When I was looking for a modern replacement that of course offers more and, above all, is Windows 7 compatible, I came across the RAMDisk from DataRam.
The features read well: Freeware, Windows 7 compatible, up to 4GB Ramdisk, if required for a small fee up to 64 GB and even better, the possibly unused memory with a 32 bit Windows, which exceeds the 4 GB limit, can be used as a ramdisk!
Why a RAMDisk?
A RAM disk is a virtual / temporary disk in the computer's memory.
It grabs an area of the main memory (RAM) and uses it as a virtual drive.
With today's RAM equipment of 3 and more GB, as well as low prices for RAM, it is no problem to sacrifice an area for a RAM drive or to invest in new RAM, because the speed is many times higher than the throughput of a hard disk for some areas of application
There are two aspects that speak in favor of a RAM drive
The speed advantage over a normal hard drive and the security.
For example, those who move their temporary files, be it from the browser or those of the system to the ramdisk, no longer need to worry about manual removal.
after a restart the ramdisk is empty again and the system is clean.
The possibilities are diverse, for example a system-dependent jerky video could be played smoothly from the ramdisk.
DataRam RAMDisk features and system requirements
The DataRam RAMDisk is freeware up to a Ramdisk size of 4GB.
If you want to exceed the size of 4GB, you can purchase a license for USD 9,99 (price information without guarantee).
The offer is only valid for the USA, Canada and Great Britain.
The license is not required for RAM disks under 4GB.
Universal version for Windows XP / 2000, Vista (32 and 64-bit) Home Basic, Home Premium, Business and Ultimate, Windows Server 2003 Standard, Web and Enterprise Edition. Windows 7 compatible.
Since a 32-bit Windows does not use more than 4 GB (realistically the value is just over 3 GB), it usually makes no sense to build in more RAM. With the DataRam ramdisk, the memory that exceeds the RAM size managed by Windows and is actually unused can be used as a ramdisk if more than 4GB is available!
The installation
After the download, which is available at the end of the article, unzip the Dataram_RAMDisk_V3.5.130RC14.zip into a folder of your choice and start the Dataram_RAMDisk_V3.5.130RC14.msi
First the so-called "License Agreement" has to be confirmed and the installation has to be personalized by entering a name and possibly a company name.
The installation location can be freely selected, the standard is the program folder of the Windows installation.
After the installation there is a folder named RAMDisk with a size of 3,84 MB.
In the start menu there is now the entry "RAMDisk Configuration Utility" 
The RAMDisk Configuration Utility
Next to the menu items Fillet and Help there are buttons for starting and stopping the ramdisk as well as the 4 tabs, the options of which I will describe in more detail here
Settings
Basic settings such as the size of the ramdisk, formatting and the boot sector settings are made here.
The ramdisk size is displayed in 1 MB steps for discs under one GB.
For ram disks between 1 GB and 2 GB, 2MB steps are used and for ram disks between 3 and 4 GB, 3 MB steps.
The formatting determines the possible size assignments.
The smallest ramdisk size that can be set is 5 MB
FAT16:
Advantages: DOS compatible
Minimum size: 5 MB
Maximum size: 2 GB
FAT32:
Advantage: Smaller cluster size
Minimum size: 33 MB
Maximum size: 2 GB
Unformatted:
Advantages: Can later be converted to NTFS using Windows tools.
Minimum size: 5 MB
Maximum size: 64 GB
Boot sector settings
The choice whether DOS or Windows bootsector has nothing to do with the possibility of booting from the ramdisk.
That does not work!
Rather, it is an option if the ramdisk is used as a master image file for a bootable CD or hard drive.
Load and save
An image can be loaded here every time the system is started and / or a TEMP directory can be created.
The image in the RAM can also be backed up to the physically available hard disk at certain intervals.
Event Log
Events are logged and displayed here, which are based on the Windows event logs and from which the Ramdisk events are filtered.
Can be helpful if the ramdisk is not doing what it is supposed to.
Advanced
This tab is only visible if certain requirements are met.
The system is a 32 bit operating system and there are more than 4 GB physical ram installed.
It is not available on 64-bit versions due to the 4 GB RAM limitation that does not exist there.
The Advanced tab shows how much memory above the 4 GB used by Windows can be used as a ramdisk.
Practical use
So let's create a ramdisk now.
In the "Settings"I choose 150 MB and a Fat32 format.
Under "Load and save"I put a tick next to" Create Temp Directory "and as disk label I leave it on "ramdisk"so that we can easily identify them later.
Then we start them with "Start ramdisk".
When using it for the first time, a "Windows Security" dialog box appears, which wants to confirm the installation of the required drivers.
It is possible that the ramdisk does not start the first time and complains about the lack of administration rights and refers to the "EventLogs" for further help.
A new start let the ramdisk "start up" without any problems.
Windows recognizes the new drive immediately and, like a USB stick, the dialog window for setting "automatic playback" appears.
It is also displayed as a drive in My Computer and is available even after a restart.
It is integrated in the device manager and is also displayed in the data carrier management.
If necessary, the ramdisk can also be assigned a different drive letter there.
What you put in this ramdisk is up to you.
I move the storage location of the temporary Internet files of IE to the Temp folder on the Ramdisk.
Under Internet Options> General> Browsing History> Settings
After adopting the settings and the resulting necessary system logoff and login, the temporary Internet files are now located under
J: \ TEMP \ Temporary Internet Files
We can also put the paths of the Temp folder for Windows there.
Under Control Panel> System> Advanced System Settings> Environment Variables
There you can find the user-specific variables but also the system variables.
There are two variables there for the temporary data, namely TMP and TEMP.
The standard path is:% USERPROFILE% \ AppData \ Local \ Temp
For both, the path must be directed to the ramdisk.
Everyone has to know for themselves whether the system and user temp folders are created on the ramdisk.
In this example I have created it like this, see screenshot.
If you open the IE temp folder and position it next to the browser window, you can easily see how the IE shovels data into the directory.
In the future, the browser, system and user-specific temp files will be saved on the ramdisk and will be gone every time the system is restarted.
Manual reworking to get rid of temporary files is not necessary.
But this is only one possibility and intended as a test for the functionality of the DataRam Ramdisk.
The possibilities are diverse and I would be happy if I received some feedback on the use of the Ramdisk.
A short sentence about the type of operation or whatever is quickly made ;-)
Download the DataRam ramdisk
Similar topic:
Create RamDisk with Win 7 Pro and Gavotte
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© Copyright Michael Hille
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