recommend enabling this feature, as the disk may eventually run slower.
7. If you check the box next to “How removable disk", the system will not create the Recycled and System Volume Information sections on the drive, which are necessary for restoring and storing files in the Recycle Bin.
8. In the “Format” drop-down menu, select the type of drive, in particular, its file system. The optimal and reliable option is NTFS.
   Select the file system format from the drop-down menu
9. In the “Create folders” field, if necessary, indicate the partitions that should appear on the future disk. We write the name of each section on a new line.
10. Click on the “Advanced” button to go to the next window. In the “Volume Label” field, write the name of the virtual disk if desired. Using the “Enable data compression on the disk” item, you can save the amount of disk memory, but it is worth remembering that with this option activated, the operating speed may not be as high.
    Enable data compression if you want to save disk space
11. After that, double-click OK in the window with additional and basic parameters. The program will begin mounting the disk.
    Wait for the disk mount process to complete
12. Upon completion of the procedure, your first virtual RAM drive will appear in the list, which you can already use.
    Your first pop will appear in the window this disk
13. Open “Windows Explorer” through the standard “This PC” shortcut and see if new disk.
    Make sure the drive appears in Explorer

If you want to store permanent rather than temporary directories with files on a virtual RAM drive, you need to use the same program to create an ISO image of a disk into which information will be written after the PC is turned off, and link it to the created disk:

1. Right-click on the created RAM disk. In the small menu, click on the last item “Properties”.
   Click on the “Properties” item in the context menu of the RAM disk
2. The same window with parameters that was available when creating the disk will open. In it, click on the blue icon in the “Path to image file” field. A small additional window will open, designed to create an image.
   Click on the folder icon in the name bar
3. Click on the yellow folder icon in the “Image file name” line - “Windows Explorer” will open. In it we select the location of the future image, and also enter any name in the appropriate line, for example, RAM2. Click on “Save”.
   Select a folder on a regular hard drive in which the RAM disk image will be stored
4. Now we set the same size and type of file system as for the disk itself.
   Specify the same parameters as for the disk itself
5. The “Save contents” item will become clickable. We definitely celebrate it. Let’s move on to additional parameters using the already familiar “Advanced” button. next to "Cancel".
   Check the “Save contents” option so that the program transfers data from the disk to the image
6. In the “Image Options” block, check the box to the left of “Save data to image every minute.” In the field below we indicate the period in minutes after which the system will automatically save data on this disk in the corresponding image. Click OK in the additional and basic settings. This option helps prevent data loss when sudden shutdown PC or a critical error occurs that causes the entire system to freeze.
   IN last line set the frequency with which the disk and image will be synchronized
7. In the warning window, click on OK, thereby confirming that we want to remount the disk now.
   Click OK to confirm that you need to make changes to the RAM disk
8. As a result, the newly created disk will be attached to the image, the name and path to which will be indicated in the corresponding column.
   In the “Image file” column there is now a path to the file in which the disk data is saved

Video: how to use the SoftPerfect utility

Other utilities for creating a RAM disk

Not only SoftPerfect is able to create a RAM drive on your device, but also other paid and free programs. Let's look at the most famous of them.

Dataram RAMDisk: simple software that does not take up many resources

Dataram RAMDisk is a project from the developer of the same name with a simple interface and three installation options: one is free, and the other two are paid. The main disadvantage of the utility is the creation of only one disk. It will not be possible to make several media at once, but it is possible to save settings and information after turning off the computer using an image with bak extension. The utility was developed only for Windows: versions 2003 and higher are supported (both 32- and 64-bit). It can be downloaded from the developer’s official website.

Another advantage of the program is that it does not load the PC hardware, working both in normal and background. Interface on English, so may not be suitable for people who do not own it. Another disadvantage of the program is the download advertising banner on the screen when starting the utility.

The program also has the following functions:

• creating a temp directory on a RAM disk to store temporary system files;
• autosave after any specified period of time (default is 5 minutes);
• manual saving, which can be done at any time.

