RAM Disk HOWTO for Windows Vista Ultimate
32bit only
Website: //www.arsoft-online.com/
Product: AR RAM Disk
Problem: Windows Vista supports up to 3 GB of RAM. I have 4 GB.
Solution: RAM disk?
Preamble:
Arsoft stopped development and support of the AR RAM disk before Windows Vista
grew up, so some experimentation was called for. If you are a do-it-yourselfer, just
download ramdisk.zip and go for it. It took me about 15 or 20 reboots, but I did it. Maybe
you'll find something I missed.
There is no documentation included with the download, and arsoft is tired of you
whining like a little crybaby, so I guess they removed everything except the ramdisk.zip
file and a final farewell.
Howto:
So here we go:
1) ramdisk.zip contains one file: setup.exe. Extract it.
2) Right-click that bad boy and say, "Properties." Then say, "Compatibility."
3) Select 'Run this program in compatibility mode for:' Windows 2000. At the bottom, check
'Run this program as an administrator'
3a) Other modes may work and give different results. I had no joy using
Windows XP mode and was getting tired of trying.
4) This installation is over quicker than you'd expect. It gives you the option of configuring it
right then, so you might as well. A window with three tabs opens.
5) Here are my successful settings:
TAB: General:
Startup Type: System
Operating mode: Emulate a local hard disk
TAB: Geometry:
In my setup, setting the size to 1024 MB caused it to fail. Setting it to 798 MB was successful,
but the RAM disk was only 254 MB. So I set it to 244 MB so there wouldn't be lost, hidden RAM.
Maybe playing around with the next three items on that tab and the items on the next tab would
have helped, but I left them at their defaults and moved on.
TAB: File System:
I left everything alone.
Success!
So what do you do with a RAM disk? Here's one idea:
http://meedio.com/forum/post-151774.html
Here's 2.3 million more, give or take:
http://64.233.187.104/search?hl=en&q=What+do+you+do+with+a+RAM+disk%3F
Problems:
AVG Control Center for AVG free edition crashed once. Virus protection and scanning
still occurs (test: //www.fiveanddime.net/kevinsvirus.html).
I've stress-tested it as much as I can, but it won't crash again.
www.fiveanddime.net
