Ram Disk for XP32 bit and XP64 bit

Just wanted to throw out there, in case anyone was looking and then stumbles upon this.

There is software out there called Ultra RAM Disk which will allow Windows 32-bit users to use RAM beyond the 32-bit limit, and use it as a Ram Disk.

A ram disk is basically memory that is utilized like a hard drive, with some caveats.

But, having a ram disk and using it to store all of your windows temporary files, or browser caches, saves on writes to SSDs. Also, since temporary files and cache files are things you may be willing to lose or have no actual traces of digital forensics for, it's worth it.

It can save and load images from the ram disk also.

For XP64 bit users, such as myself, we can use a freeware version of SoftPerfect RAM Disk (i.e. version 3.4.8). This version is free, but does have some caveats on it's own, where your system may hang when removing ram disks. There are registry work arounds to fix this.


Another perfectly great reason to use a RAM Disk would be for torrents. Rather than thrash your hard drive with heavy read/write cycles, or exhaust a SSD with writes, download the torrent first to a virtual ram disk, and have your torrent program move the files to permanent storage after download is complete... or keep on the virtual ram disk and manually move it when you're ready.

Soft Perfect RAM Disk freeware would not be a good option for XP32, as there is no option to utilize RAM beyond the 4GB limit.

Ultra RAM Disk, pay to use, would be an excellent option for XP32, as it can allow a computer to utilize RAM beyond the 4GB limit to create one or more RAM disk drives.

IMHO, only useful if your computer physically has more than 4 GB of memory installed.

Both will allow saving and loading of disk images.

Out of 32 GB, I use a 2GB ram disk (image) for windows temporary and browser caching and 20GB (no image) for transfers, AV processing, etc.

Hope you find this information useful or through provoking.

 

I also use SoftPerfect RAM Disk on XP64, and I use 2GB! I read an article testing capabilities, ease of use, and performance of different RAM Disks and SoftPerfect came out on top:
12 RAM Disk Software Benchmarked for Fastest Read and Write Speed - Raymond.CC

I also use SoftPerfect RAM Disk on my XP x86 install, thanks to installing the PAE patch for all programs to access memory over 4gb.
PAE_Gamersky-WindowsXP_64G_RAM.7z
PAE_Windows_XP_128GB_double_pae_addon_final_byDibya.7z
I'm willing to send anyone those files if they can't find them for download.

I'm using the Gamersky patch because it's simpler and I only have 16gb memory anyways. In case I ever find a compatibility issue to diagnose, I can select it or not upon bootup, because I set my C:\BOOT.INI to this=

[boot loader]
timeout=2
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="fat32 2tb XP sp3 PAE patched" /noexecute=OptOut /fastdetect /PAE /kernel=ntkl64g.exe /hal=hal64g.dll
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="fat32 2tb XP sp3" /noexecute=OptOut /fastdetect