Video: how to create a RAM drive using a program from Dataram

RAMDisk Enterprise from WinRamTech: automatic increase in RAM disk capacity when there is not enough space

RAMDisk Enterprise is a product for creating disks in RAM from the company WinRamTech, formerly qSoft. It is suitable for those people who love functional solutions. The scope of changeable settings offered by the program is quite extensive. The utility is available for free download on the creator's official website. However, as indicated on the website, the period of this trial version will expire on July 1, 2019. You can purchase full version for $9 or $11 depending on the bit size of your system: 32 and 64 bits, respectively.

The application has the following advantages:

1. Synchronization with an image file to save data after turning off the PC.
2. Automatic saving of data in an image.
3. Setting the disk size dynamically - if the space on it runs out, the amount of memory will automatically increase.
4. No restrictions on virtual disk size.

Despite a large set of settings, RAMDisk from WinRamTech has its drawbacks:

1. Installing the program and creating a RAM disk not through a regular installer, but using a special option in the “Device Manager” called “Install an old device.” The RAM disk is included in the system as a real driver. For novice users, the installation process may seem too complicated.
2. Create only one disk.
3. Lack of developer support in the free version.

The RAMDisk program is suitable for almost all versions of Windows: 2000, XP, Vista, Server 2003, 2008, 2008-R2, 2012, 2012-R2, 2016, 7, 8, 8.1, 10.

ImDisk: a simple utility with an English interface

ImDisk is a small and simple, but powerful utility for creating RAM disks from the developer LTRData. It is freely available on the company's official website. This program was originally intended to emulate disk drives, hard drives and optical drives. However, now the function of creating RAM drives has been added to its set of options.

The application opens through the “Control Panel”, but the program shortcut can also be installed on the “Desktop” for ease of launch.

The key features of ImDisk are as follows:

1. Create an unlimited number of disks if you have enough RAM.
2. Storing data in an image file on a regular hard drive.
3. Changing settings while using a virtual disk: increasing or decreasing the size, setting the Read Only label.

The downside of the utility is manual saving of changes on the RAM disk in an image file. The utility also does not automatically start the disk when the system boots - you have to do this manually. ImDisk is suitable for all current versions of Windows: 10, 8.1, 8, 7, Vista, XP.

OSFMount: support for third-party images of various formats

OSFMount is a utility with a simple interface for creating RAM drives, which is very similar to the previous ImDisk tool: a similar design and set of options. The difference is that in OSFMount the emphasis is on working with RAM disks, and not on emulating drives and hard drives. In addition, the program has its own executable file, through which the application is quickly launched.

The main advantages of OSFMount are as follows:

1. Disk image support ISO formats, BIN, IMG, DD, 00n, NRG, SDI, AFF, AFM, AFD and VMDK.
2. Mounting images previously created using other programs.
3. Setting the Read Only attribute.

Autosaving of disk contents is not supported (only manual), however, when you turn off the PC, the utility asks if you need to update the image file. When the computer starts, a RAM disk is not automatically created.

The program makes the following requirements for the system:

1. Windows version - 7, 8, 10, Server 2008, 2012.
2. Administrator privileges.
3. Minimum RAM - 1 GB.
4. 10 MB of free hard disk space for installing the program.

GiliSoft RAMDisk: original interface and quick viewing of disk contents

GiliSoft RAMDisk is a convenient utility with an unusual, modern, but clear interface from the developer company of the same name. When you first launch the utility, it prompts you to create a RAM drive. You can download this software from the official resource. Both paid and free option.

Key Benefits programs from GiliSoft are:

There are some complaints about this small but functional program:

1. An error occurred while writing the image file. However, after this the utility still saves the image and works stably.
2. Disk size. You need to decide on this parameter right away, since once it is created, it will no longer be possible to change it - in this case, you will have to create a new one.
3. Possible conflicts with other applications that maintain hard drives, for example, with the PerfectDisk defragmentation program.

Gilisoft RAMDisk program is suitable for Windows 2000, 2003, Vista, XP, 1, 8, 10.

Table: comparison of utilities for creating a RAM disk

A RAM disk is a part of the PC's RAM, which is used by the system like a regular hard drive. It allows you to significantly increase the speed of operation on the device if the reason for the low performance is a hard drive that is slow to respond to requests. Such a disk, however, can only be used if there is enough RAM on the PC - the constant load should be no more than 60%. You can make a RAM disk using special programs. The most popular of them is SoftPerfect. Many of the utilities allow you to bypass the main disadvantage of using a RAM drive - deleting data by turning off the computer. They temporarily save all content in a special file - a disk image - on a regular hard drive, and after turning it on again, they return everything to its place.

