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What are RamDisk and RamDisk Plus? RamDisk and RamDisk Plus allow you to add, modify and remove RAM disks from your system. RamDisk Plus allows you to add multiple RAM disks, supports variety of different kinds of RAM disks, and can load a RAM disk image file, presenting its contents as a read-only disk. In addition, RamDisk Plus provides the ability to access main memory that many Windows 32-bit editions do not support. SuperSpeed's RamDisk products are also used in embedded environments, and our RAM disks have been deployed as bootable RAM disks. Copyright 2012 SuperSpeed LLC. All rights reserved. SuperSpeed, SuperCache, SuperCache II, SuperVolume, and RamDisk Plus are registered trademarks of SuperSpeed LLC. Microsoft, Windows, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Server 2008 R2 are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. This software may be protected by one or more of the following patents: US patent numbers 5,577,226, 5,606,681, 5,918,244, 6,370,615, 6,629,201, 6,651,136, 7,017,013, 7,039,767, 7,111,129, 7,475,186, 7,594,068, 7,631,139, and other patents pending.
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RamDisk Plus RamDisk Plus features a host of options to maximize performance and utility. RamDisk Plus supports up to 99 RAM disks. Each RAM disk can be built on specific NUMA nodes. On PAE machines, RAM disks can be created from memory not managed by Windows (ie. Unmanaged Memory), recapturing that lost system resource. RamDisk Plus also features full management of a RAM disk's image file. A RAM disk's contents can be preserved across system restarts making it behave very much like a hard drive. It's contents can also be backed up and restored to user-specified files. In addition, image files can be loaded as read-only disks and their contents browsed and extracted. Depending on the system, RAM disks as large as 63 GB (32-bit) or 16 TB (64-bit) can be created. The RAM disk can identify itself to Windows as a hard disk, as a removable-media disk, or as a virtual disk. It can be formatted with any Windows-supported file system. Security features are also available with RamDisk Plus. The 'zero' option ensures that the entire contents of a RAM disk is zeroed (wiped clean) when it is removed from the system or when a new image is restored to it. The Auto-Wipe feature zeroes (wipes clean) the contents of each RAM disk present in the system and reloads its initial (boot) image each time a user logs out. This is useful in a secure environment where multiple users have access to a workstation and its resources, but only one at a time, and the contents of RAM disk resources must be completely destroyed at the end of a user session. RAM disks are available to the system very early in system startup. Therefore, any applications or services that depend on the RAM disk can access it as soon as they start. RAM disks created with RamDisk Plus also support page files.
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RamDisk RamDisk allows you to create a single RAM disk using available physical memory from Windows. Depending on the system, a RAM disk as large as 63 GB (32-bit) or 16 TB (64-bit) can be created. The RAM disk can appear to Windows as a hard disk, as a removable-media disk, or as a virtual disk. It can be formatted with any Windows-supported file system. An important feature of RamDisk is that the RAM disk it creates is available to the system very early in system startup. Therefore, any applications or services that depend on the RAM disk can access it as soon as they start. RamDisk provides basic, simple support for a single RAM disk. For multi-disk, data persistence, NUMA, Unmanaged Memory support, auto-wipe (security), and other features, see RamDisk Plus.
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Loads a new RAM disk to the system from an image file with all opt Views the contents of a RAM disk image file. Views the contents of a RAM disk image file. Saves the contents of a RAM disk to its associated image file. Backs up the contents of a RAM disk to an image file. Restores the contents of a RAM disk from an image file. Removes a RAM disk or an Image View from the system.
*The type of graphical user element (ie. property sheet, simple or advanced wizard) that the Add, Load and View commands use is determined by the Options settings.
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Save dialog
Do not enforce volume locking This option allows the RAM disk to be written to its associated image file without locking the storage volume(s) present on the RAM disk. This means that handles may still be opened to the disk when it is saved. WARNING: Using this option can result in an image file that contains corrupt files and/or file systems. Because of the risks involved, this option generally is used only when it is impossible to close all handles to the RAM disk.
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Restore dialog
Image file Describes the path of the file from which the RAM disk's image will be restored. Zero memory before restoring Select this option to completely erase (destroy) the contents of the RAM disk before restoring its contents with the selected image file.
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Remove dialog
Keep image file Select this option to preserve the RAM disk's associated image file. The RAM disk can later be re-instantiated with the image file's contents using the 'Load RAM disk' command. Zero memory Select this option to completely erase (destroy) the contents of the RAM disk.
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Auto-Wipe dialog
Information This dialog configures and displays the current status of the auto-wipe feature. This feature is available only for RamDisk Plus. Install/Uninstall Click to Install/Uninstall the auto-wipe-at-logoff service. Important: This feature is intended for use in secure environments where one and only one user is logged on to the machine at any time. When this feature is enabled, the auto-wipe service will monitor all user logon and logoff events. At logoff, the service will dismount each RAM disk present in the system, zero (wipe) its contents, and then restore its original image using its associated image file.
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About dialog
This dialog displays information about the product and application, including their version and copyright.
