Memory

[Duszolap 0]

I d like to ask u for some memory tweaks. I have about 400MB of ram and i heard that i could speed up system using ramdisk. if thats true i d like to know how to do this and which way.Thanks

[AndyFair 0]

The problem with using ramdisks is that they use RAM - which means that Windows will have to resort to the pagefile, which in turn will slow the system down.

And bearing in mind the size of some of today's bloatware, you'd end up having to buy much more memory just to run, say, MSOffice from a ramdisk.

 

Can't see the point myself, but then I may be wrong (it has been known to happen in the past )

 

AndyF

[Mua_Dib 0]

AndyF is right Dusz. I've never even heard of anyone using a RAMDISK in that manner these days. Back in the MS-DOS days, if you were lucky enough to have large amounts of ram you could use a ram disk for

time-critical and resource intensive apps. The only other time i see it now days is when a boot disk creates one to load in tools to be used such as a virus scanning or hard drive partitioning/creation tools.

 

-Mua

[EddiE314 0]

windows nt does require a small amount of space for a pagefile i've been told, either 2mb or 12mb, i'm not sure, what you could do is use a 20mb or so ramdisk and then place your page file on that and windows will not use the hard disk but instead it will use ram that it thinks is a hard disk, get it? thats what i've read and been told, i have 768mb ram, i nver run out of it, and windows xp allows me to turn off the pagefile, so thats what i do, i have no pagefile.

[AndyFair 0]

The 2Mb minimum limit for pagefiles is for when Windows crashes with a BSOD and does a core dump.

 

I think (but not 100% sure) that you can only put pagefiles on fixed disks, not removable disks - and Windows would probably see a RAMDisk as a removable drive, so you couldn't put a pagefile on it.

 

Added to that the fact that Win2k/WinXP doesn't appear to come with the commands needed to set up a RAMDisk...

 

Rgds

AndyF

[EddiE314 0]

thats why you use a third party program to make the ramdrives. and yes you can put the pagefile on a ramdisk, i've seen it done numerous times.

[Nemesis 1]

Duszolap,

 

Jerold Schulamns site has a ramdisk driver for both Windows NT and Windows 2000.

 

However as others have said in this post, you really need to think about how you are using your computer to determine if a ramdisk will be of any benefit. You do not need to have a pagefile on the C:\, you only need this if you are debugging the operating system or applications, for the bog standard user you can place your pagefile on any hard drive. Windows NT is very good with large amounts of RAM and since Windows 2000 is really NT v5, it is almost the same (if not better!).

 

Here are the links:

 

http://www.jsiinc.com/SUBA/tip0000/rh0020.htm

http://www.jsiinc.com/subh/tip3500/rh3515.htm

 

[Mua_Dib 0]

Creating a RAMdrive to put the page file in defeats the purpose of having it in the first place.

The page file is there for when you run out of physical memory and when your task swapping.

For example, if EddiE created a half gig ram drive he would then have to have a page file because he effectively would then have only 256 meg of ram. But whats the point of that? (unless of course you were doing something other than the norm with your OS/Apps)

 

-Mua

[EddiE314 0]

what i'm saying is that if he doesn't want NT to access the hard drive at all, he could make it small and put it on a small ram drive, with a lot or ram you don't even need a pagefile.

[Mua_Dib 0]

Fair enough. But page files can get quite large and vary in size (if you let windows change its size for you). This of course does depend on how much ram you have to start with. I have 128 meg of ram and my page file is currently 260meg (i was just playing emperor battle for dune ).

 

There really is only 2 ways to get the most out of a page file.

 

1. Dont have one at all. spend up big on ram.

 

2. Place the Page file on a seperate smaller disk on its own (if IDE, not on the same interface as the OS Disk) or place it at the beginning of your disk in its own partition.

 

-Mua