How to optimize Windows operation by using RAM -disk – a virtual disk created by third-party software that functions due to excess RAM? Below we will talk about carrying out basic operations for the purpose of such optimization. Let's take a closer look at how to create RAM-disk and transfer the contents of system folders to it "Temp" .

1. Creating a RAM disk

To create RAM-disk in our case the program will be used. It was chosen because of its ease of use, support for the Russian language, but most importantly - due to the ability to save data RAM-disk on hard drive. Let us remind you that RAM can work with data within one session of working with a computer. After the system is rebooted, stored on RAM-disk data disappears. To solve this problem, the developers of some programs to implement RAM-disk equip their products with mechanisms for storing data in special file on your hard drive. When the system is restarted, the saved data is accordingly retrieved and takes its place on RAM-disk. The ability to save data is an optional condition for a program that implements on a Windows system RAM-disk, if the latter will be used only for storing temporary files (contents of “Temp” folders, browser cache and temporary data of other programs) . But if on RAM The disk will store portable programs, profiles and working directories of browsers, other programs and games; the presence of a function for saving data on the hard drive will be of fundamental importance.

– a paid product, at the time of writing the article the cost is $29 . But the developers of this program offer to test the fully functional trial version for free for a whole month. This period is more than enough to understand the effectiveness of such optimization and, accordingly, make a choice - RAM-disc or SSD .

So, let's download and launch the program. Add a new one RAM -disk.

Fill out the creation form RAM-disk. First of all, we indicate the disk size. Important: this size should not exceed the unused remainder of RAM at the time of maximum computer load . It is advisable not to leave the system with less than 6 GB . Next, select any of the free letters for the disk and set the file system format NTFS. Click "OK".

Returning to the main window , click menu "Image" and choose "Create an image". Creating and connecting a format image IMG - this is the very mechanism for ensuring data safety RAM -disk mentioned above. It is in this image will periodically record data so that it is available after reboot Windows, and not just during the current session. What, as mentioned, will happen when implementing RAM-disk programs without support for a data saving mechanism.

In the column you need to write the path to image file – specify the disk partition, folder and come up with a name for the file. If it is planned that RAM- the disk will be used to store some important data, respectively, image file must be created on a non-system disk partition. In the column "Size" indicate the same size that was set for the RAM -disk. For graph "Format", again, select the value "NTFS". Click "OK".

We will receive a notification that the image has been created.

If in the future RAM - the disk will be destroyed for some reason and will take away valuable information; it can be retrieved by mounting the newly created one IMG -image – either with the help of the , or through any other program that works with this format.

So, RAM -disk is created, IMG -the image has been created, now they need to be tied to each other and configured. We return to the main program window. Here in the context menu on RAM-disk select .

A setup window will open. In the column we write, accordingly, the path to the newly created image IMG . Next important point– you must check the box "Save content" . Click the button below "Additional".

Below in the column we set the time period through which the data RAM-disc must be written to IMG-image. In our case, we selected best option – every half hour. If on RAM- the disk is not supposed to store particularly important data; you can set a longer interval. In any case, before turning off or restarting the computer, all data will be saved in IMG-image. Click "OK".

Next, let's go back to the window. previous settings. Click here below "OK", then in the window that appears, confirm the application of the parameters and launch the associated remount operation RAM-disk.

That's all. will automatically boot with Windows and run in the background RAM-disk. At any time, the program can be found in the system tray to change settings RAM-disk or not at all delete it. It can be removed very easily– using the option, respectively, in the context menu.

Intentional deletion RAM-disk does not result in the destruction of the associated IMG-image. It will still be in its place until it is removed manually. From periodic automatic saving data in IMG-we can refuse the image and save data manually only if necessary. For these purposes in the window there is a special button.

