Add option for volatile disks
2 posts · Closed
Hi, I have been evaluating SoftPerfect RAM Disk and also Primo Ramdisk.
I prefer SoftPerfect RAM Disk, except for one feature that Primo has and SoftPerfect doesn't. Primo allows creation of volatile disks: "if checked, the virtual disk is not preserved when the system is rebooted". Please add this feature so that RAM disks are not necessarily loaded at boot. Give the user the option to load the RAM disk at boot or not.
With SoftPerfect, the way to prevent a RAM disk from getting loaded at boot is to manually remove it right before turning off the computer. With a "volatile" option, the user just checks it when creating the RAM disk, and the RAM disk is not loaded at boot. Even if a RAM disk image has been created and saved, when the "volatile" option is checked, it is treated by Primo as "do not load at boot". This is very useful.
While Primo may have the option to create disks that are not preserved when the system is rebooted, SoftPerfect RAM Disk also offers this functionality, and it doesn't require deleting its RAM disks:
If you unmount a RAM disk before rebooting, it won't be mounted at the next startup. SoftPerfect RAM Disk remembers which disks were mounted or unmounted before the last shut down/reboot, and next time it launches in that configuration. This means that the unmounted RAM disk will not be loaded at the next boot, and then you can mount it manually when/if you need to. There is no need to delete the disk.
Another way to have a RAM disk that is created only on user request would be to make a log-on RAM disk and then uncheck the "Launch Automatically with Windows" RAM Disk application setting. In this case the disk will be created only when the RAM Disk application is launched by the user.
Alternatively, if you need on-demand RAM disks that don't persist between reboots, you can use the console version ramdiskc.exe to create one from a batch file or shortcut when needed.