What to do with 4Gig of RAM using XP 32bit

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adrianaitken · #1 Post by **adrianaitken** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 6:30 pm

Install the latest Ramdisk (Google Ramdisk and Gavotte - the author) dated 1/1/08. It allows you to create a 1Gig Ramdisk and still have 3 Gig for Windows/your programs.
Best of all it's free !!!
Since it automatically creates a \TEMP directory, you should set the enviroment variables TEMP and TMP to point to it. I also pointed IE's temporary internet folder to z:\ , it creates the directory as needed. Also, if anyone does torrent downloads, you won't need to defrag your hard disk !!!
And if you use Photoshop (CS or Elements), point the scratch disk to the Ramdisk (although with 3Gig of RAM it shouldn't need to use the disk).
Warning though - if you have 3Gig or less, don't try to use the 'Use 4Gig' setting else Windows doesn't boot up and you have to run, via safe mode, regedit to get back a working system (does that sound like I tried it ? )

fafan111 · #2 Post by **fafan111** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 8:48 pm

what's the advantage of having RAMdisk? and is it necessary to defrag your hd when you torrent(because I do).

I have 4gig in my x61s and I was wondering if I should take advantage of this but I'm not too sure of the benefits of having temp files on z:\?

btw how do you make the TEMP and TMP point to the ramdisk?

adrianaitken · #3 Post by **adrianaitken** » Thu Jun 26, 2008 8:10 am

Ramdisk = speed
Torrents = downloaded in (for example) 64k chunks. So they are spread all over the hard disk leading to massive fragmentation. If you just copy them from the Ramdisk to your hard drive then it copies it in a single stream and, as long as the hard disk isn't massively fragmented already, copies it in a single contiguous area on the hard disk. You get better performance that was (watching videos,listen to MP3's etc.

Also, if you download a virus from whatever you were doing, you can pull the mains plug. Virus stored on a Ramdisk dies instantly.

XCoalMiner · #4 Post by **XCoalMiner** » Thu Jun 26, 2008 8:33 am

Interesting. I searched for RamDisk recently under XP's"command line reference" didn;t find it, and figured that function got dropped ... when W95 was laid to rest.

adrianaitken · #5 Post by **adrianaitken** » Thu Jun 26, 2008 9:18 am

It's a 3rd party app although written based on sample code that Microsoft themselves wrote a few years ago.

fafan111 · #6 Post by **fafan111** » Thu Jun 26, 2008 4:06 pm

hm i'm having a bit of trouble.
I am using vista 32bit edition and when I try to access the Ramdisk, it says the format is unrecognized. Also when I tried to uninstall it, "need reboot" message pops up and nothing happens afterwards after I reboot my system

nm fixed it
had to run as administrator mode..I keep forgetting to do this in vista

thormdac · #7 Post by **thormdac** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 2:09 am

aint this a beauty!
totally forgot about this one!- being a speed-freak this sure tickles my fancy

loyukfai · #8 Post by **loyukfai** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 5:41 am

Interesting! : )

I'm gonna test it with a X41T with 2GB RAM (2.5GB installed but it can only recognize 2GB so...) and put the pagefile and temp files on the RAM drive...

I wonder if 512MB for the pagefile and 128MB for the temp files is enough...?

artic_squirrel · #9 Post by **artic_squirrel** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 7:14 am

do you really want a page file ?

i mean with 2gb...

loyukfai · #10 Post by **loyukfai** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 12:25 pm

Just finished setting up on 2 boxes... X41T + XP and X61T + Vista...

X41T+XP 2GB RAM: 640MB RAM disk; 128-512MB pagefile; 50MB browser cache

X61T+Vista 3GB RAM: 1GB RAM disk; 256-768MB pagefile; 50MB browser cache

A few observations...

- Setup was easy; Uncompress and run "ramdisk.exe" (use "Run as administrator" under Vista); Click "Install" and wait; Then choose a size and drive letter, click "OK" and wait
- Move pagefile to the RAM disk
- Change the TEMP and TMP variables to the RAM disk
- Change the browser's cache folder to the RAM disk
- Reboot

- Had to configure Wallpaper Cycler to cycle once at logon; Because it stores the wallpaper in the TEMP folder and now it's lost when PC is reboot
- The speed improvement is quite noticeable, more so than installing eBoostr
- Hibernate and standby so far seems to work without problem
- Vista warns when the pagefile is set to below <200MB

loyukfai · #11 Post by **loyukfai** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 12:38 pm

artic_squirrel wrote:do you really want a page file ?

i mean with 2gb...

Heard that some software "need" the pagefile's existance even if not actually use it.

