Blind Guardian Superspeed offers two high-performance RAM disk products: RamDisk and RamDisk Plus.
RamDisk and RamDisk Plus®:
Vista 32 & 64-bit CertifiedBoth use our patent-pending memory management (up to 512 GB) to create a virtual disk out of RAM. The RAM disk appears like a physical hard disk to the operating system and programs. You choose its size (depending on the amount of RAM in your system), drive letter, and file system. You can copy, move and delete files on it. Like a physical disk, a RAM disk can be shared so as to be accessed by other computers on a network.
XP 32 & 64-bit Certified:
The most important difference between a RAM disk and a hard disk is access speed. The time taken for a hard disk to move its magnetic heads over the spinning disks (much like the arm moving over old vinyl record player) is typically measured in milliseconds (thousandths of a second). Whereas a RAM disk does not have mechanical parts and its access speed is typically measured in nanoseconds (billionths of a second). Access to a RAM disk may be 50 times faster or more than to a hard drive.
RamDisk supports a single RAM disk with no backup capability.
RamDisk Plus Features:
RamDisk Plus adds multiple disk support, system page file support, and a versatile disk image backup and restore facility. You can manually save the RAM disk’s contents to an image file, or have the contents saved automatically when the computer is shutdown. This feature ensures that service and application data stored on the RAM disk can be preserved between system restarts. During the subsequent system start-up, the disk's image is automatically loaded. A "live" RAM disk image may be backed up even with open handles to the volume. A RAM disk viewer lets you load image files as read-only devices.
Extended memory access:
RamDisk Plus 11 has a most unique feature. Our patent pending technology can access memory beyond the limitation imposed by a Windows 32-bit operating system! In other words, RamDisk Plus 11 can use "unmanaged" Windows' memory e.g. above 4GB. It can use the stubbornly inaccessable memory between 3.2GB and 4GB.
See the product's help file for detailed explanation of what "unmanaged" memory is and how to access and use it with RamDisk Plus 11.
Disk types:
Virtual and removable disk types are supported. Disks can be created with partition tables or without. RamDisk and RamDisk Plus can both create partitionable RAM disks, which are supported by Volume Managment software. Windows' MMC disk managment snap-in recognizes and manages partitionable RAM disks. They are compatible with other software such as Partition Magic and Veritas Volume Manager. RamDisk Plus can create and configure non-partitionable RAM disks, which are compatible with RAM disks created by RamDisk and RamDisk Plus version 8.0. RAM disks can be zeroed out upon removal and the disk image file can be preserved upon removal. A new licensing mechanism binds the software to the machine name rather than a system ID.
Security:
Another reason for using a RAM disk is security or privacy. Once the server is restarted or shutdown, the contents of the RAM disk are lost (when the auto-save feature is disabled). For some services or applications, this is an important attribute that contributes to the protection of sensitive data or information.
"Designed for Windows Vista & XP":
RamDisk and RamDisk Plus have been thoroughly tested to meet Microsoft standards for Windows 7, Vista and XP compatibility. Microsoft awards these logos to products that deliver a reliable, high-quality computing experience with Windows operating systems.
For disk I/O performance benefits similar to RamDisk but with low or no added risk of data loss, see SuperVolume and SuperCache II.
RAMDisk Plus Features:
- Microsoft "Designed for Windows" logo'd
- Disk size from 1 MB to approximately 510 GB*
- Number of RAM disks supported: 99
- Manage by Graphical User and Command Line interfaces
- No synchronization issues with auto-start services
- RAM disk(s) available very early in system startup
- Compressed image file for faster image loading
- Reserve image file space required for a "full" RAM disk option
- Save RAM disk image automatically at system shutdown option
- Dynamic backup and restore of RamDisks
- Load a RAM disk from an image file
- Move an existing RAM disk's image file from one volume to another
- Change an existing RAM disk's drive letter
- System page file support
- Dynamic backup and restore of RamDisks
- Support for Partitionable Ramdisks
- Support for Virtual and Removable RamDisks
- Memory above 4 GB RamDisk Support
