Here is a list of resources related to RAMdisk and FILEDISK based drivers, that I am collecting/putting together for the use of people interested in helping here:
http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?...ic=1441&hl=Microsoft original Win2k RAMdisk driver:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/257405/en-usAnother article (version of ramdisk.sys unchecked):
http://www.picobay.com/projects/2006/06/ho...disk-drive.htmlA related article:
http://www.jsifaq.com/SF/Tips/Tip.aspx?id=3515A new version (untested)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...;displaylang=enWSSRA_Deployment_Toolkit.msi
An old NT 4.0 one (through archive.org):
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.nt...oad/ramdisk.zip]
same can be found here:
http://www.jsifaq.com:80/SF/Tips/Tip.aspx?id=0020Latest FREEWARE version of Christian Ghijselinck:
http://users.compaqnet.be/cn021945/RAMDisk/ramdiskfree.htmhttp://www.talkaboutsoftware.com/group/mic...ages/46808.htmlhttp://www.speedguide.net/read_articles.php?id=131http://www.codeguru.com/cpp/w-p/system/dev...icle.php/c5789/http://www.arsoft-online.com/index.php?opt...12&Itemid=2http://www.arsoft-online.com/index.php?opt...select&id=2http://p-nand-q.com/download/diskfile.htmlhttp://p-nand-q.com/download/tools/diskfile.zipA post claiming that DOS RAMdrive.sys can work under XP:
http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/7663/if the above is tested and confirmed, would it be possible to use either
Franck Uberto's one:
XMSDISK fu_rd19i.zip
http://www.simtel.net/pub/pd/4825.htmlor SRDISK:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/srdisk(I doubt it, but you never know)
Some japanese related apps:
http://www.vector.co.jp/soft/winnt/hardware/se039495.htmlhttp://www.vector.co.jp/soft/winnt/hardware/se168213.htmlhttp://www.vector.co.jp/soft/winnt/hardware/se108927.htmlhttp://www.vector.co.jp/soft/winnt/hardware/se168218.htmlA thread on 911CD Forum with same links, some more and some interesting ideas:
http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...=17624&st=0COMMERCIAL RAMDISKS (with trial versions):
http://www.winsoft.sk/ramdisk.htmhttp://www.cenatek.com/product_ramdisk.cfmhttp://www.superspeed.com/ramdisk.phphttp://www.superspeed.com/desktop/ramdisk.phpA complete solution for booting 9x/2K/XP in RAM
http://www.disklessangel.com/FILEDISK based drivers and info:
http://www.acc.umu.se/~bosse/http://www.acc.umu.se/~bosse/filedisk-14.ziphttp://www.acc.umu.se/~bosse/filedisk.ziphttp://www.winimage.com/misc/filedisk64.htmhttp://www.winimage.com/misc/filedisk_modbin64_tray.ziphttp://www.winimage.com/misc/filedisk64.ziphttp://chitchat.at.infoseek.co.jp/vmware/vdk.htmlhttp://chitchat.at.infoseek.co.jp/vmware/vdk32-050406.ziphttp://chitchat.at.infoseek.co.jp/vmware/vdksrc-050406.ziphttp://chitchat.at.infoseek.co.jp/vmware/vdk.ziphttp://chitchat.at.infoseek.co.jp/vmware/vdksrc.zipSherpya's filedisk plugin:
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=140761Filedisk thread on msfn.org by bilou_gateux:
http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=38118A filedisk.exe version able to use encryption:
CrossCrypt
http://www.scherrer.cc/crypt/A COMMERCIAL app similar to the above:
http://www.windiskxp.com/en/NON-FILEdisk based Virtual Drive drivers:
OsrVirtualCdAndDisk
http://www.osronline.com/article.cfm?article=410(subscription needed for download)
********
A NEW (at least for me) Virtual Disk Driver with INTERESTING features, complete with source code:
http://www.ltr-data.se/opencode.htmlQUOTE
ImDisk Virtual Disk Driver - Latest version 1.0.2 built 27 april 2007.
