Ramdisk doesn't auto recyle memory used

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dragoon
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Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2013 3:59 pm

Ramdisk doesn't auto recyle memory used

Post by dragoon »

My ramdisk (v5.6) will eat memory without return.

It's quite strange that Romex claims memory will auto recycle & management.

For example, my data on ram disk uses only 1GB, but the memory is allocated more than 6GB. I don't know that before, after once I cancel the ramdisk to check out why is high memory usage then I know that, it returns all 6GB memory.

So is there any way to recycle memory manually without destroy & rebuild the ramdisk?

My config is :

Basic settings:
Disk size: 16384 MB
Disk type: SCSI
Drive letter assigned: T
One-time disk: No

Substance settings:
Memory size: 16384 MB
Memory features: DMM Compact
Drive file size: 0 MB
Drive file name: -

File system settings:
File system: NTFS
Cluster size: Default
Volume label: RAMDISK
NTFS compression: Yes
NTFS indexing: Yes
Create "TEMP" folder: Yes

File system advanced settings:
Custom folders: -
Volume serial number: -
Account "Everyone" permission: -

Image settings:
Enable image file: Yes
Image file name: C:\PR-Image-T.vdf
Load/Save functions: Load & save
Delay Load mode: No
Load in background: No
Image format: Smart image
When to save: Save at shutdown
Quick Save mode: Yes
Backup automatically: No
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Support
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Posts: 3627
Joined: Sun Dec 21, 2008 2:42 am

Re: Ramdisk doesn't auto recyle memory used

Post by Support »

Hi,

When loading the image file at startup, the memory will be allocated to hold the data stored in the image file. Because of the Windows file system, it is possible that files in ramdisk have been deleted but the file data still be stored in the image file. So you may see the size of image file increases even the real data amount is small.
dragoon
Level 1
Level 1
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2013 3:59 pm

Re: Ramdisk doesn't auto recyle memory used

Post by dragoon »

the problem is ramdisk eating all my memory without returning. how can I do then? If I can't claim my memory back, I can't use it anymore.

Sorry I want to make it more clear, I am not complaining about the file size on physical disk, what I concern is the memory used too much even I put very little files on ramdisk.

I change the configuration to this, it's worse now, eats half my memory 16GB:
Basic settings:
Disk size: 16384 MB
Disk type: Direct-IO
Drive letter assigned: T
One-time disk: No

Substance settings:
Memory size: 16384 MB
Memory features: DMM
Drive file size: 0 MB
Drive file name: -

File system settings:
File system: NTFS
Cluster size: Default
Volume label: RAMDISK
NTFS compression: No
NTFS indexing: No
Create "TEMP" folder: Yes

File system advanced settings:
Custom folders: -
Volume serial number: -
Account "Everyone" permission: -

Image settings:
Enable image file: Yes
Image file name: C:\PR-Image-T.vdf
Load/Save functions: Load & save
Delay Load mode: No
Load in background: No
Image format: Plain image
When to save: Save at shutdown
Quick Save mode: Yes
Backup automatically: No
User avatar
Support
Support Team
Support Team
Posts: 3627
Joined: Sun Dec 21, 2008 2:42 am

Re: Ramdisk doesn't auto recyle memory used

Post by Support »

Hi dragoon,

An image file is an mirror of the ramdisk. You can think it as a physical disk. If a file is marked as deleted, the real file data still exists in disk sectors. This means that image file may contain some useless data (deleted file). Although ramdisk has a mechansim to automatically release the memory occupied by deleted files, it depends on Windows feature and sometimes a part of useless data is written to the image file. When this image file is loaded at next comptuer startup, the useless data also requires memory allocation because ramdisk don't know what data is useful and what data is useless.

For plain image format, the whole image file is initialized with certain data. So it triggers the whole memory allocation when this format of image file is loaded into ramdisk.
dragoon
Level 1
Level 1
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2013 3:59 pm

Re: Ramdisk doesn't auto recyle memory used

Post by dragoon »

Thanks, I understand it, my major is cs, but I want to know is there any way to gc by very simple way, like one click or any tool to do that?
To copy files out and reinit ramdisk and copy files back manually is time wasting, and also some files not allow copy-operation by file manager.

When it uses more than 8gb memory with less than 1gb data on it is completely unacceptable, esp no simple way to get the memory back.
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Support
Support Team
Support Team
Posts: 3627
Joined: Sun Dec 21, 2008 2:42 am

Re: Ramdisk doesn't auto recyle memory used

Post by Support »

Hi dragoon,

We'll study this issue and to find if a easy way to help it. Thanks for your feedback!
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