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Licensing dialog
Information This dialog displays information about the product's license, including the status, licensee, product(s) and platform(s) licensed, copyright, etc. Update Key Click this button to update the software license.
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Options dialog
User interface method The operations to add or load a RAM disk or to view a RAM disk image file have many options which can be confusing. The wizards present the various options in a logical sequence. For step-by-step access to the options, select Use wizards. To see only the most frequently used options, unselect Use advanced wizards. To see all the available options, select Use advanced wizards. For quick access to all options, select Use property sheets. Main window Remember window placement Saves the desktop location of the application's window when it is closed. Remember window size Saves the size of the application's window when it is closed.
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Progress dialog
This dialog displays progress activity for a particular operation.
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View - Wizard
This wizard presents all the available options for creating a view of a RAM disk image that is stored in an image file. The view is effectively a read-only RAM disk. Only a minimal amount of memory is allocated to create the view. Use image views to retrieve data from RAM disk image files stored on disk, without having to create a RAM disk. A view allows you to access a saved RAM image that may be much larger than the amount of available memory.
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Properties
This property sheet display the current RAM disk or Image View settings. It can also be used to modify the settings.
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Properties page
Description Details the properties of the RAM disk.
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Settings page
This page contains the changeable settings of the RAM disk. Drive letter assigned to the RAM disk Select a drive letter to assign to the partition of a RAM disk containing a partition table and entry, or, in the case of a version 8 RAM disk or a virtual disk (which have no partition table), to the disk itself. Zero memory when removed or restored Select to zero (erase) the contents of the entire RAM disk when it is removed or when an image is restored to it. Use associated image file Select to create and maintain an image file that is associated with the RAM disk. For RAM disks containing a partition table and for version 8 RAM disks the associated image file is used to save or restore disk's contents between system reboots. This feature is especially important since for such RAM disks any file system metadata (eg. the "format" information) is lost when the system is shutdown or restarted. When a RAM disk with an associated image file is re-instantiated, its image is read from the image file, thus restoring the file system and any other saved data. Without the associated image file, such a RAM disk will have no file system at all when the system is started. NOTE: generally, virtual RAM disks are formatted at the time they are instantiated and so do not require an associated image file. Location of associated image file Specifies the drive letter of the root directory in which the RAM disk's associated image file will be located. A RAM disk's associated image file is always located in the root directory of a drive. By default, it is located in the root of the boot drive (the partition containing the active Windows installation). Save at system shutdown Select to save the contents of the RAM disk to its associated image file at system shutdown. This option effectively makes the RAM disk persistent across reboots. Reserve space for full disk Select to expand the size of the associated image file to the largest necessary to contain the entire RAM disk's contents. This option does not specify that the entire RAM disk be saved. It specified that sufficient space be reserved on the partition containing the associated image file, so that if the entire RAM disk had to be saved it could be.
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Windows Server 2003, 2003 R2, 2008, 2008 R2, Standard edition or lesser
3.2
4.0
Notice that Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista and Windows 7 have the same memory limits whether running in PAE mode or not. Overcoming the Windows Memory Barrier The fact is, with "extra help" all 32-bit PAE-enabled editions of Windows can support up to 64 GB of main memory -- the PAE hardware limit. SuperSpeed's RamDisk Plus product provides that "extra help" by supporting what we call "Unmanaged Memory". See Unmanaged Memory for information about how RamDisk Plus supports memory not managed by Windows.
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Unmanaged Memory
With PAE-mode enabled, all 32-bit Windows editions can potentially access up to 64 GB of main memory. Nonetheless, different Windows editions limit the amount of main memory they support to 4 GB or less. SuperSpeed's RamDisk Plus features support to utilize main memory that Windows does not. What is unmanaged memory? We call the main memory that Windows does not use or manage "Unmanaged Memory", or UM. On a machine running 32-bit Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista, or Windows 7 with 4 GB of main memory installed and with PAE mode enabled, Windows typically limits the amount of main memory available to about 3.2 GB. This leaves about 0.8 GB of main memory unused or unmanaged by Windows. With RamDisk Plus, that 0.8 GB of main memory unused or unmanaged by Windows (Unmanaged Memory, UM) can now be put to work! What's more, UM can be used right along with the physical memory that Windows manages. In the case described above, RamDisk Plus can create a RAM disk as large as 3.5 GB! On a machine running 32-bit Windows XP SP2 or Vista with 8 GB of main memory installed and with PAE mode enabled, a RAM disk up to 7.5 GB can be created! Put as Much RAM as You Have and Need to Work RamDisk Plus thus reclaims the memory resources that would otherwise be lost or unusable. This provides greater versatility in the use of Windows operating systems and applications that can benefit from the increased performance afforded by RAM disks. Now any 32-bit PAE-enabled edition of Windows can access up to 64 GB of main memory, using the bulk of it to enhance system performance! RamDisk Plus supports two methods to access UM: dynamic and static. Dynamic access, or dynamic allocation, allows UM to be used transparently along with the physical memory managed by Windows. Static access, or direct address, allows specific blocks of physical memory to be allocated for RAM disks.
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