RAM disk software can be used to speed up Internet page load times, control what files and programs are stored into memory (loaded at boot time), create temporary disks for added security, speed up disk-to-disk activities such as video and audio encoding, accelerate databases, reduce the compile time of other programmes and many other uses.
This is an incomplete list of RAM disk software, please help by expanding it.
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ImDisk Virtual Disk Driver is a disk image emulator created by Olof Lagerkvist. It is Free software/Open source software. It is available in 32 and 64 bit variants and is digitally signed which makes it compatible with 64-bit versions of Microsoft Windows without having to be run in Test mode. The 64-bit version has no practical limit to the size of a creatable RAM disk.
RAM disk plug-in for Bart's PE Builder
Dataram's RAMDisk is freeware (up to 4GB disk size). Disks larger than 4GB require registration and a US$14.99 single-user license. When purchasing physical RAM from Dataram, the RAMDisk license is provided free of charge. Compatible with Windows 7 x64.
StarWind Software makes a freeware RAM disk software for mounting memory as actual drives within Windows. Both x86 and x64 versions exist.
A fast RAM Disk also compatible with Windows 7 x64, $10 to $25.
A RAM Disk that can use installed memory over 4 GB in 32 bit Windows, also compatible with Windows 7 x64, $40 to $100 depending on features.
A RAM Disk that can use installed memory over 4 GB in 32 bit Windows, also compatible with Windows 7 x64, Free to $120 depending on features.
An easy-to-use RAMDisk software for Windows 2000/2003/XP/Vista/Windows 7 (x32 & x64) with simple setup, permits mounting-and-unmounting of RAMDisk images to/from drive-image-files, and automated/convenient startup/shutdown features, $25.
Windows has RAM disk emulator as part of Windows Driver Kit for years. It's available as free download.[1]
Windows also have a rough analog to Tmpfs in the form of "temporary files". Files created with both FILE_ATTRIBUTE_TEMPORARY and FILE_FLAG_DELETE_ON_CLOSE are held in memory and only written to disk if the system experiences low memory pressure.[2] In this way they behave like tmpfs, except the files are written to the specified path during low memory situations rather than swap space. This technique is often used by servers along with TransmitFile to render content to a buffer before sending to the client.
An example of how to use tmpfs in a Linux environment is as follows:
$ mkdir /var/ramdisk
Once the mount point is identified the mount command can be used to mount a tmpfs file system on top of that mount point:
$ mount -t tmpfs none /var/ramdisk -o size=28m
Now each time /var/ramdisk is accessed all reads and writes will be coming directly from memory.[3]