ImDisk is a virtual disk driver for Windows NT/2000/XP/2003. It can use one or more disk image files to create virtual hard disk, floppy or CD/DVD drives .The install package installs a console-mode control program called imdisk.exe and a Control Panel applet. After install is finished, type imdisk without parameters for syntax help or double click the ImDisk icon in the Control Panel. It also adds a menu item in Windows Explorer so that you can right-click on a file to mount it as a virtual disk drive. Users of mdconfig in FreeBSD will probably be familiar with the command line syntax of imdisk.exe. The driver, service and control program can be uninstalled using the Add/Remove programs applet in the Control Panel. No reboot is required for installing or uninstalling.
The install package also contains a user-mode helper service that enables the virtual disk driver to forward I/O requests to other computers on the network. This makes it possible to boot a machine with NTFS partitions with a *nix Live-CD and use the included devio tool to let ImDisk on another computer running Windows on the network mount the NTFS partition on the machine you booted with the *nix Live-CD. This way you can recover information and even run chkdsk on drives on machines where Windows does not boot. I am working on a Live CD image with devio and other useful things for this pre-loaded. Will publish that one for download soon.
A (very old) resource for writing Filesystem Drivers for NT, FIFS - FRONT RPC:
http://web.mit.edu/fifs/www/Something not really like the above, but maybe a good start point:
http://icculus.org/physfs/VHDMOUNT:
http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/socal/archi...ve-Locally.aspxI have finally understood WHY filedisk/vdk do not work/are not seen in Disk Manager, it seems like they are not a "real" NT miniport driver, I found some commercial/demos that do behave as a full miniport driver:
http://www.cooldev.com/koolstorage.htmlUPDATE: The cooldev "koolstorage" site has "disappeared", courtesy of The Wayback Machine:
http://web.archive.org/web/20061017134024/...oolstorage.htmlhttp://web.archive.org/web/20061017133819/...oolsockets.htmlhttp://web.archive.org/web/20061017133846/...m/download.htmlhttp://web.archive.org/web/20061017133846/...orageoverip.ziphttp://web.archive.org/web/20061017133846/...ol/ksockumh.ziphttp://www.perisoft.net/miniport/index.htm(the above two are limited in size but work very well)
http://www.eldos.com/cbdisk/In my wanderings on the net, I also stumbled upon the iSCSI concept:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...;DisplayLang=enhttp://www.rocketdivision.com/wind.htmlhttp://www.rocketdivision.com/port.htmlhttp://www.nimbusdata.com/products/mysan/mysan.htmhttp://www.iscsicake.com/http://www.kernsafe.com/download.aspxhttp://www.kernsafe.com/Product.aspx?id=1the latter, while the actual iSCSI part is trial/expiring, provides for a Virtual Disk driver that appears to work VERY well
This appears to be a very nice solution for virtual disks (encrypted), the working is similar to filedisk, but the development is very active:
http://www.freeotfe.org/********
ireneuszp has posted on the 911CD forum, here:
http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...ic=20280&hla link to here:
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/05/27/f...nd-2003-server/where a Ramdisk driver called "RRamdisk" is discussed.
it appears to be the work of "Gavotte" and of "lyh728".
The accompanying article states that it works with Vista, besides 2K and XP (which of course is a good thing) but also contains some "strange" ideas:
QUOTE
Potential usage include adding of “ramdisk imgfilename” to system boot up script such as autoexec.bat to load the data into memory disk.
(bolding is mine)
From a little search around, this Ramdisk appears to be rather popular on Chinese sites, and I found a version (with same driver/executable release) with a readme in Chinese, so I suspect that the Authors are also from China.
Driver appears to have not a home page, and the date of the files are end of 2003/start of 2004, latest registered change in the readme.txt is 9 December 2003, also, the English readme.txt appears a bit "Chinglish", (no offence intended to our Chinese friends
), and I find a bit odd that in almost 4 years this app wasn't massively used in the west, until IMDISK came out, FREEWARE known working solutions were just filedisk for image files and Christian Ghisler's Ramdisk.
It seems to have some nice features, though, so if you are into experimenting a bit, it could be an option to try.
If any Chinese speaking member has the time/will to check the readme.txt translation, and/or add any information that might be available in Chinese only, he/she would be welcome.
