Good RAM Disk software?

abactuon · Feb 13, 2023

A priori the average user (like me) is assumed to have bought a computer with 32GB RAM and this memory is unused. It is only possible to create a simple drive.

abactuon · Jul 24, 2023

I read on the Internet :

"Arsenal Image Mounter includes a virtual SCSI adapter (via a unique Storport miniport driver) which allows users to benefit from disk-specific features in Windows like integration with Disk Manager"

I didn't understand how to make a static ram disk from the downloaded code from the main site (It only turns out 1Gb).
I downloaded an older version from github.

Arsenal-Image-Mounter/DriverSetup/DriverSetup.7z at master · ArsenalRecon/Arsenal-Image-Mounter

Arsenal Image Mounter mounts the contents of disk images as complete disks in Microsoft Windows. - ArsenalRecon/Arsenal-Image-Mounter

github.com

You need to unpack
E:\DriverSetup.7z\Win10\
и
E:\DriverSetup.7z\cli\x64\

It should look something like this

Install the driver.

Create a script to run on startup (AIMMount.ps1).

$disk = "E:"
Start-Process "C:\Program Files\AIM\aim_ll.exe" -ArgumentList "-a -s 7G -m $disk -p `"/fs:exfat /v:RamDisk /q /y`"" -NoNewWindow -Wait
#(Get-Item $disk -Force).Attributes = 'Hidden, System, Directory, NotContentIndexed'
New-Item -Path "E:\Temp" -ItemType Directory
Exit

Copy three files to the system disk somewhere, e.g.

Create the task

and

You can disable unnecessary services.

Get-Service -Name vhdaccess | Stop-Service -Force
Set-Service -Name vhdaccess -StartupType Disabled

Get-Service -Name awealloc | Stop-Service -Force
Set-Service -Name awealloc -StartupType Disabled

P.S. The "bug" described in the post above has disappeared ("bug" when used ImDisk or OSFMount).
P.P.S. But "Recycle Bin" came along. You need to disable it through the settings.

johnlgalt · Jul 24, 2023

Windows Defender does not like that DriverSetup.7z lol. But it allowed me to download DriverFiles.7z with no issue. Probably a false pos, but I can manually install the drivers from the other file without issue.

kizzna · Jul 30, 2023

E5-2690 v4 with 128GB RAM.
Seeking for good Ram Disk software brought me here.
Here are my findings.

1-7. Ram Disk softwares.
8. PrimoCache with read-only cache.
9. PrimoCache with write cache enabled.

johnlgalt · Jul 31, 2023

Those are really good screenshots. However, there is nothing showing the way you set up all of those programs that you tested.

That would be helpful for a more informed decision.

karsten · Apr 15, 2024

There is some other software available called Gimerspace Ram folder. Like the name suggests, it is not a ram disk but assigns a folder as if it was a ram disk. What I found amazing is that it is much faster than ram disks. When I use it for games I really notice the difference compared to traditional ram disks.

johnlgalt · Apr 18, 2024

RAM Folder - GiMeSpace Windows Desktop Software

GiMeSpace software for Windows Desktops: Virtual Scrolling Desktop Managers, RAM Folder, KVM, TouchSpace Synthesizer, Power Control, Cam Control, QuickMenu

gimespace.com

The Pro version has a special option to enable smart write caching on a folder. This means that files in those folders will be written to the disk once the program has finished with them. This is useful when you want to accelerate heavy file IO and avoid needless disk access. Windows read cache is already very good, but the native Windows write cache is very conservative, always trying to write data to files as soon as possible. Windows does this to make sure your files are always up to date and you will not likely lose any data in case of a crash. There are many disk caching programs that enable write caching which greatly reduces the number of writes to your disk meaning that your SSD is not wearing out that quickly and greatly speeding up your programs. But these programs have one danger: If a program or even Windows crashes, you lose the data in the cache and even disk corruption can occur. GiMeSpace RAM folder has a smarter way to do write caching: It never caches disk management writes or any system/kernel access. It only caches the files of your user programs. It caches the content of files until a program is completely done with it and then writes the whole file in one go to the disk. This way the chance that a file is corrupted is even lower then when you use the native Windows write caching because it ensures only the latest finalized version of the file is written to disk and not all the intermediary stages like what Windows is doing.

GiMeSpace RAM Temp Folder is the Lite edition of this program. It is optimized for systems with very little memory in such a way that they can still enjoy the benefits of fast file access in the Temporary folder while avoiding needless disc access. It will only transform your temporay folder into a RAM Folder and will never use more than 128mb which is enough for typical daily windows usage.

Interesting.

PerpetualCycle · Apr 18, 2024

johnlgalt said:
Those are really good screenshots. However, there is nothing showing the way you set up all of those programs that you tested.

That would be helpful for a more informed decision.

Exactly. For instance, I have Primocache setup with enough read RAM cache to persistently store all of the programs I use, but with just enough write RAM cache to overcome the lower performance4 of writes. I could have configured it differently with way different results.

And I am sure each of those caching software have their strong and weak points in functionality in addition to performance.

Would be good to include all of that detail. though it is very useful to see them all together. No "F" grades.

Straight from nvme disk: