Help a Newbie Install. Will give MONEY!

FAQ, getting help, user experience about Primo Ramdisk
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CeramicsMaker
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Help a Newbie Install. Will give MONEY!

Post by CeramicsMaker »

Hello, Everyone,

I need help and if you provide it, I can provide you with a small bit of monetary compensation and a whole lot of gratitude and karma. ;)

If a wise one here can answer and solve the following questions/issues, I will be your loyal student forever.

1. Can you tell me and prove to me which ramdisk software is the best? (You can private message me if you feel uncomfortable.)
a. OSFMount
b. Primo Ramdisk
c. DiskMaster Free
d. Gillisoft RAMDisk
e. Primo RAMDisk
f. SuperSpeed RAMDisk
g. VSuite RAMDisk
h. RAMDiskXP
I. Qilling Disk Master Pofessional
j. Ultra RAMDisk
k. Miray RAM Drive
l. Any others...

2. After reading any answers (if I get any at all), I'll pick a ramdisk software. Could someone help me install it?

I've tried installing a ramdisk about 3-4 times and I've screwed up on all of them. I must be an idiot. I bricked my computer once. And, the other times, they were very unpleasant experiences. If you are a guru and can help me, I will give you.......$30? Is that enough for 30-60 minutes of worth of helping a dumb-dumb like me?

This is what I want to do. I have about 64 gigs of RAM that I installed for the following purpose.

I want to put the appropriate cache's on the ramdisk to make my computer go faster. That's obvoius. But I also want to install the following programs onto the ramdisk:
1. Microsoft Office
2. Nuance Power PDF Advanced
3. Chrome

Throughout the day, I completely terminate and then open these programs. So, they don't ever completely remain in RAM. But, since I open them up again so many times, things would go so much faster if I load them onto the RAMDisk. The biggest annoyance is Power PDF. It sometimes takes like 10 seconds to open a pdf. It would be nice if it was instantaneous.

Anyone up to the challenge!!!
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Support
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Re: Help a Newbie Install. Will give MONEY!

Post by Support »

You have to check the option "Backing Image" in the ramdisk configuration, otherwise the content in the ramdisk will be lost because data are stored in RAM.
InquiringMind
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Re: Help a Newbie Install. Will give MONEY!

Post by InquiringMind »

Welcome to the forums CeramicsMaker,

Given this is a vendor-specific support forum, this isn't really the place to ask for comparisons with rival products. I would say from my experience that Primo Ramdisk is the most fully featured in terms of offering multiple types of ramdisks (including hybrid, which uses both RAM and disk) and image file options. However you need to decide for yourself which features are important, and check that the software works on your system (by the way, if you want detailed advice, do post your system specification...).

Given your stated purpose, you may wish to look at PrimoCache first since it is simpler to set up and does caching out of the box (though it also duplicates Windows' own file caching). Ramdisks can boost performance, but you need to spend time identifying which files/folders an application uses and then set up NTFS junctions to link them to copies on a ramdisk. Tools like Link Shell Extension can help greatly here, but you still need to know what you are doing.

The applications you mention don't seem particularly demanding (though which version of Microsoft Office are you using?) so if you are seeing slow performance, you may find it better to check what else is running on your system, using software like Process Hacker or Process Explorer, before spending money on other software.
CeramicsMaker
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Re: Help a Newbie Install. Will give MONEY!

Post by CeramicsMaker »

Sorry, I haven't checked this post for a while. Someone was helping me set something up with something else! I don't mind using Primo Ramdisk and paying for it. I just tried Primo Ramdisk before and it failed.

I just want something that works! I've tried 3-4 different ramdisk softwares and it didn't work out too well. I admit that I'm a perfectionist so I want everything to work perfectly. In other words, I want all the caches on the RAM drive. I want specific programs to be installed on the RAM drive. And, I want everything automated. But, every time I try a software, it glitches and doesn't work. I try for a while to resolve it but I can't make it work. So, I move onto the next program that might work. But, after trying 3 programs, I'm pretty frustrated so I would pay somebody to just do it!
CeramicsMaker
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Re: Help a Newbie Install. Will give MONEY!

