View/Edit Disk displays incorrect Files System Settings

[kencl]

Windows 8 Pro
RAMDisk Pro 5.6.0
1) Choose View/Edit disk settings for a loaded RAMDisk
2) Click "Next" botton at the bottom until you reach "File System Settings"
You will see that both File System and Volume Label may be incorrect if a) file system is not FAT32 and b) volume label is not "RAMDISK". It looks to me like this panel doesn't display the actual values, but display default values instead.

The fact that this panel displays wrong values calls into question all the other panels. Do ANY of them display correct values? This is supposed to be a "View Disk Settings" wizard.

This screen capture demonstrates what the panel shows. You can see the actual values in the background (Disk number 2, Driveletter S was the drive highlighted in the top pane of the RAMDisk main window when the View/Edit button was used to start the wizard). The middle panel displays the actual values.

Thanks.

[Support]

Hi kencl,

When a ramdisk is associated with an image file, the file system data stored in the image file will override the ramdisk's file system settings. Ramdisk's file system settings are only used for the case that is not associated with an image file.

[kencl]

So, to be clear, what you are saying is that:
1) When a ramdisk is associated with an image file all of the panels in the "View/Edit" disk wizard are meaningless
2) The "View/Edit" settings are not the settings in the image file AND they are not the settings of the ramdisk (because the ramdisk settings in use came from the image file)
3) If you disassociate (stop using) an image file, some or all of your ramdisk settings will be randomly changed to whatever the "View/Edit" wizard settings happen to be

This does not make any sense to me. Why doesn't the "View/Edit" wizard read the settings from the ramdisk? If the ramdisk gets it's settings from the image file when it is loaded into memory, then both the ramdisk and the image file will have the same settings. Why on earth would the "View/Edit" wizard contain random settings (are they the default settings?) which have nothing to do with either the ramdisk or the image file?

[Support]

No. The image file only overrides ramdisk's file system settings (file system page and andvanced file system page in wizard). Image file is a mirror of the ramdisk sectors, just thinking it is a real physical disk, when you format a volume, file system structures are recorded in physical disk sectors. For ramdisk, it is recorded in the image file as image file is a mirror of the ramdisk sectors. At computer startup, ramdisk loads the associated image file sector by sector. So obviously ramdisk's file system follows the data recorded in the image file.

If an image file is deassociated, ramdisk will follow its filesystem settings and automatically format the volume for use.

hope I express it clear.

[kencl]

Yes, there is a bit of a language comprehension problem here. Thanks for trying, and really a great, stable product. I bought it because it's reliable, not because it's perfect

Ok, so "ramdisk's file system settings" are not specific to only 1 ramdisk right? They are general, also called default settings, correct? So, if that is correct, then the title of "View/Edit Disk" is wrong, at least for file system and advanced file system pages.

Let me try to explain this with an example. If the light in the refrigerator burns out and I ask you to open the door and pull out a metal can, you bring it to the table so we can both "View" it. When we view the can, we see what is in the can. We do not see general information about every type of metal can. So, when I read the label it tells me which company made it. It does not tell me the name of my favorite company. When we "view" the amount, we see how much is in this one can, we do not see how much any other can could hold. Do you see the connection between "view" and "1 exact item"?

Now, you have said " So obviously ramdisk's file system follows the data recorded in the image file". This means that ramdisk AND image file have the same filesystem. So, when I "view" the file system, I should see the filesystem from the ramdisk and image file. I should not see a general, default value. The value should be read FROM THE RAMDISK OR IMAGE FILE, not from the system settings.

The attached image shows that you DO read it correctly from the ramdisk when there is no image file. The volume label I chose is "RAMTemp". You should read it from the same place even when there is an image file.

[Support]

Ok, so "ramdisk's file system settings" are not specific to only 1 ramdisk right? They are general, also called default settings, correct?

No. The settings are specific to a ramdisk.

Well, I'm not sure if you have known below, but just background for clarifing this question: When you get a new physical disk, you need to make partitions first. A partition is called a volume. To use this volume, you need to format it with certain file system like NTFS, FAT32. If a volume is not formatted, it is raw and is not readable. The formatting process generates the file system metadatas like volume lable, cluster size, file structures etc according to the volume size and filesystem type. These filesystem data is recorded in certain disk sectors. So you'll see that volume free space reduces after format.

Now I'll explain it in two cases: a ramdisk 1) without and 2) with an image file.
1) If a ramdisk is not associated with an image file, then you must have known that all ram data in a ramdisk will be lost at power loss, so this ramdisk will become a raw disk which is not formatted by file system and cannot be generally accessed. To use a disk/volume, program will automatically format it according to the ramdisk's filesystem settings specified to it everytime computer restarts. That's the purpose of "filesystem settings" which are needed to setup a ramdisk.
2) If a ramdisk is asscociated with an image file, then this imge file acts as ramdisk's physical sectors which persist across computer boots. When you format a ramdisk or change the ramdisk's volume label outside of the program, the filesystem metadatas are also updated to the image file. At computer startup, this ramdisk reads image file data to its sectors and thus keeps the ramdisk filesystem and contents same as that before last shutdown.

The reason why we still show "filesystem settings" page for a ramdisk with an image file is that sometimes users may deassociate the image file. In this scenario, ramdisk needs "filesystem settings" to format the volume.