How to increase disk image size and move contents
5 posts · Closed
I have a 13 GB disk image that I use with SoftPerfect RAM Disk. I have now run out of space and need to increase it to 16 GB. How can I move the contents of the current image to the new one?
I can't dismount it because the folders and files are currently being used. Would starting the computer in Safe Mode work? I was thinking to start the RAM Disk in Safe Mode and then copy the contents to the Desktop since the folders and files aren't in use anymore, except Windows temp, which is the only thing that I would have to realign afterwards.
I recommend the following:
- Create a new 16 GB image file via Image - Create and mount it via Image - Mount in the main menu.
- Copy all files and folders from your currently mounted RAM disk into the image mounted in step 1.
- Unmount the image file that you have copied the data to (the new 16 GB image).
- Edit the RAM Disk's properties to use the new image file, but don't re-mount it.
- Instead, reboot the computer, and your RAM disk will be using the new larger image file.
- If everything is OK and works well, the old image file can be deleted.
Thanks Andrew for your help. I really appreciate it.
The problem is how do you copy the file and folders if they are currently in use? Many of the files are actually in use and it would take a while to completely shut down all the processes. That's why I was thinking of using Safe Mode.
If those files are open in read-only mode, e.g. you have some applications open from the RAM disk, it will work. As the files do not change, file-level copy should work just fine even if they are in use. (Moving files that are in use is indeed an issue, but here we are talking about copying.)
Otherwise, you would need to stop all your processes that keep open files before you can safely copy the data.
Safe Mode is something else really, it will simply stop the system from loading third-party drivers, which will likely result in the RAM disks being unavailable.
Thanks for your help! It worked.