"The parameter is incorrect" error

After upgrading SoftPerfect RAM Disk to v4.3 and installing Visual Studio 2022, I have started getting "The parameter is incorrect - Drive not writeable" error messages from the RAM disk.

I am using the RAM disk for building in Visual Studio (obj + bin folders), and I am running Windows 10 Pro, fully patched.

The RAM disk is configured as follows:
Size: 15.360 MB
Had Disk Emulation: NO
Save Contents to Image: YES
Mount as Removable: NO
Allocate within the specified NUMA node only: NO
Save contents to associated image every, min: 60

The error has happened 2 times in about 12 hours. Everything worked fine for years with VS2019, and although I cannot see how installation of VS2022 could have any effect, it is the only thing that has changed. RAM Disk 4.3 has worked fine with VS2019 until yesterday's installation of VS2022.

The eventlog has the following:

Quote

The system failed to flush data to the transaction log. Corruption may occur in VolumeId: Z:, DeviceName: \Device\000000d5.

Failure status: {Write Protect Error}
The disk cannot be written to because it is write protected. Please remove the write protection from the volume %hs in drive %hs.

Device GUID: {00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}
Device manufacturer:
Device model:
Device revision:
Device serial number:
Bus type: <unknown>

Unfortunately it is hard to tell what is causing this, and it will require further investigation. It could be a Windows update, file system corruption, Visual Studio installation, or the changes in RAM Disk v4.3.

For now, I would recommend trying a volatile RAM disk, i.e. a RAM disk without an image file attached. Since you are using the RAM disk for temporary compiler output, saving it between sessions may be unnecessary. With a volatile RAM disk, everything written to the disk will disappear after a reboot, so each time there will be a new empty drive for the compiler to use.

If that's not an option for you, then perhaps it's worth trying to re-create the image and use a different file system. If you are using NTFS, exFAT may be a little faster due to the lack of NTFS overhead, and there is no transaction log to flush. But again, if the nature if your data is temporary, it's better not to keep it. A volatile RAM disk will work perfectly well as a temporary folder for compiler output.

Hi,
Same trouble with 4.3 on a fresh install of Windows Server 2022 (web server with only IIS) after installing Visual Studio 2022.
NTFS 40Gb startup disk and Windows Temp folder.
Default Read/write rights for System, Users and Amdins groups on disk.
ramdsik.exe /save:R work fine. Autosave work "generally".
The trouble occurs randomly.

And for us, volatile RAM disk is not an option. Is there no problem to use extFat for Startup Disk / Windows Temp ?

Regards

We have just found one thing that may be have been causing this. In version 4.3 we fixed the issue with the software performing a full image update instead of differential. However the differential update locks the disk for a short time, which may intermittently result in such error. We will fix this shortly and publish updated builds.

Please kindly download the latest build, try it out and let us know how it works for you. Hopefully the 'parameter is incorrect' issue should now be resolved.

I'm currently running 4.3.0 and I am still getting this error.

I'm using a ram disk mounted as a virtual disk (6144 mb, NTFS, default settings otherwise). I'm on a recent install of Windows 10 Pro with all the current updates. I was running the same application on the same computer before a reinstall and I wasn't getting this error, but I was also running an older version of the application and likely an older version of Windows 10 Pro. I don't have VS2022 installed, I doubt it's a filesystem corruption because it's a recent install (less than 2 weeks old).

Have you tried the latest build from the 12th of November?

It's the same version number (4.3.0), but we have fixed the issue where the drive would become read-only in that build.

I am also getting this error now. I am using the updated build from Nov. 12th.

The only thing that occurred around the same time in Event Log was an Explorer.exe crash, so it might be related.

I can't find any SoftPerfect RamDisk entries in event log. I just got the tiny popup window that says "The parameter is incorrect."

I tried using 4.3 official (registered) and test version (12 Nov), tried installing both times as Admin and not, cleaned Registry after each uninstall with CCleaner, but still get 'incorrect parameter' window occasionally, when computer doing file operations it seems.

No saved image option used, only used for browser cache and user Temp. 8G, Drive: X, HDD emulation, Exfat, name Ramdisk, with 3 subfolders (Temp, Chrome, Firefox). No other options enabled. Windows 10 ver 21H2 (OS build 19044.1348) fully updated. Using 9900KF, 64G 3200cas14 RAM. I thought the 'incorrect parameter' bug was for people using 'save image to file' function, seems I'm getting it too? Went back to 4.2 for now.

Also, I do not have the option "Save contents to associated image every" set. I do have it set to Save Contents to Image, but not automatically per X amount of minutes.

That's really odd, especially if it also happens when no images are used. I am sorry about this guys, I wish there was a quick and easy way to reproduce and fix, but like any other intermittent issue, it may take time to track it down.

Could you please post here a screen shot of your main RAM disk app window? This way we can see exactly how it's configured and hopefully that'll shed some light on the source of the problem.

I have attached a screenshot of my settings.

The interesting thing is, I have used the November 12th build since November 12th since I was following this thread. And I used the initial 4.3 release since it first came out as well. This is the first time that I have experienced this issue. I can definitely understand how this might be difficult to reproduce.

Big thanks to everyone for your reports!

We are currently running the RAM Disk on numerous machines with different OS and with various settings in attempts to reproduce this error. So far, the error has not appeared, but we'll keep going until we catch it.

If anyone notices a connection between this error and anything else (a certain setting, action, third party software, etc) please do let us know! Even if it is only your theory or a mild suspicion, it may really help to pinpoint the problem.

Hello,

I would like to drop in some more info about that problem.

I'm running Windows 11 Pro, latest patchlevel. Because it was mentioned here, I also have VS 2022 and VS 2019 installed. System AMD 5950, hottest M2 SSDs etc, quite fast rig.

I have installed the latest version from Nov 12.

It takes a while until the popup dialog comes up. All taskbar icons are already there, even the RAMDisk one. I could see the RAMDisk in the Windows Explorer.

I would say everything it up and running, and then, maybe after 10-15s the popup appears.

Do you have a log somewhere?

Best regards,
Alex

For what it's worth, I also have Visual Studio 2022 installed on my machine. But I was not using it or have it open at the time that I experienced the error. And I only experienced the error 1 time over the course of 20 days or so.

Thanks guys, it was indeed Visual Studio 2022 that caused this issue. The exact cause is unclear, but for some reason, when VS 2022 is installed, certain GDI calls that RAM Disk uses for drawing the disk usage bar occasionally fail.

We have just rewritten it so that if the drawing fails, it will simply try drawing it again later. Please try the new build from the 24th of November and let us know how it works for you.

Once you confirm the fix is working well, we will release this update as version 4.3.1.

Thank you!
Works like a charm.

Works great so far. System actually feels smoother. I don't have Visual Studio installed. Must have been a conflict with one of the Visual C++ Redistributables I have installed (I have from 2013 up to present installed).

Fantastic! New version (4.3.1) with the above fixes is now released.