Moreover, since the pagefile is on RAM, so the performance should be okay.

thormdac · #12 Post by **thormdac** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 1:01 pm

4gb are only recognized on the base level, i.e. bios; xp 32bit canNOT handle 4gb, right?
now if you have 4gb installed using gavotte ramdisk, what makes it address ram where?, i.e. will it actually use the 1gb not handled, or will it use the memory from the 3gb 32bit limitation?
in addition:
i am a speed freak (nlite, 7200 etc) wondring about hiberfil.sys , prefetch and pagefile!
i am considering configuring:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters with
/ 3 = Prefetch All]
and:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Session Manager\Memory Management
Set DisablePagingExecutive to 1.
Set LargeSystemCache to 1.
as well as
disabling pagefile in system/advanced/perf.settings
any comments on this in addition to ramdisk...to hold...what?...browser cache, tmp and temp?

adrianaitken · #13 Post by **adrianaitken** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 1:12 pm

thormdac - there should have been a 4gig.reg file. It sets PAE=1 in the registry so the Ramdisk itself seems to know how to use it.

Under task manager when I didn't have the PAE settings
(1Gig Ramdisk)
Total mem 3Gig
Available mem 2Gig

when I installed the registry setting and rebooted
(1Gig Ramdisk)
Total mem 3Gig
Available mem 3Gig

These figures are rounded, there was a couple of hundred meg used for Windows in the available mem.

I don't run a page file since I can see no reason for Windows to touch the disk with this amount of memory !!!!

I'm just happy that it knows how to do it !!!!

loyukfai · #14 Post by **loyukfai** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 10:04 pm

One question... If you enabled the PAE registry change, will the hibernate file extended to 4GB...?

I'm asking because if the hibernate file does not extended to 4GB, that means whatever written to the pagefile, when placed on the RAM disk, will be lost when the PC goes into hibernation...?

Thanks and have a nice weekend.

FRiC · #15 Post by **FRiC** » Sat Jun 28, 2008 2:41 am

The Gavotte Ramdisk is only useful for 61 series of notebooks that have 4 GB RAM and running 32-bit Windows. It can make the RAM that Windows can't access into a ramdisk, then you can put your pagefile into the ramdisk, essentially using all 4 GB.

It's not useful if you don't have 4 GB RAM, or if you have an older 60 series notebook that physically can't access more than 3 GB of RAM.

adrianaitken · #16 Post by **adrianaitken** » Sat Jun 28, 2008 7:10 am

loyukfai wrote:One question... If you enabled the PAE registry change, will the hibernate file extended to 4GB...?

Doubt it. I don't use hibernate myself but when I went into the option it said it required 3 Gig of hard disk space.

Doing the Fn-F4 suspend does work though.

Added: You can't hibernate, the Ramdisk driver won't let you.

loyukfai · #17 Post by **loyukfai** » Sat Jun 28, 2008 11:31 am

adrianaitken wrote: Doubt it. I don't use hibernate myself but when I went into the option it said it required 3 Gig of hard disk space.

Doing the Fn-F4 suspend does work though.

Added: You can't hibernate, the Ramdisk driver won't let you.

Oooops... Was planning to get another 2GB module for a total of 4GB memory, but maybe I shall stick with 3GB total then because I do make use of the hibernate function.

Anyway, thanks alot for introducing this utility. In fact I was looking for such early this year, cause I want to move the pagefile to RAM disk to improve the performance/responsiveness especially on the X41T.

However, I didn't find this then. Did find another utility (eBoostr) but it doesn't seem to work as well as this.

Again, I don't have hard figures but the overall feeling of the responsiveness seem to have improved.

thormdac · #18 Post by **thormdac** » Sun Jun 29, 2008 5:01 am

adrianaitken wrote: Added: You can't hibernate, the Ramdisk driver won't let you.

does this apply only when hiberfile.sys is situated in ramdisk? - or cant you hibernate all in all once u use ramdisk?
greetz

PLUS:

FRiC wrote:The Gavotte Ramdisk is only useful for 61 series of notebooks that have 4 GB RAM and running 32-bit Windows. It can make the RAM that Windows can't access into a ramdisk, then you can put your pagefile into the ramdisk, essentially using all 4 GB.

It's not useful if you don't have 4 GB RAM, or if you have an older 60 series notebook that physically can't access more than 3 GB of RAM.

thats what i queried earlier on-- how about that?

@adrianaitken

what machine did you run it on, especially based your measurements on?
then again, running it on an x60 3gb config, doesnt it still speed up placing all cache/temp folders there?

adrianaitken · #19 Post by **adrianaitken** » Sun Jun 29, 2008 7:08 am

thormdac - the Ramdisk driver seems to return a 'don't go into hibernation' code back to windows itself. I didn't think you could point the hibernate image to anything apart from the boot disk.

I don't use hiberantion since it takes < 20 seconds from powering on to getting a useable desktop. It takes under 7 seconds from the 'Logoff/Power Off/Restart' window to completely power off. I doubt I'd see any real benefit using hibernation instead of power on/off.

The machine I'm using is the X61. It has 4 Gig RAM running XP 32bit with SP3. It says I've 3Gig of RAM but the Ramdisk is 1 Gig and is running with the PAE switch.

My X60 has 3 Gig RAM running XP 32bit SP3. I also have a 1 Gig Ramdisk on it but I only have 2 Gig of useable RAM.

loyukfai · #20 Post by **loyukfai** » Sun Jun 29, 2008 8:12 am

No problem here entering into standby or hibernation on the X61T.

