up vote 61 down vote favorite
29
share [g+] share [fb]

Just Googling for "windows ramdisk" returns a lot of stuff; some free, some paid. Can someone recommend a good one? (I'm willing to pay, but only if it's really worth paying for.)

Here's what I'm looking for:

  • Works on XP and Vista
  • Supports 64 bit and 32 bit
  • I'd like it to support more than 2GB of space (is that even possible on a 32 bit operating system?)
  • I think I want something that can avoid swapping the ramdisk pages. (Though swapping would give me more free space; maybe I'll want to swap the ramdisk pages eventually? Is this configurable?)
link|improve this question
67% accept rate
feedback

closed as not constructive by Simon Sheehan, studiohack♦ 6 hours ago

This question is not a good fit to our Q&A format. We expect answers to generally involve facts, references, or specific expertise; this question will likely solicit opinion, debate, arguments, polling, or extended discussion. See the FAQ.

8 Answers

up vote 33 down vote accepted

Dataram Ramdisk seems OK:

  • Freeware version (up to 4 GB disk size).
  • Universal version for WindowsXP/2000, Vista (32 and 64-bit) Home Basic, Home Premium, Business and Ultimate, Windows Server 2003 Standard, Web and Enterprise Edition
  • Up to 32 GB disk in Vista and Windows 2003, 2008 Server (paid mode)
link|improve this answer
In Win32, it appears that this can use the memory over 4GB that Windows does not recognize. I have not tested this since I have moved to 64 bit... – Jack Bolding Sep 2 '09 at 18:22
As of Dec 2009, Dataram Ramdisk seemed to be the fastest freeware ramdisk: raymond.cc/blog/archives/2009/12/08/… – Joel May 3 '11 at 18:50
1  
Dataram Ramdisk doesn't offer an option to format the ramdisk as NTFS (imDisk below does) – zcrar70 Nov 14 '11 at 12:02
feedback
up vote 33 down vote

After trying out many of these RamDisks I've finally settled on imDisk. It's tiny, no-nonsense, fast, actually works, works on the latest windows 32 and 64 bit. Supports large drives - mounts both file images (with optional offsets for those VM disks) and pure Ram drives. The nice thing is that RAM disks are dynamic, which means that creating a 3Gb one and formatting it NTFS does not show using all 3Gb real memory... only as you start using it does it start using memory.

Oh, and it's GPLv2 licensed.

One problem was that the installation seemed not to do anything... I thought it did not work, but apparently that's by design. it's installed, just open your control panel and configure it. I only wish it had more documentation...

link|improve this answer
Download it here: ltr-data.se/opencode.html#ImDisk – Marius Apr 8 '10 at 16:40
1  
This thing has amazing configurability, just look at imdisk /?. It can even mount ISOs and NRGs! – CyberShadow Jun 12 '11 at 16:12
I was just spoiled rotten when, 20-odd years ago, I started computing on an Amiga; which had a standard ramdisk that had awesome options (you could even soft re-boot from it!). With the advent of SSDs these technologies may finally be rendered mostly redundant - pity it took so long to get something this decent on the PC. – Marius Jun 15 '11 at 23:17
1  
"With the advent of SSDs these may be redundant". Sadly not. I have a quad-core machine, 8gb ram, and SSD, and still videos are choppy when system processes churn at the disk at seemingly random intervals (why don't media players buffer more?). I'm configuring one of these to temporarily store videos in so they don't slow down during periods of (likely) heavy swap activity. – davidparks21 Jun 29 '11 at 6:06
Buffering and video players... ah yes. I've had terrible problems at one time with an old version of VLC streaming over a Wifi SMB connection. A combination of exactly those parameters caused it and no matter how much I increased the buffer size it would be choppy. – Marius Aug 16 '11 at 2:15
feedback
up vote 4 down vote

Whatever you do, don't put your page file on a RAM disk. For obvious reasons.

link|improve this answer
14  
this is too funny, an absolutely unrelated answer gets the first upvote. imho, we're not here to tell folks how they have to run their computers. seems you only have to mention pagefile, web browser or anitvirus paired with your opinion and the votes are flying whether this is related to the question at hand or not ;) – Molly7244 Sep 2 '09 at 17:08
3  
why not? sounds like fun! :) – Herms Sep 2 '09 at 17:40
old answer... really, why not? a bunch of sites have okay'd this method. What's the obvious reasons? – vol7ron Jan 9 '11 at 22:55
1  
This is so funny. Because actually this is a useful bit of information. – Warren P Jan 27 '11 at 19:55
1  
Actually I think this may be the way to bring RAM above 3GB into Windows Vista x86. – ony May 9 '11 at 15:13
show 2 more comments
feedback
up vote 2 down vote

Superspeed RamDisk for x64 Windows

link|improve this answer
feedback
up vote 1 down vote

I use Gavotte Ramdisk personally for a 3GB swap. Lovely stuff, does all that you want and more too (includng the option of swapping or not swapping).

Too bad there's no permanent homepage for it. You can find it here though :

Mediafire (edited link: Merci beaucoup, Molly!)

Did I mention it's free? And works on Vista?

link|improve this answer
1  
did you mention it doesn't work with a 64bit Windows OS? – Molly7244 Sep 2 '09 at 16:21
It works on my 7x64? Also, here's a link from Serverfault itself saying it's been updated - maybe I got lucky with the right version. :) serverfault.com/questions/4858/ram-disk-for-vista-64-bit – caliban Sep 2 '09 at 16:24
1  
yep, i hear about this mysterious 'updated and optimized for x64' version of Gavotte, yet all i can find is version 1.1.0 dated Feb 2004. Gavotte is a fine RAM Disk alright, but when i try it on windows 7 x64, i have to install the RAM Disk manually on each system boot which isn't good enough. but if you have a link for that version, highly appreciated :) – Molly7244 Sep 2 '09 at 16:33
mediafire.com/?4tm9llcmyxa – caliban Sep 2 '09 at 16:37
I downloaded it from this website... it's in Chinese though (which I can read). forum.pcdvd.com.tw/… – caliban Sep 2 '09 at 16:38
show 3 more comments
feedback
up vote 0 down vote

Vsuite RamDisk looks the best for me. I can create multiple disks with ease. http://www.romexsoftware.com/download/index.html It also has a bunch of features, such ash quick save, quick load, dynamic allocation etc.

link|improve this answer
feedback
up vote 0 down vote

Primo Ramdisk (formerly VSuite Ramdisk) does the work for me.

It can utilize unaddressable RAM in x86 Win if you have 4GB or more. So basically I have 3.25Gb RAM used by Win and the rest is RAMDISK used for swap, cache, temp files, etc.

link|improve this answer
feedback

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.