Free RAM Disk for Windows XP, 2003, 2008, Vista, 7 and 8

[Vortex]

Free RAM Disk for Windows XP, 2003, 2008, Vista, 7 and 8 by SoftPerfect :

http://www.softperfect.com/products/ramdisk

Key features of the RAM Disk

Any number of RAM disks. In practice, up to 26 disks due to the number of drive letters available.
Any RAM disk size on 64-bit systems. Up to approximately 3.5 GB on 32-bit systems.
Persistent RAM disks with an associated on-disk image.
Volatile RAM disks whose content disappears on shutdown.
Built-in disk image manipulation tools.

[Gunther]

Good link, Vortex. Thank you.  :t

Gunther

[jimg]

Actual download link
http://www.softperfect.com/download/freeware/ramdisk_setup.exe
not all the doubleclick links all over the page

[Vortex]

Hi jimg,

Welcome to the forum.

[Gunther]

Hi jimg,

thank you for the link and welcome to the forum. Have a lot of fun.

Gunther

[Vortex]

Latest version : 3.3.1 (Oct 06, 2012)

Changelog :

Major optimisation with performance gains 20% to 900% in various tests.
Added Greek language and others updated.
EULA changed for commercial organisations.

http://www.softperfect.com/products/ramdisk

[Gunther]

Hi Vortex,

Latest version : 3.3.1 (Oct 06, 2012)

Changelog :

Major optimisation with performance gains 20% to 900% in various tests.
Added Greek language and others updated.
EULA changed for commercial organisations.

http://www.softperfect.com/products/ramdisk

I've to update my current version. Works fine.

Gunther

[fearless]

Had Dataram's ramdisk installed previously (http://memory.dataram.com/products-and-services/software/ramdisk - freeware edition) and im trying out this SoftPrefect one. Have my temp, local profile temp, iecache and firefox cache pointing to folders on it for the moment.

Edit: Seen an article that mentions AMD partnering up with Dataram for what i assume is an AMD branded version of their ramdisk: http://blogs.amd.com/play/2012/10/10/give-your-pc-a-boost-with-amd-radeon-ramdisk/

[Vortex]

Hi fearless,

Thanks for the links.

Does Dataram's software support 64-bit operating systems?

[fearless]

From their webpage under the product links it has some info:

Dataram RAMDisk - Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, XP, Server Intel or AMD-based system with at least 512MB RAM.  Dataram RAMDisk is compatible with all versions of Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista (x86 and x64), Windows XP (x86 and x64), all editions of Windows Server 2003 (x86 and x64), all editions of Windows server 2008 (x86 and x64). Dataram RAMDisk is freeware for personal use (up to 4 GB disk size). Disks larger than 4 GB require registration and a license which can be purchased for $18.99 USD. Registration and license are not required for disks under 4 GB

From what i remember when running it, it prompts to install to Program Files (x86) and i think its a 32bit process running under the WOW64 stuff (on my Win7 64bit at least), but all seems to work fine.
Not sure if one ramdisk prog is better or easier to use than the other, they both seem pretty easy to install/use - few niggles or gotchas in either program (dataram ramdisk not stopping driver/softperfect ramdisk not unmounting images sometimes) but no big issues or BSODs or the like.

Performance wise, for what im using them for - temp folders/files and caches - all seems fine. Both work.

[MichaelW]

Has anyone tested these ram disks against a normal disk buffered by the system disk cache, to see if they actually provide a significant performance advantage?

[Vortex]

Hi MichaelW,

A ram disk can have a very high size on 64-bit operating systems. Did you test the disk buffer with a high value? This is what I found :

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa965240%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

http://forum.sysinternals.com/setsystemfilecachesize_topic27005.html

[Gunther]

Hi Vortex,

Hi MichaelW,

A ram disk can have a very high size on 64-bit operating systems. Did you test the disk buffer with a high value? This is what I found :

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa965240%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

http://forum.sysinternals.com/setsystemfilecachesize_topic27005.html

Very interesting for me. But let me say: it's typical for MS. Thank you for the links.

Gunther

[Vortex]

Changelog :

2012-10-11   3.3.2   
Fixed creating and mounting large image files.
Fixed corruption of large files on NTFS based RAM disks.

http://www.softperfect.com/download/freeware/ramdisk_setup.exe

[Gunther]

Hi Vortex,

Changelog :

2012-10-11   3.3.2   
Fixed creating and mounting large image files.
Fixed corruption of large files on NTFS based RAM disks.

http://www.softperfect.com/download/freeware/ramdisk_setup.exe

have you currently running that software? Seems to be under active development.

Gunther