No problem also entering into hibernation on the X41T. Didn't try standby through.

thormdac · #21 Post by **thormdac** » Sun Jun 29, 2008 9:41 am

adrianaitken wrote: I don't use hiberantion since it takes < 20 seconds from powering on to getting a useable desktop. It takes under 7 seconds from the 'Logoff/Power Off/Restart' window to completely power off. I doubt I'd see any real benefit using hibernation instead of power on/off.

quite true,
depending an what you call "workable i am up in 7-13 sec., down in 8 sec., while hibernation is 11-13 sec., resume 13-18 sec.

thanx for your replies
loyukfai

adrianaitken

- will try this on my machine, just need to pop in my 2gig ram makin in3gb, or even 4gb--will see what i ahve flyin round here

thormdac · #22 Post by **thormdac** » Sun Jun 29, 2008 11:33 am

fafan111 wrote: btw how do you make the TEMP and TMP point to the ramdisk?

yeah, please a little howto
thanx

adrianaitken · #23 Post by **adrianaitken** » Sun Jun 29, 2008 11:45 am

Control Panel,system, Advanced tab.
"Enviroment variables" button (at bottom).
it'll say 'TEMP' and something like "%system...". Change it to 'z:\temp' (assuming Z: is your Ramdisk). Do the same for TMP as well.
Since not all Windows programs read them properly I also find the following useful - save as tmp.reg and double click it to add to the registry.

Code: Select all

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment]
"TEMP"="z:\\TEMP"
"TMP"="z:\\TEMP"

Best to reboot or at least logoff/logon afterwards.

thormdac · #24 Post by **thormdac** » Sun Jun 29, 2008 1:11 pm

thanx,

here is how to move firefox3 cache:

about:config -> new integer "browser.cache.disk.parent_directory"
browser.cache.disk.parent_directory; enter as value "z:\temp"

edit:
how about the office temp folder?
The folder location is stored in the registry in the following key;
Outlook 97 HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\8.0\Outlook\Security
Outlook 98 HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\8.5\Outlook\Security
Outlook 2000 HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Outlook\Security
Outlook 2002/XP
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Outlook\Security
Outlook 2003
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Security
Outlook 2007
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\Security

EDIT: Office folder moved

Edit2:

here is howto move internet temp folder:
* Save and close all running applications
* Create a folder in the destination drive (say E:\TIF)
* Click Start, Run and type CONTROL INETCPL.CPL
* In the Temporary Internet Files section, click Settings
* Click Move Folder button and browse to the target folder
* Click OK
* Click Yes, when you see the prompt

"Windows will log you off to finish moving Temporary Internet Files. Do you want to continue ?"

Windows will now copy all the Cookies, temporary internet files to the destination folder and log you off. Log back in for the changes to take effect.

Trekk69 · #25 Post by **Trekk69** » Sun Jun 29, 2008 5:17 pm

Thanks for the information, I will have to download it and check it out!

fafan111 · #26 Post by **fafan111** » Sun Jun 29, 2008 5:54 pm

um I'm quite new at this but I was wondering how to check PAE? (is that even the right question to ask?) so that gavotte uses the 1gig of RAM that's not being used..

When I check the RAM usage under task manager, I see that ramdisk is taking up the RAM usage, so i set ramdisk to have 1gig of space. Before I saw only 1gig of RAM being used by the system, but now I see 2 gigs are being used. is this how it's suppose to be?

XCoalMiner · #27 Post by **XCoalMiner** » Sun Jun 29, 2008 7:00 pm

This is thread has some very good tips. Thanks.

Will 'integrated graphics' on a T61 with 4 Gb memory use part of the 3 Gig for Windows? Or the upper 1 Gb? Better yet, is there a way, or any benefit in, making the ramdisk force the integrated graphics to use the upper 1 Gb?

FRiC · #28 Post by **FRiC** » Sun Jun 29, 2008 7:04 pm

You should not always put temp in a ramdisk because some programs may use the temp folder for installations, and if you need to reboot during the install, the install would fail.

Of course it's fine if you're not gonna install anything.

loyukfai · #29 Post by **loyukfai** » Sun Jun 29, 2008 10:43 pm

That's a valid concern if you ask me.

Besides, Picasa just warned me that it may not have enough space working when it's started. No actual problem I could observed through.

thormdac · #30 Post by **thormdac** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 9:42 am

been running my x60 3gb "ramdisked" machine intensively for a day now!
here are my thoughts:-
- machine-temperature has increased by 3-4 degrees!
reason? - possibly to memory konfig being 2+1 gb?
- ramdisk "shuffles" stuff from where to where? using which module?
-placing all temp internet files to ramdisk makes you lose all cookies, obviously! when logging in a pain, elsewise nice!
-around 30s after e reboot, intensive access to the hdd takes place for about 20s--laying all stuff into ramdisk??- after that heat spreads massively through the machine
- aint any faster than with my tweaked xp!
love the torrent gains though, gonna use on my desktop!

tweaked machine:
pure nlited xp konfig, (no ibm i386 rebuild!) all services reduced to minimal, activated EIST ( speedstep), powermangement driver only from ibm.....
greetz

What to do with 4Gig of RAM using XP 32bit

What to do with 4Gig of RAM using XP 32bit

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