A Chinese page sporting the original version is here:
http://www.piaodown.com/down/soft/25148.htm(where the app is referenced to as:
QUOTE
Ramdisk V1.1 Final
thunn has recompiled the rramdisk.sys adding a few mods:
QUOTE (thunn)
The revised ramdisk driver linked to is based on Gavotte's work, I can't take too much credit. I simply made some revisions to the code to remove branding, hardcoded drive letters, and the creation of a default temp dir., which all seemed a good idea.
The scripted linked to uses the driver under pe, though it can also be used in normal windows, maybe you could extract it an do a test or two on your system. I've had no errors from the driver yet, bsod or otherwise. The rramdisk driver has a front end for windows, designed to use the fixed letter 'r'.
Anyway, hope you like the script, please don't forget to verify other/related scripts drive letters when changing the ramsisk drive letter.
Link to .script:
http://bartpe.boot-land.net/Projects/BartP...NTRamdrv.Scriptdejan at 911CD published a plugin for Rramdisk:
http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?sho...c=20846&hl=A newish version of RRamdisk said to allow for 4 Gb size:
QUOTE
01.01.2008 support >=4G ram under 32bit windows (UsePAE=1)
has been released and is attached here:
http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=4064A new version is out:
QUOTE (Climbing @ Jun 19 2010, 10:12 PM)
About the Rramdisk by gavotte, the offcial release is in this thread on the CCF forum(In Chinese):
https://bbs.et8.net/bbs/showthread.php?t=906641the newest version is 1.0.4096.5.Because CCF forum is not a open forum. You cannot download the attachment without a membership. I uploaded the 1.0.4095.5 version to
here.
More details on the dedicated thread:
http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=4064********
A newish SDK for Virtual Disk Driver is available here:
http://www.eterlogic.com/Products.VirtualDriveSDK.htmlIt includes C, C+, C#, Delphi samples too.
Any of the programmers wish to have a try with it?
********
Some newish related applications are available here:
http://www.pismotechnic.com/Mounting a file as filesystem object....
some more details here:
http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=6092********
Found another nice-looking project, by Primoz Beltram, OPEN SOURCE!
http://sourceforge.net/projects/virtualdiskBesides sourcecode, there are built binaries
:
http://sourceforge.net/project/platformdow...group_id=193026bilou_gateux found a very interesting Microsoft driver, as often happens strangely named and "hidden" in something seemingly unrelated, VSS SDK:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...;displaylang=enBoard Topic:
http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?...ic=6492&hl=Another kind of driver, Gizmo drive:
http://arainia.com/software/gizmo/overview.php?nID=4********
Kernsafe has a FREEWARE app, called Total Mounter:
http://www.kernsafe.com/Default.aspxhttp://www.kernsafe.com/Product.aspx?id=7http://www.kernsafe.com/DownLoad.aspxhttp://www.kernsafe.com/download/TotalMounter1.32.exewhich includes a Virtual Disk Driver.
A
very preliminary report, but it seems like this one is the "right" one
:
- ksbus.sys installs with LoadOrderGroup = Boot Bus Extender
- it appears as a FULL, SCSI miniport device, and as a "Local" disk
NEW, EXPERIMENTAL, but
WORKING RAMDISK DRIVER:
Firadisk, by our member
karyonix 
http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?...ic=8804&hl=ANOTHER NEW, EXPERIMENTAL and under development/tests RAMDISK DRIVER from
Andy Tim Sha0 
:
WinVblock, as well reported to be working:
http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?...=8168&st=5017th August 2010 Update:
member
snype711 Posted:
QUOTE
I think Dataram's Ramdisk is a decent piece of software. Free up to 4GB but you shouldn't need any more than that. Hope it helps!
http://memory.dataram.com/products-and-ser...oftware/ramdiskI'll update and complete the post from time to time, if you have any more hints/links, please post it below, I'll add/edit this post and delete yours.
In other words, this thread is NOT meant for comments, just as a quick list of links, if you have meaningful comments, opinions or whatever, do post to a new thread with them and I'll add here a link to itjaclaz
Feb 22 2007, 08:02 PM