Post by CeramicsMaker »

Inquiring Minds,

I actually have a ton of 3rd party programs that probably conflict with each other and slow each other down. But, what should I do if they all help my work flow? For example, I use PhraseExpress, AutoHotkey, and other programs that make macros so I have a feeling they are slowing each other down. But, I need all of them so I keep them all running. I have a feeling that the RAM drives don't like this...

With respect to Microsoft Office, I'm using 2016. The last version before the dreaded 365 version. It's obvious why business strategy-wise why they are doing this. Microsoft hasn't made anything majorly different and people are just going to stick with their old programs. By making it a monthly/annual service, Microsoft doesn't have to constantly come up with something that seems revolutionary.

I'm not seeing "slow" performance. It's relatively fast compared to other computers but I like my computers to be blazing fast all the time.
InquiringMind wrote: Fri Aug 07, 2020 8:59 pm Welcome to the forums CeramicsMaker,

Given this is a vendor-specific support forum, this isn't really the place to ask for comparisons with rival products. I would say from my experience that Primo Ramdisk is the most fully featured in terms of offering multiple types of ramdisks (including hybrid, which uses both RAM and disk) and image file options. However you need to decide for yourself which features are important, and check that the software works on your system (by the way, if you want detailed advice, do post your system specification...).

Given your stated purpose, you may wish to look at PrimoCache first since it is simpler to set up and does caching out of the box (though it also duplicates Windows' own file caching). Ramdisks can boost performance, but you need to spend time identifying which files/folders an application uses and then set up NTFS junctions to link them to copies on a ramdisk. Tools like Link Shell Extension can help greatly here, but you still need to know what you are doing.

The applications you mention don't seem particularly demanding (though which version of Microsoft Office are you using?) so if you are seeing slow performance, you may find it better to check what else is running on your system, using software like Process Hacker or Process Explorer, before spending money on other software.
InquiringMind
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Re: Help a Newbie Install. Will give MONEY!

Post by InquiringMind »

CeramicsMaker wrote: Tue Aug 18, 2020 2:52 am I actually have a ton of 3rd party programs that probably conflict with each other and slow each other down. But, what should I do if they all help my work flow? For example, I use PhraseExpress, AutoHotkey, and other programs that make macros so I have a feeling they are slowing each other down. But, I need all of them so I keep them all running. I have a feeling that the RAM drives don't like this...
Others have reported conflicts between AutoHotKey and PhraseExpress, but you can duplicate PE's functionality with AHK - see this thread for an example. I use AHK myself, and given its flexibility, would suggest that you could replace any other macro-type software with an appropriate AHK script.

These should however have no impact on Primo Ramdisk - the only reasons for it failing (please give details of any error message you received) are (a) conflict with hardware or other drivers on your system (this would most likely result in a blue screen) or (b) security software preventing driver installation (you need to allow Primo Ramdisk's "fancyrd.sys" driver to load, so create an exception for this if necessary). Once installed however, you will need to spend time identifying which files/folders programs use that can be relocated onto ramdisk (aside from the obvious Temp folder) which is why I suggest you start with Primo Cache - this has quite minimal configuration requirements in comparison and comes closer to the "just works" criterion you ask for.
CeramicsMaker wrote: Tue Aug 18, 2020 2:52 am I'm not seeing "slow" performance. It's relatively fast compared to other computers but I like my computers to be blazing fast all the time.
You then need to identify what the cause of any slowdowns are, before installing more software that could further complicate matters. If your slowdowns are, say, CPU- or GPU-related then no ramdisk or caching software is going to help out - these come into play only with IO-intensive operations.

Hardware issues (like a loose cable causing a disk drive to lose its connection periodically) can cause momentary freezes - if this is what you're seeing, check Windows' Event Viewer for any error messages.
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