Free Ramdisk for Windows Vista, XP, 2000 and 2003 Server

  1. Parameters registry is

    HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\RRamdisk\Parameters\

    Why RRamdisk? Because XP SP1 contain a Ramdisk driver for XP Embeded.

  2. Parameter: DiskSizeM, DiskSizeK

    Your desired disk size, the unit is M bytes or K bytes. The DiskSizeK has higher priority.

  3. Parameter: MediaType

    The reported drive type:

    1 — RAM Drive
    2 — Fixed Media (default)
    3 — Removable Media
    4 — Floppy Diskette

  4. Parameter: DriveLetter

    Name say it is, default is R:

  5. Parameter: SectorsPerCluster

    Your desired cluster size, zero for driver pickup:

    <= 2M FAT12, cluster=512
    <= 32M FAT16, cluster=512
    <= 64M FAT16, cluster=1k
    <= 128M FAT16, cluster=2k
    <= 256M FAT16, cluster=4k
    <= 512M FAT32, cluster=2k
    <= 16G FAT32, cluster=4k
    and more...

    You can specify smaller cluster size, force pre-format as FAT32.

  6. Parameter: Image

    Maintained by rdutil utlilty, mainly for preload NTFS image. Eg:

    1. Load ramdisk, don’t write anything.
    2. Format the ramdisk

      FORMAT /FS:NTFS /Q /V:RamDisk /A:512 R:

    3. Adjust logfile to minimum size

      CHKDSK /L:2048 R:

    4. Reset access rights

      CACLS R:\ /G: BUILTIN\Adminstrators:F

    5. Create necessary structure

      MKDIR R:\TEMP

    6. Pack the disk image and save to registry

      rdutil R: registry

    Notes:

    1. You should leave RamDisk as clean as possible before packing, the max packed image size is 64K.
    2. The disk image only valid to same RamDisk size, you should re-create disk image when size changed.
    3. The driver internal formater will disable if this registry present, corrupt/size-mismatch value leave an un-formated disk.

    rdutil Utlility Usage:

    1. Backup registry image

      rdutil save filename

    2. Restore registry image

      rdutil load filename

    3. Report packed image size

      rdutil R:
      rdutil registry
      rdutil unpacked_file

      Second command reading DriveLetter from registry, while the third is packing an unpacked image file.

    4. Packing image & save to registry

      rdutil R: registry

    5. Packing image & save to file

      rdutil R: packed_file

    6. Unpacking image

      rdutil unpack packed_file unpacked_file

    7. Link NTFS junction to Ramdisk

      rdutil link temp \

  7. You can re-format RamDisk except RAMDrive media type. Eg:

    FixedMedia type:
    FORMAT /FS:NTFS /FORCE /Q /V:RamDisk /A:512 R:

    RemovableMedia type:
    ECHO Y | FORMAT /FS:NTFS /FORCE /Q /V:RamDisk /A:512 R:

    You can place your format command to startup script. I don’t recommend re-format to FAT, the pre-formated RamDisk is more efficient than other format utililty.

  8. Pagefile support - You can set pagefile to FixMedia type disk w/ pre-formated system. If you need other MediaType or re-format, use the addswap.exe utility:

    addswap r:\pagefile.sys 16 32

    Create pagefile r:\pagefile.sys with min=16M max=32M.

  9. TEMP directory - You should set TEMP/TMP directory to TEMP sub-directory, don’t use the root directory.
  10. NTFS junction point to RAMDrive - You can’t create NTFS junction point to RAMDrive media type, Fixed & Removable Media type should work.
  11. Connectix VirtualPC compatibility - Someone report problem with VirtualPC+physical volume/disk. Please set MediaType to RAMDrive/Removable.
  12. Mountpoint without DriveLetter

    Clear DriveLetter registry value will not create Drive Letter for Ramdisk.

    Attn. Don’t delete the DriveLetter registry, which fall to default R:. You can setup mountpoint/junction linking to this unnamed Ramdisk. Eg:

    rdutil link C:\ramdisk
    link C:\ramdisk to root of Ramdisk

    rdutil link C:\TEMP TEMP
    link C:\TEMP to \TEMP at Ramdisk

    rmdir C:\ramdisk
    rmdir can remove the link without clear target content

    NoDriveLetter configuration isn’t recommended, because most AntiVirus software cannot realtime scan Volume w/o Drive Letter.

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29 Responses to “Free Ramdisk for Windows Vista, XP, 2000 and 2003 Server”

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  1. dr mark
    March 1st, 2008 04:58
    29

    found the reason why it fails
    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/257405
    Windows XP Update:

    Installing the Ramdisk sample driver in a NTFS only machine might make it unusable. To resolve this problem make the following change:

    While you call the IoCreateDevice function (RamdiskAddDevice function in pnp.c), change the device type from FILE_DEVICE_VIRTUAL_DISK to FILE_DEVICE_DISK and recompile the driver. After you install the driver, restart the system in order to access the Ramdisk through Explorer.

    Someone please inform Gavotte and have a fix made. Thank you

  2. dr mark
    March 1st, 2008 04:05
    28

    05.23.2007 version and greater allows for x64 support

  3. dr mark
    March 1st, 2008 04:03
    27

    The ramdisk driver has an error. Setting the ramdisk media type to ramdisk is missing a component for proper initialization (the other file types work well). Another drive that has removable media is required to load up required drivers for this ramdisk - without the removable media the ramdisk is RAW. As soon as the removable media is inserted the Ramdisk is usable.

    This is most likely an oversight as that the writer having this dependent component loaded up in the background didn’t realize it was dependent. Systems without this component do not work. There is a newer release as well 01.01.2008 which allows for >=4GB ramdisks (the error is still apparent within this new release)

  4. Robert
    February 28th, 2008 03:35
    26

    Dear Chang,
    I don’t know the behaviour of Rramdisk under Win Vista. I still use Win2000. In my oppinion this is the most stable one among all the Windows family. Not all what is newest is always the best.

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