Virtual/RAM disk

[ChrisGreaves]

The only RamDisk I can find for Win7 is from DataRam, but the "Dataram_RAMDisk_V3.5.130RC13a.msi" clags out during installation with "Internal Error 2203".

ram.png

Is anyone out there using a RAM disk under Win7?

(I confess to being puzzled that MSoft doesn't seem to make a Ram disk a prominent feature)

Thanks

[HansV]

Wouldn't it be easier to install Windows 7 Professional? It comes with Windows XP emulation on a virtual disk.

[John Gray]

Or just buy an SSD?

[JoeP]

That error often indicates a permission problem. If you messed with permissions on any of the files, folders, or junctions that may be used in the install that is likely the problem. If you have tweaked permission you may need to. Isn't there an installation log file?

Joe

[ChrisGreaves]

Wouldn't it be easier to install ? It comes with Windows XP emulation on a virtual disk.

Well, I honestly don't know.
This (Compaq Presario CQ62) laptop came with Windows Home Premium installed, which suggests to me that Windows 7 Professional would cost me extra Dollar$$.
Even then I think it is not XP emulation I'm looking for here. (I spent 24 hours deep in thought pondering whether to reformat the drive and install WinXP or to try to get-with-the-program).
I'm making a real effort to be a Win7 type of person.
I'm just puzzled that Win7 doesn't come with a ram disk doo-dad.

Thanks for the response at any rate.

I may have missed your point Hans; it has happened before ...

[ChrisGreaves]

Or just buy an SSD?

An SSD - Solid State Device - as in a memory key?
I have memory keys coming out of my ears.
I liked the Ram Disk under WinZp because I could use it as my browser cache, secure in the knowledge that the cache was cleared each reboot.
Amongst other uses.
With 2GB ram I don't begrudge 64MB in the interest of speed.

But please let me re-iterate my remark to Hans - I may have misunderstood your comment.

RAM disks were around before my second marriage broke up, and they were handy then on twin-floppy 64KB machines. All the more useful now with 2GB machines, no?

[ChrisGreaves]

If you messed with permissions ... likely the problem.

Thanks Joe for these clues.

Hah-ah! Since you mention it I *was* frustrated with my inability to look inside Documents And Settings. I'd better go and see if I can clean up any mess I made.
FWIW I've seen a few of these 2203 errors this past eight hours.

Isn't there an installation log file?

Now don't get technical on me (grin).
Again, I'll go look.
My money, what's left of it, is on your comment on permissions

[ChrisGreaves]

That error often indicates a permission problem.

Joe, much Googling found me working through a series of pages, of which this one (http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX104619&searchID=47054818) seems to have done the trick in ridding me of the 2203 error.

I had set two of my TEMP|TMP environment variables to T:\___Spare, which serves as my "junk" folder.

[JoeP]

That is some good detective work. Glad you got it resolved.

Joe

[Claude]

RAM disks were around before my second marriage broke up, and they were handy then on twin-floppy 64KB machines....

Hehe, I had a customer some 20 years ago for whom I setup a backup batch file onto a floppy drive....

Then! They employed a computer "expert" who convinced them that my batch file was garbage because it took too long, he went and changed the destination drive b:\ to e:\ which was the RAM drive I setup for them. Admittedly, the backup process took less than 10% of the time that mine took.

[John Gray]

Or just buy an SSD?

An SSD - Solid State Device - as in a memory key?

No!

And why not use one of your USB Flash Drives as RAM, to make up for the RAM which you are turning into a Virtual Drive?

[ChrisGreaves]

Glad you got it resolved.

Joe, I'm glad for the nudge you gave me; knowing which direction to face is essential before taking that first step of a journey.

That is some good detective work.

Good detective work on their part; I just Googled what others before me had posted.

Overall I rest on a case that MSoft's error messages are needlessly mystical. Augmenting the "2230" string with something like "Check around your four 'temp' environment variables" would give people a better clue to the cause of the problem.

Now in WinXP for the past 3?4? years I have pointed my 4 temp variables to \___Spare on my data drive on the grounds that I don't need the clutter and fragmentation on my C: drive. In Win7 it seems that that is no longer a valid option. I may be off-base here; maybe I screwed up somewhere else.

But a hint at 'temp variables' would do wonders for people like me who know about temp variables, whether it is my machine of a client's machine.
again to Microsoft.

I *hate* learning about new systems; I've been doing it for too many years ...

[StuartR]

I don't agree that this one is down to Microsoft. Windows provides you with a very simple mechanism for redirecting your TEMP folder, and this still works with Windows 7

It seems that the installation of this particular software package may be making incorrect assumptions about the location of the TEMP folder, and this is nothing at all to do with Microsoft.

[JoeP]

I've complained for years about the quality of information in error messages. It seems that most developers intend people to dig into log files for the real problem. That has let them get lazy about making it easy on the end user.

I do agree with Stuart that it is likely the developer is not using standard mechanisms to access the TEMP folder. If developers would actually use the tools & API information that Microsoft provides this sort of issue would be much less prevelant.

Joe

[ChrisGreaves]

Or just buy an SSD? .. And why not use one of your USB Flash Drives as RAM

Hi John.
OK the distinction is clear.
I think that both these solutions would work, except that in one case I have to spend even more money instead of using a surfeit of existing RAM, and in the second case I'm consuming one of the three USB ports on the laptop.
I know that programs were way smaller way back when, but it galls me that today with 2GB RAM I can no longer do what I did back then with 1MB RAM.
(I recall a ram drive onto which we loaded to essential applications - PCFile, PCWrite - and then ran them lightning-fast from the RAM drive.)

I know it's not your fault that things are the way they are, and your solutions would work, but they seem to add to the overhead and hassle instead of reducing it.

(sigh!)

[ChrisGreaves]

I don't agree that this one is down to Microsoft. ... It seems that the installation of this particular software package may be making incorrect assumptions

Well, actually, in the case I resolved last night I was trying to reinstall Office 2000, so one way or another ...

I agree that some 3rd-party software makes bad assumptions; Most of us have met packages that assume that the only hard drive is C:, and so on.

[ChrisGreaves]

Is anyone out there using a RAM disk under Win7?

Today I installed Dataram_RAMDisk_V3.5.130R17a and wrote up my experiences here