Created RAM -the drive will now appear in Windows Explorer as a regular drive. The possibilities for its use, in principle, can be anything, as long as everything happens within the framework of the allocated volume. On RAM-disks with small volumes usually redirect storage cache (or entire profiles) browsers, save paths and other game data, working directories of bulky programs. But first of all RAM-disk send folders storing temporary Windows files - "Temp". On the performance of the disk on which system folders are stored "Temp", the performance of both third-party programs and Windows as a whole partly depends.

2. Transferring the “Temp” system folders to the RAM disk

Folders "Temp" located on system disk along the way:

- C:\Windows\Temp,

- C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp.

Their transfer to RAM-disk is carried out by editing the values variable environments Windows. For some system processes the company Microsoft provided a standard mechanism for changing values ​​- in particular, changing the storage location of folder contents "Temp".

First, create a folder "Temp" on the destination disk - on RAM -disk. Next, press the keys Win + Pause. In the system settings window on the left, select additional options. In the window that opens, go down and press the button "Environment Variables...".

The upper half of the window is responsible for the user profile environment variables. Editing values "TEMP" And "TMP" we will change the folder path "Temp" as part of the catalog "AppData". Select a value "TEMP" and press the button "Change".

We carry out the same operation with the value "TMP", specify the same folder path "Temp" on RAM -disk.

Next, we move to the lower half of the variable environment window - to system variables. Here we also select "TEMP" And "TMP", these are the values ​​corresponding to the folder "Temp" in the catalog "Windows". Select the values ​​one by one "TEMP" And "TMP" and for each of them press the button "Change". Instead of the current path, write a folder "Temp" on RAM -disk. In the end it should work 4 changed values.

After editing the environment variable values reboot Windows.

Moving folder contents "Temp" on RAM The disk also makes access to them convenient. Which will come in handy for cases of allocation under RAM-small volume disk RAM. Folders "Temp" It is necessary to periodically clean them, because they often grow to incredible volumes. You can also clear folders "Temp" according to their previous path on disk WITH to free up extra space on it.

RAM disk is a virtual disk created in a free area of ​​RAM, which is perceived by the operating system as separate physical disk. Due to the fact that the RAM disk is stored in fast RAM, all read/write operations from such a disk are performed almost instantly, even faster than when using an SSD drive (for the most productive SSD speed data transfer is now about 560MB/s, while DDR4 memory is 12000-25000MB/s).

Using a RAM disk is advisable in systems with excess RAM. On such a RAM disk you can place cache and temporary application/system files, temporary SQL databases, thereby achieving a significant increase in application performance.

The Windows operating system does not have built-in tools for creating RAM disks, so for these purposes you have to use third-party programs (AMD RAMDisk, ImDisk, PassMark OSFMount, StarWind RAM Disk etc.).

However, in Windows Server you can create a RAM disk without using third-party programs. To do this, you can use the iSCSI driver.

First of all, you need to install a component on the server (part of the File and Storage Services role).

If you have the Windows firewall enabled, you must allow traffic to the iSCSI Service.

To allow traffic to the loopback interface for iSCSI, you need to change the DWORD parameter value in the HKLM\Software\Microsoft\iSCSI Target registry key to 1 . You can use one command:

Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\iSCSI Target" -Name AllowLoopBack -Value 1

Now open the PowerShell console and create a 5 GB virtual RAM disk with the command:

New-IscsiVirtualDisk -Path "ramdisk:testRAM.vhdx" -Size 5GB

Now you need to create an iSCSI target:

New-IscsiServerTarget -TargetName targetRAMDisk -InitiatorIds @("IPAddress:10.1.1.200")

Let's connect the RAM disk to the created iSCSI target

Add-IscsiVirtualDiskTargetMapping -TargetName targetRAMDisk -DevicePath "ramdisk:testRAM.vhdx"

Now you need to launch the iSCSI Initiator console through Server Manager

On the Targets tab, specify the IP address of your server, click Quick Connect and connect your iSCSI target.

Now open the Disk Management console and check that you have a new 5 GB disk. This is the same RAM disk. Initialize, partition and format this disk. Assign it a drive letter.

Now you can transfer necessary files to a RAM disk and reconfigure the software to use this disk.

After rebooting the server, the RAM disk is deleted (along with all its contents) and must be recreated again.

Some third-party programs for creating RAM disks have the ability to save RAM disk data to a file on your hard drive. After the system reboots, the data is extracted and placed on the RAM disk.

