Best Use of RAMdisk?

[Zap]

My best use of a RAM disk (besides the XP paging file on my LAN party rig) is bragging rights.

 

[Auric]

Disable FF disk cache and it must use system RAM anyway, n'est ce pas?

 

[veri745]

Disable FF disk cache and it must use system RAM anyway, n'est ce pas?

Yes, but it will ditch everything it has in RAM if you close it. FF (or IE) cache on RAMdisk is one of the best uses of it.

 

[aigomorla]

My best use of a RAM disk (besides the XP paging file on my LAN party rig) is bragging rights.

yeah the as everyone is saying..

why are you still on XP?

LOL... unless its an atom.

Yes, but it will ditch everything it has in RAM if you close it. FF (or IE) cache on RAMdisk is one of the best uses of it.

Id rather just use a large capacity flash drive, and set it up that way. :X

I just heard on w7, and Vista.. ram disk is absolutely pointless... and it was from a source i really trust.
So im still lost on why people are using Ram Drive, unless ur on XP, and if ur on XP, u should be on an ATOM, and on an ATOM, there is no way ur gonna have enough ram on it for a ram drive.

Unless ur the type that likes to rice out everything.
If thats the case, you should of just gotten a mini laptop, and not a netbook.

 

[blanketyblank]

I'm curious if it's possible to run an OS entirely on a RAMdisk.
I'm not sure how exactly this would be done since you'd first need to load everything, but I think it'd be useful for web surfing or public usage. Unfortunately with the price of RAM and the required HW it's not worth testing out for me, but I'm still curious about the results.

 

[Rifter]

I'm curious if it's possible to run an OS entirely on a RAMdisk.
I'm not sure how exactly this would be done since you'd first need to load everything, but I think it'd be useful for web surfing or public usage. Unfortunately with the price of RAM and the required HW it's not worth testing out for me, but I'm still curious about the results.

It would run really fast im thinking but the 10min plus boot/shutdown times are going to kill you. I mean its possible to setup a boot disk to create the ram disk and load the OS into it but you would need the OS stored on a flash drive or hard drive to transfer into the ramdisk every boot, not to mention wait for it to create a image of itself when you turn it off, just get a SSD and call it a day at that point.

Edite: to OP, just get a 64 bit OS and call it a day.

 

[Nothinman]

I'm curious if it's possible to run an OS entirely on a RAMdisk.
I'm not sure how exactly this would be done since you'd first need to load everything, but I think it'd be useful for web surfing or public usage. Unfortunately with the price of RAM and the required HW it's not worth testing out for me, but I'm still curious about the results.

Sure it is, look at any Linux Live CD. IIRC Knoppix has had a "toram" option for years now that will make it copy the entire OS into memory instead of running it from a loopback mounted image on the disc.

 

[mv2devnull]

Edite: to OP, ...

OP, and most of the thread was written in January 2010. I doubt they still watch this.

Shame really, I would have asked which RAMdisk implementation (for Windows) offers 5 GB size. The largest free one that I've found allows only 4 GB.

 

[Zap]

why are you still on XP?

LOL... unless its an atom.

...

if ur on XP, u should be on an ATOM

Why should I upgrade from XP?

Let's see, I already own XP, but would have to pay money for Windows 7.

My computer works and if I upgrade the OS, I'd have to spend my somewhat valuable time in getting stuff installed, updated, drivers installed, games installed/updated, etc.

I have less problems than other people with newer operating systems at LAN parties. Just at two recent LAN party I attended, we played C&C Generals and it worked great on XP but many people with Vista/7 had issues getting it to run at all. Also, file sharing for game patches and maps is easier in XP. Not that it is tough in Windows 7, but there are more hoops to jump through even if all you want was just basic sharing.

So, why the hell would I want to upgrade from XP? How would Windows 7 improve my computer using experience for my LAN party rig? Oh wait, it can't!

Note that I use Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit on my "main" rig at home that I use daily, so don't think I'm one of those guys that hate everything new. I just re-built it almost from scratch several months ago. Since it was a rebuild anyways, was the perfect time to upgrade the OS especially since I wanted TRIM support for my Patriot TorqX SSD. The point is that there is no point in upgrading my LAN gaming rig just because XP is old.

 

[Nothinman]

So, why the hell would I want to upgrade from XP? How would Windows 7 improve my computer using experience for my LAN party rig? Oh wait, it can't!

Actually it would, I'm no fan of Windows by any means but Win7 is a lot better than XP. XP was pretty much just "good enough", the only reason it's so popular is because of it's age. It's been around so long that pretty much everyone has used it. Shortly it'll be where Win2K is now, still working ok for stuff that came out when it was mainstream but with new stuff not supporting it at all and probably not working. And in ~3.5yrs when MS stops extended support for it you'll be left with all of the security problems that haven't caught been fixed yet.

XP is dead, except that it and some people haven't realized it yet.

 

[Zap]

Actually it would, I'm no fan of Windows by any means but Win7 is a lot better than XP.

Tell me then how my experience using my LAN party computer (which is only used for LAN parties) will improve if I switch to Win7.

 

[zwanzig]

so the best use of ramdisk is on firefox?

 

[sxr7171]

I keep my browser cache on a RAMDisk, and when I was using Squeezebox Server I ran the whole thing including its database and cache on a RAMDisk. But, hey if you are using an SSD I suppose it doesn't really matter much. If you have programs that use a database or cache you might want to see if you can move those to a RAMDisk.

 

[her209]

so the best use of ramdisk is on firefox?

No.

 

[sxr7171]

I'm curious if it's possible to run an OS entirely on a RAMdisk.
I'm not sure how exactly this would be done since you'd first need to load everything, but I think it'd be useful for web surfing or public usage. Unfortunately with the price of RAM and the required HW it's not worth testing out for me, but I'm still curious about the results.

It's done all the time when you run a Linux live CD.