RAM Disk and CCleaner

Hi,

When initiating the install of RAM Disk 3.4.5 I've had the application pop-up a notice warning of known issues when running RAM Disk together with CCleaner, when using image files or image-based RAM disks.

I intend to use RAM Disk with image (Persistent).

What is the true issue ? Is it more than having the TEMP folder on the RAMdisk ? If so, I never set the TEMP folder on a removable drive, moreover on a RAMdisk.

Thanks for your information because this could be problematic for me. The fact is I've just uninstalled RAM Disk 3.4.2 in order to install this latest 3.4.5, and the CCleaner issue warning was not in place with 3.4.2

This is slightly annoying. I need both CCleaner and SoftPerfect RAM Disk

We don't know exactly, but we have received numerous reports from users having both CCleaner and the RAM Disk installed.

Occasionally a RAM Disk that has an associated image file, becomes corrupted. Further experiments show that the image itself becomes corrupted and it only seems to be happening when CCleaner is starting with Windows. This issue has been around for a while, but we didn't knot it was caused by CCleaner, that's why there was no warning in the earlier versions.

One could wonder why, when a user ran successfully as I did RAM Disk 3.4.2, would that user switch to 3.4.5.
In fact, Andrew, you proposed on another post of mine here, to stick to 3.4.2 if all was ok. This is logical.

Well, the point is I have been having very surprisingly (I'm very cautious about the computer) a few crashes mainly when a driver was modified. For instance yesterday I installed latest NVIDIA GeForce Driver 334.89 and, when I later on rebooted I had a crash : Microsoft repair detected nothing at all, I closed the computer, then booted cold, and all was fine. Similar crashes occurred previously, always on reboot (hot boot), never on cold boot.

I scoped possible causes without ever thinking of an issue with RAM Disk + CCleaner pair. Especially that these crashes started late after RAM Disk install.
But also, I imagined that it could be related to RAM Disk in particular, specific circumstances. This is why I switched to 3.4.5 (in fact I aborted install at this time).

Discovering the warning (good point for popping it on install), I now take into consideration a RAM Disk related issue, even if :
1- No proof (impossible to reproduce a reboot crash) ;
2- If, would be related to the RAM Disk + CCleaner pair.

I've tried to find on the Web testimonies of this binomial issue, found one but related obviously to the fact of having the TEMP folder set in the RAM Disk. That's why I mentioned this point.

Now, if CCleaner is really a troublemaker when RAM Disk is installed, I really don't have the start of the beginning of an understanding. In what could both be related to ? They seem to operate in totally uncommon grounds ...

One of those mysteries. I'll have to make a choice or to choose a volatile RAM Disk, not handy in my perspective.

Thanks Andrew for your quick information.

What happens when a ramdisk becomes corrupted?

I have CCleaner which is set to clear my browser caches every week.
Only browser caches are on the ramdisk (svi image persistent).

So far no problems, have been using since the last few versions.

If an image gets corrupted, all data in it may be lost, in which case an image will need to be re-created.

If you don't store anything valuable on the RAM disk, I guess that may be acceptable.

Don't autostart CCleaner, just run it when you need to

I also use Ccleaner and RAMdisk, but CCcleaner is not setup to start at boot on my system, so based on the information here, it would seem it is probably safe to use Images. I tried usign Images, but the OK button is disabled, so I can't make an Image. I assume this is made as a safety feature now? Is it possible to override this for cases like mine, where I don't have Ccleaner running all the time and won't use Ccleaner while I have a RAM disk running?

Has anybody at Softperfect tried talking to Piriform (Ccleaner) about this, as I think it would be helpful for both parties.

The OK button is disabled in your case for some other reason, most likely missing or incorrect input. If you post a screen shot here, I would be able to say what it is.

As to contacting Piriform, yes we did that a while ago and they advised the following:

Quote

We have run an investigation into the effects which you have reported where CCleaner is having on your product and I have some results for you.

CCleaner does not specifically target the files relating to your product, however we believe it maybe being impacted by the fact that RAM disk is storing files in the Windows Temp location. This is a location which is identified as a prominent cleaning location as lots of programs use this for storing its temporary files.

Files that are present in this temp location and belong to the application are locked when application is running, so CCleaner’s cleaning can be safety performed when application is running and RAM drives are mounted.

Your users can avoid this scenario by changing your temporary file location within the preferences of RAM Disk.

CCleaner does already have the functionality to help avoid this issue. Here are 2 methods to help protect users:

1. Disabling the Temporary Files rules within CCleaner.
2. Excluding the file location and file format from being cleaned by CCleaner using the Exclude list.

I've been using SoftPerfect RAMdisk under Windows 10 x64 ver 1703. Boot Disk with a persistent Image that saves files into it.

I installed my browser and it's cache folder inside the RAMdisk. I have not set TEMP variables into the RAMdisk since that's risky if the RAMdisk is not big enough.

I have disabled Ccleaner from autostart, and it's real time monitor. Unmount the virtual drive when I'm about to run Ccleaner. No corruption issues.

How long have I been testing this way: 24 days and counting.