XP Ramdisk the "Right" way.

[Antiloven]

I have tried to setup a ramdrive in XP for a week and it all ended in system restores. I finally found something I was overlooking...

Instructions:

Get the software from here:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.as ... 5&SD=MSKB&

Install the software as a new hardware device (Add New Hardware) using the advanced install wizard to point to the .inf

Change these registry keys

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Ramdisk\Parmeters

DiskSize change to 01F00000 (32505856) (Keep in mind that you DON'T have to sacrifice 32 mb of your ram. You can set it to anything you want to as long as its now over 32 mb)

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Fastfat\Start

Start change from 4(disabled) to 1(system)

Reboot

The only limitation is that the drive can only be 32MB in size.


Tweak written by or based on information submitted by Guy Goodenough

[dvblsd]

Also, please note that thqat driver is called 'Sample Driver'.......there are others, but the 32meg size is a problem. I have tried all of the versions out there, and the best that I have found is RamDiskXPPro..........but in the end, none gave me the performance boost that they did in either 98 or 2k, and some caused severe XP issues.......so I no longer use a RAMdrive, even though I have 1.5gigs of RAM with plenty to spare for a drive..............

[Norm]

The ARsoft ramdisk works great for me.

And it's free. http://www.arsoft-online.de/products/index.php

[kanenas]

I had a look yesterday at TweakXP Pro 2.0.1 (30-day trial).
It can set up a RAM drive for you. Check a box, set the size and drive letter and it's done.
An image of the registry before and after the change might help to see what it does.