If you often switch between a large number applications and files, then a few seconds of difference at startup is far from a trifle. You probably know that the easiest way to get such a boost is to buy an SSD. But what if you don't have the opportunity to use it? Or maybe you already have solid state drive and you want to save another second or two while reducing disk wear? In this case, you should experiment with a RAM disk - launching applications directly from the image in RAM.

While writing this article, it was difficult for me to shake off the feeling of déjà vu. I remember about seventeen years ago I created disks in memory to speed up the work of the old “Searchs”, which worked without hard drives. Loading took place from a floppy disk; when loading into memory, a RAM disk was used (an image with software DOS). After loading the image into memory, all DOS utilities were loaded from this RAM disk, and not from a floppy disk, thanks to which the old “Search” worked much faster and the floppy disks themselves wore out less.

It turned out that the RAM disk is still relevant today. With its help (if you have a sufficiently large amount of RAM), you can speed up your computer (a memory disk works faster than an SSD) or Live USB (the idea is the same as with “Search”), and extend the life of your hard drive/SSD.

Why is this necessary?

Goals can be absolutely anything. You can either install applications on the RAM disk or use it to store data. Those who like to play can install their favorite toy on the RAM disk, but then the system must have more than 8 GB of RAM.

The most logical scenario for a RAM disk is computers with conventional hard drives- especially on laptops entry level, Where hard drives They don't shine with performance. True, it will not be possible to completely replace an SSD in this way, if only because of the price. Let's say a 60GB SSD can be purchased for about $60. Organizing a RAM disk of such capacity will be problematic. Firstly, not all computers support 64 GB of RAM. Secondly, finding a module with a capacity of 32 GB is still a problem. At the time of writing, offers on Yandex.Market were mainly for memory with a frequency of 1333–1600 MHz with a price starting from 22 thousand rubles per module.

To summarize, the best option for using a RAM disk is a laptop with usual hard disk and 8 GB of RAM. Of the 8 GB, 4 GB can be allocated for a RAM disk. The remaining 4 GB is enough for quite comfortable work. And on the RAM disk you can install either one “heavy” application or a set of frequently used applications.

What do we need

Firstly, at least 6 GB of RAM, the more the better. Secondly, we will need a 64-bit version of Windows to support large (more than 3.25 GB) amounts of RAM. Thirdly, you need a program to create a RAM disk and work with it. In this article we will look at the Lite version of Dataram RAMDisk. This version is free, but the maximum supported disk space in memory is only 4 GB. Paid version costs $18.99 and supports drives larger than 4GB.

Setting up a RAM disk

There is nothing complicated about setting up a RAM disk. First of all, download and install the Dataram RAMDisk program. There are no problems with installation, the program works in both 32- and 64-bit Windows versions(I personally tested its operation in 32/64-bit Windows 7 and 64-bit Windows 8), however, as already noted, the 64-bit version is recommended - this way you can support larger RAM disks.

After installation, you need to run the configuration utility (Fig. 1) - either through the main menu or directly from the installer. I had a little confusion with the configuration program. At first I didn’t pay attention to the action being performed - by default, the program does not try to create a RAM disk, but to use an existing one (even when starting it for the first time), so when I pressed the Start RAMDisk button, naturally, nothing happened, and I also could not select the RAM size -disk.

Therefore, the first thing you need to do is select the Create a new FAT disk action, after which you will have the opportunity to set the size of the RAM disk and additional parameters. You also need to select the Save them on shutdown action so that the data written to the RAM disk is saved when the system or disk is shut down. You can select the disk location by clicking the Browse button: do not try to enter it manually, otherwise, every time you press the key, the program will tell you that such a file does not exist and it will be created :).

The minimum size of a RAM disk is 40 MB (who needs that - I don’t know). The maximum is calculated approximately like this: the maximum amount of RAM is approximately 30%.

Theoretically, you can click the Start RAMDisk button and start working. But we’re not looking for easy ways, right? Therefore, select the menu command View, Advanced to set additional parameters. After this, tabs with advanced parameters will appear. So, on the Settings tab you can set the size of the RAM disk, determine the type of file system (you can even create an unformatted disk, and then format it as NTFS using Windows), select the boot sector format, set the disk label and create the TEMP directory.

