OS in RamDisk

[goon-heaven]

am i right in thinking that its possible to have a (local drive) usb key with only the vhd on it for booting ramdisk?

That is what I use here. 16Gb Sandisk stick (seen by OS as fixed drive).
Use RMPrepUSB to make minimal FAT32 boot partition (that is NOT hidden).
Windows disk management to make 2nd NTFS partition.

I used 3 16Gb sticks (no sata SSD nor other drives nor networking), all dual partitioned, RMPrepUSBed:
1st: Base OS stick (no VHD). Used WinNTSetUp.
2nd: VHD + audio drivers + firadisk. Used WinNTSetUp.
3rd: shrunk(mini8) VHD. Puts Grub4dos into boot. To make this, boot from 1st, Use VHD_W8_Compact to copy/shrink from 2nd to 3rd.

3rd stick boots into winRAM.
Touch wood, have had no boot/reboot issues.
Minor issue of 2 programs not autostarting on 3rd stick AO cored, but can run those manually.

[Octagon]

or is it possible to convert an existing install to be ramdisk enabled?

Hi Nige,
You can use the tool disc2vhd, take a look here, 2nd post:
viewtopic.php?f=15&t=3171

one odd thing when i select the vhd from grub4dos its harping on about driver signature have to press f8 to disable
is this normal?
or is there a way to bypass

I answered you already here, last post on page:
viewtopic.php?f=15&t=3171&start=80

Restart the system, choose the VHD and you get an error message because the Firadisk driver is not MS certified.
Go again to the bootmanager, highlight the VHD again and push F8. In the menue choose "disable driver signature enforcement". The OS will start from VHD.
Now open a cmd window and enter "bcdedit -set Testsigning on". The task should be confirmed. From now you will be able to start this VHD from bootmanager without problems and you can boot it from Grub4Dos as well.

Take care
Thomas

[nige2000]

dunno cant seem to turn testsigning on on the vhd or its not working
im familiar with the process so dont think its that

[Octagon]

dunno cant seem to turn testsigning on on the vhd or its not working
im familiar with the process so dont think its that

Might be another pitfall if "compacting" process is used vs. installation of a full version. Based on all comments I see, the impact of the individual setup seems to be much bigger. There might be very specific parts of the software system missing with compacting at a later stage.
My 2cents
Thomas

[nige2000]

have not reduced the vhd

wonder is the testsigning set outside of the vhd (along with boot files)

anyway sounds very fluid
will need to a-b it

[Octagon]

wonder is the testsigning set outside of the vhd (along with boot files)

No it isn't. With that order you make a change in the boot process which is not stored on VHD but bootmanager internally. That is why I have to do that everytime I boot a VHD for the first time. Even if it is a copy of another VHD which is working well already.

What is the answer in the command window given back?
Thomas

[nige2000]

set successfully

any update on how the other guys got on with clean power to ram mods?

[nige2000]

Well I've got the vhd soley on a usb key with grub4dos done mostly with copy and paste
anyway not just as fast to load to ram but not too bad

first impressions is noticeably free flowing by comparison like the os was bottlenecked by usb or sata
also takes a little edge off the highs
on average a good improvement

thanks to Octagon for the help

still confused why I'm still not able to turn driver signing off but it's not the end of the world

wonder if shrinking the vhd will help Sq?

[Octagon]

wonder if shrinking the vhd will help Sq?

Great you made it, Nige!

Try if you recognize a difference and please report.
My experience says there is no difference, all the feedback and informations I have seen and received directly says no as well. All the stuff not used is just sitting in the RAM, no task running and switching which would be able to influence SQ. The only option I see would be the power influence of the stuff sitting in RAM. Even the methodology how the storage is catched or handled can't have influence as it is just sitting without movement there. As you have a very good methodology of powering RAM and CPU individually I am curious to know about your findings ;)

Most people seem to use the compacting because of less RAM available, for example because laptops are used.

Enjoy your new sound!
Thomas

[nige2000]

Still think clean ps to ram will clear out some demons as even using usb port power has noise even though there a clean 5v supply on 24 pin