RAM disk disappeared after Windows 10 October update

Started by hristov

RAM disk disappeared after Windows 10 October update   26 January 2019, 05:21

Hello,
I was more than happy with one of the latest free versions - 4.0.7. I will ask some questions in one topic instead making multiple topics. Please answer, because I want to keep using this software.

I installed RAM Disk on Win 10 64 bit with 850 Pro SSD and 64GB DDR4 RAM. After that the first job was to create a 1 GB image and save the image file to SSD folder with NTFS file system and valid volume label. After that I created a new disk with 1GB space, added the created image to it, selected "save content to image" and again NTFS system and finished it. Did not select "mount as removable" or hard disk emulation.

I performed shutdowns with the power button and restarts of Windows - no problems, the RAM disk was there again, just as I left it.
I have only Opera browser installed on RAM disk, and after that Opera cache was moved to new folder on RAM disk.

Today Windows updated itself to October update and now I see no RAM disk on my computer. It is gone! What happened? I had to redo all bookmarks, passwords for sites, extensions, settings etc in Opera. How to prevent this in the future?

If I enable in image options saving content in associated image every 10 minutes, can that help me? Will this slow the web browsing?

When I open the RAM disk it shows 'raw' file system, although I selected NTFS. Why?

If electric power is suddenly disconnected, will I lose RAM disk?

If I have the whole browser installed on the RAM disk, will be it faster than only moving browser cache to RAM disk?

Last question: What do set Windows TEMP folder options mean? I have never done this.

Regards.

Re: RAM disk disappeared after Windows 10 October update   26 January 2019, 08:01

It looks like I missed to mount the image and to copy the Opera files to the mounted image. After that to unmount image.
Should I mount the image after I create a new RAM disk? Because the folders to mount on image will be on my RAM disk (I install Opera browser on the new RAM drive).

Thank you.
SoftPerfect Support forum - Andrew avatar image

Re: RAM disk disappeared after Windows 10 October update   26 January 2019, 22:18

Numerous news outlets reported that Windows 10 1809 October update wiped their entire folders with files. I guess you can consider yourself lucky that only the RAM disk was gone smile

I am not sure what exactly is gone in your case: the software itself or the RAM disk drive, but in either case I recommend installing or updating to the latest version and then re-creating the RAM disk.

Regarding having a web-browser installed on a RAM disk and using an image file for that, there is no benefit in doing so. Instead, we recommend moving %TEMP% and web-browser caches to a RAM disk. Please see this article for details: How to increase your PC performance with a RAM disk.

Choosing a drive letter for RAM disk and RAM disk image   26 January 2019, 22:57

Thank you and sorry for the long topic. I am new to RAM Disk software and forgot to copy Opera files to the mounted image before unmounting it and to add it the disk!
I will create a new disk, this time in exFAT system, and after that new image in exFAT. I hope it is not a problem that drive letters of the disk and the image will be different. If I create a disk F: the system does not allow me after that to create image F: and says it should be something else.
Cheers.
SoftPerfect Support forum - Andrew avatar image

Re: Choosing a drive letter for RAM disk and RAM disk image   27 January 2019, 16:27

To anyone new to RAM Disk wishing to work with image files, we highly recommend reading the RAM Disk user manual, to understand the concept of RAM disks and RAM disk images.

Once you have done that, you will see why a RAM disk and its image file cannot possibly have the same disk letter:
  • a RAM disk is a segment of computer RAM made to behave like a physical disk yet functioning with the speed and unwearability of RAM, and its letter is the letter associated with such disk;
  • an image file is a file created on the physical disk to store the otherwise volatile contents of the RAM disk between sessions. The image file will have a physical disk file path, e.g. D:\folder\filename.img. This cannot be a path starting with the RAM disk letter, or else it will be an attempt to preserve the contents of the RAM disk that disappears on shutdown on that very same disappearing disk.
Another important point: if you use your RAM disk for temporary files only, you do not need image files at all. RAM is cleared every time you reboot or switch your computer off, which will wipe the no-longer-needed temporary data, thus keeping your physical disk uncluttered.

Regarding the choice of disk letters for RAM disks, it is best to use drive letters from the end of the alphabet, e.g. drives X, Y and Z. Those letters are usually not used for anything else and are unlikely to come into conflict with other drives.
Hello,

I have the exactly same problem about RAM disk dissappearing.

It has nothing to do with Opera. Forget Opera.

Let me describe very clear. Windows 10 boots, ram disk is there. After using windows for some hours, I look again, and the drive is not there anymore.
If I reboot again, it comes back.
Or without rebooting, if I go to the ram disk manager, double click the ram disk, and hit OK, it asks me if I want to umount/remount it, I hit yes, it comes back.

I do not know what triggers the dissappearing of the ram disk. I am willing to do more debug for you to help you with this problem.

I've managed to reproduce it launching the "HP PC Hardware Diagnostics" from microsoft store (not the app from hp website). That soft, I do not know what it does, but it crashes the ramdisk and reproduces the problem. Otherwise, without launching "HP PC Hardware Diagnostics", the ramdisk dissappears also, after a random amount of hours using the pc.

Hope it helps
Pablo
SoftPerfect Support forum - Andrew avatar image

Re: RAM disk disappeared after Windows 10 October update   25 November 2020, 11:55

Sorry, this is not something we can reproduce and we have never seen this behaviour in testing. It may be related to some third-party drivers or applications, but that's not something we can troubleshoot.

I would recommend trying a different combination of RAM Disk settings, e.g. try a different file system or enable/disable the Hard Disk Drive emulation, to see if that makes any difference.

In particular, I have tried running HP PC Hardware Diagnostics as you mentioned, but it simply says non-HP hardware is not supported. The RAM Disk stays there, just as it should.

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