On the Load/Save tab, you can enable automatic loading of the disk image at startup, as well as enable/disable saving the image upon shutdown. The Options tab allows you to set various options such as Clear RAMDisk memory on exit - an option for the paranoid, prohibiting compression of the image file on NTFS (Do not compress image file on NTFS filesystems) and others. As for me, the only useful option here is to prohibit disk compression (Do not compress image file on NTFS filesystems), since if compression is already enabled on an NTFS disk, I see no reason to compress the disk image again, however, I also don’t see It makes sense to use compression on NTFS. Why first forcefully reduce performance using compressed disks, and then heroically try to improve it using a RAM disk?

Now you can press that treasured Start RAMDisk button. When you start the RAM disk for the first time, you will need to install its driver, so in the window that appears, click the “Install” button.

Next, you need to wait until the RAM disk is created and formatted. On my not very fast laptop, this operation took a couple of seconds, which felt like system slowdown while creating the image file. After this, you can work with the RAM disk as with a regular disk.

If not selected in the program settings automatic download disk at startup, then next time (after the system reboot) you will need to select the Load a saved image action.

Results

Fans of numbers and diagrams can run a disk performance test and compare the results with the usual hard drive and with SSD. In this article, I will not specifically present such results, since in theory (in these diagrams) everything will be very colorful - reading performance will increase by 50 times, and when writing, a 20-fold acceleration will be felt.

But what will we get in practice? In practice, everything will not be so beautiful, but the results will still be there. So, downloading the same Word 2010 from the usual hard drive takes about three seconds on the average computer. Loading Word 2010 from a RAM disk, the image of which is located on a regular hard drive, will happen twice as fast - in about 1.5 seconds. However, loading the same application from an SSD without any RAM disks takes less than a second. Launching an application from a RAM disk whose image is located on an SSD disk will take less than half a second.

Good day, dear friends, acquaintances, readers, passing individuals and all, all, all. As you understand, today we will talk about what is ram disk, why it might be needed, how to set it up and use it.

Articles are rarely published so far (but they are published :-)), since a huge amount of work is being done in all areas of sites, I think, the line you know. Over time, we will return not just to the previous pace, but also to a greater frequency of publications, so that, so to speak, you do not get bored.

By the way, just one of these days long-term construction projects will be crawling out, namely a site-about-website-creation and a hard version. Actually, the delay with the articles is due to their active revision. Well, yes, it’s getting ready lightly here new version design website, as well as the promised buns with mobile version and all that other stuff.

For the first time in the history of the project, I want, within the framework of the article, to remind you that you can, in some way, support its development, funds for which are especially needed now. However, the matter is up to you, and therefore, aside from the lyrics and organizational moments, let’s move on to the very topic of the article, i.e. directly to what it is ram disk.

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Where, in the first screenshot, is, in fact, the little defenseless RAID 0 from two disks, and on the second directly RAM-disk. As you probably understood yourself, the difference between the speeds, roughly speaking, differs somewhere in 10 once to the side RAM-disk, let alone access time ( Access Time) I am generally silent. Speed, of course, was measured according to one of the articles, namely "".

Who will benefit from such RAM disk performance?

Yes, in general, everyone who has a lot of RAM, especially since it now costs a penny (from 300 rubles per gigabyte DDR3). In addition, it is perfect for Windows 10.

It will be especially convenient for those who 8 -a gigabyte at home, like mine. And the owner of the servers... However, the latter themselves know what to do with all this :)

Why is such power of a ram disk needed?

Yes, in general, because the last thing in the system that really loses in performance is the hard drives. Therefore, I personally recommend dragging disk-dependent programs to RAM-disks, i.e. the very ones we are talking about.

There, even the same one, my favorite Firefox, being cleverly transferred along with the profile (I’ll tell you separately), it flies like I didn’t fly with, although it seemed like it was much faster :)

In general, given the price of, I personally still don’t really understand why they haven’t, at least partially, replaced the usual hdd, especially since the difference in speed is simply colossal.

What does a ram disk look like in practice?

Very simple, namely... like a regular disk.

More precisely, the program creates a virtual drive that uses part of the RAM and presents itself to the user like regular partitions in the system, i.e. there is nothing complicated or specific about it, but from a practical point of view it’s just lovely :)

However, aside from the lyrics. Let's get to practice.

Download, install and configure ram disk

Actually, as you understand from the title, we will talk about a wonderful free program(with a slight limitation on the maximum size of the disk created) called Dataram RAMDisk, which, in fact, helps everything described above come to life.

I would like to note that it is almost the only one in its segment that is free, of this kind of programs (and also sane for workers), a miracle of programmer thought. Even everyone is supported Windows. Unfortunately, there is no Russian interface, but this is not critical, since everything is quite simple there and I will tell you everything now.

You can download the program here by clicking on the button " Download It" on the left. Installation is extremely simple (consists of only " Next"ov"), so we will not dwell on it.

So, after installation and launch (double click on the shortcut " RAMDisk Configuration Utility") program, you will see the following window for setting up such a thing as ram disk:

With some differences, because I am showing an already configured version of the program (it’s difficult to show from scratch, because the machine where the review is being written is now actively using the section and it doesn’t seem possible for me to stop, because it will be difficult to write further :)).

Let's immediately go through how to set everything up so that it works and as in the screenshots.

"Settings" tab and your ram disk

As you can see from the screenshot above, our magic program, first of all, plaintively asks you to set the size of the virtual partition in the field Disk Size. For trial purposes, you can make the partition size for now 1 GB, in order to test what it’s like.

Next, select the type of organization of the file system, namely what is indicated to the right of the dimensions, i.e. FAT32/FAT16(if you can't choose FAT32, then we leave FAT16), and then the boot sector type ( Windows boot sector).

Note:
Don't rush to press " Start RAMDisk" (thus creating a virtual disk), because first you need to configure everything correctly.

Now let's go to "Load and Save" tab" and here we set the following parameters:

You need to check the box here " Load Disk Image at Startup" And " Save Disk Image on Shutdown".

The trick is that so that the contents of our ram the disk was not lost after turning off the computer (and, as you hope you know, RAM is cleared during reboots/shutdowns, unlike hard drives), our high-speed partition will be written to a file of the appropriate size, for which, in fact, the checkmark we set indicates" Save Disk Image on Shutdown".

The first of them loads the contents of this very file when the system starts.

• Path where the file is written ram disk (equal in volume to what we set on the first tab) is specified under each of the checkboxes by clicking on the folder image. The paths must be the same;
• Alternatively, you can also check the box " AutoSave" and set the time for constant auto-saving to disk in a file, which will help avoid problems with an unexpected reboot, and all sorts of other sudden horrors with the computer. I don’t have to, because this doesn’t happen in principle;
• You can also assign some sonorous name to your RAM disk(check the box " Disk Label" and specifying the name). Create a temporary directory (" Create TEMP directory) is not necessary.

Well on the tab"Options" let's check the last two boxes we need, namely, " Do not create backup file when saving disk image" And " Do not compress image file on NTFS filesystems".

The first one, which "Do not create", allows you not to create backup copy file when saving a disk image, so that there is no mess of saves and problems with the load on the disk subsystem. The second one, which "Do not compress", do not compress the image file into file system NTFS, which I think is worth it to all of you.

If you wish, you can also put " Manually set RAMdisk timeout value" is a parameter that allows you to manually set the required identification time ram disk (the time when it is identified by the OS as a virtual disk), which is convenient if you have a problem and the system boots slowly.

That's it, having completed all the settings, you can start the disk using the " button Start RAMDisk".

Afterword

I deliberately omitted the options for using this disk in RAM, mentioning only briefly the transfer of the browser and disk-dependent programs. The essence of this “intention” is not only that I don’t want to make a big mess out of the article, but I also decided to hold a small competition, namely...

• The author of the most interesting and correct idea for using such a mega-fast disk will receive from the author and the project an excellent, nice gift, pleasant and far away Not good-for-nothing ;)
• Write your ideas in the comments, as well as questions, additions, thanks and anything else that you like to write :)

That's all for now, I ran to finish the long-term construction, so tomorrow, by evening, we can expect either both new sites, or one for sure, fortunately, even the server for them has already been purchased for a long time;)