145 replies to this topic

[btomi9]

Hi Guys,

 

Let me join this conversation and share my experiences. First of all thank you all for bringing my attention to this feature, and thank Felipe for your deatiled instruction on how to setup Windows Server booting from RAMdisk. I have a single PC configuration, installed Server 2019 in core mode with AO 3.00 and now I started to use Fidelizer pro as well. My way how it is finally able to boot into memory is the following:

 

I used Felipe's WinNTSetup, firadisk_drivers, firadisk registry hack, and grldr version, and pavgeris' RMPrepUSB Utility utility to format my 64GB pendrive to exFAT file system, install the grub4dos (I copied Felipe's grldr to the directory so this way it copies this to the pendrive), and now it's able to boot into RAM.

 

My problem however is that 9 of 10 occasion the copying process to RAM is extremely slow. It counts like 10k .. 20k .. 30k so around a few ten kilobytes /second into the RAM, so my 12GB VHD (I also copied some favourite test music into the VHD) takes about 15 minutes to boot into RAMdisk. Which is very long and quite unacceptable.

 

Do you guys encountered this slow boot issue? Is there a newer or another version of firadisk driver that might help? My pendrive is a Transcend Jetflash USB 3.0 pendrive which is really fast otherwise, it can copy normal files very fast around 120.000 kByte/s in total commander, so it's not my pendrive. Maybe the exFAT format, not sure...

[billgr]

Hi btomi9. That's usual for me running a 12gb vhd. It's faster with 8gb core vhd.

 

It's running in 8Mb blocks at usb2 speeds even though I'm using usb3 devices. Occasionally it runs much faster in the right port. I wanted to get a SanDisk Extreme PRO USB 3.1 Solid State Flash Drive to see if it did the trick but never got around to it.

 

If anyone has found a way to speed it up I'm keen to hear about it.

[btomi9]

Update on booting to RAMdisk speed. Yesterday there was a random quick boot time to RAMdisk with keeping the same exFAT formatted USB3 pendrive (it is still not a very fast boot time, just took about 6 minutes compared to 15 minutes before). Now I tried to reformat the USB drive to NTFS to see if bootup speed improves, but it seems it didn't, still the approx. 15min boot time. I just recopied the same grldr file and the same 12GB vhd file to the pendrive to boot into 16GB physical memory.

 

Anyone succeeded in faster boot times to RAMdisk? Not sure if I tried different firadisk driver it could help, maybe this is how RAM works (random access memory, if you want to fill up a 16GB RAM with 12GB of data, it needs some time to find the free space to do so, not sure)

[FelipeRolim]

I use a USB 3.0 flash drive and also can't get quick boot times. However, since I never turn off my computer, it doesn't bother me. If anyone finds out how to increase speed, I'd also like to know.

[Nobudy]

It all depends on the read speed of the USB memory

 

you need at least 300MB/s 

[Sigi M]

Dear Fellipe.

I found your description for RAM Server yesterday. I was looking for this for some time now, and I am very thankful, that you offers this for all people   
I'm sure to be able to "do this thing" too. I will keep you informed about my steps (and success )

At the moment I'm using a Gigabyte PC. (3 years old)

Yesterday I ordered additional RAM and a M.2 SSD.
I plan to use my configuration like it is at the moment, for all work I have to do, using current C drive.

depending on choosen boot up option I want to use it as an audio PC with server 19 in RAM JRiver and Audiovero Acourate convolver, NAS as File Source.

For this the system (VHD) should be copied to RAM on bootup from D: (SSD with VHD) and E: (Ramdrive)

I understood, that I can not disable SATA for this purposes. So the second step will be to build one additional PC as convolver PC and jplay, for the best performance. In this case I plan to setup the VHD on external USB stick, to get max. performance.

Best regards and thx a lot again!!

Siegfried

[Sigi M]

Hi folks

I got 32Gb Ram and 256 GB M.2 PCIe 3 SSD, now.

My plan is, to take 16 Gb Ram for Win Server 2019, 12 Gb Ramdisk for Server Acourate Convolver and JRiver, and 4 Gb Ramdisk for pagefile & swapfile. (maybee less)

I disabled hibernate with cmd: powercfg /h /d

I think it will take about 25-30 seconds to copy the server from ssd to my ramdisk.

best regards

Sigi

[Menace]

Hi folks

I got 32Gb Ram and 256 GB M.2 PCIe 3 SSD, now.

My plan is, to take 16 Gb Ram for Win Server 2019, 12 Gb Ramdisk for Server Acourate Convolver and JRiver, and 4 Gb Ramdisk for pagefile & swapfile. (maybee less)

I disabled hibernate with cmd: powercfg /h /d

I think it will take about 25-30 seconds to copy the server from ssd to my ramdisk.

best regards

Sigi

 

Sounds pretty complicated to me. I will go with one large 16 GB VHD that will incorporate page file and swap file. Even better, just have 12 GB VHD and disable both page file and swap file. With 20 GB of total RAM, you should not need page file and swap file.

 

Use this version of grub4dos to dramatically speed up loading from.PCIe Drive.

https://sourceforge....hcipatch/files/

 

You may need to use the "--top" parameter in your map command to load such a large VHD. This parameter forces grub4dos to load VHD into top of memory instead of starting from bottom. This will help when grub4dos reports "insufficient memory" when trying to load VHD to ram and you are certain that you have more than enough RAM available.

 

Using this modified version, my 9 GB VHD loads into RAM under 5 seconds from pcie drive.

[samotc]

Hello everyone, I want to thank the participants in this thread, and especially Felipe Rolim for his wonderful Guide, because thanks to all this I have been able to configure my Windows Server Core 2019 of my AudioPC so that it can start as RAMDISK and enjoy of the provided sound.

I have a PC with an Intel DH67BL motherboard, Intel i5 2.67 Ghz processor and 32 GB of RAM mounted on a Streacom FC9 Alpha chassis, powered by a picoPSU linear source and HDPLEX 200 w; reason why the boot in RAM is very slow, since I can only do it through USB2, the bios does not support USB3 as a boot device. I have tried more modern MOBOs, but the sonic results have always been worse than with my current MOBO.

To solve this problem of slow vhd loading in RAM, I have been researching the WEB and have found a not very complicated way to solve it.

I attach a PDF file where I explain how to do it, and so it is a way to return to this thread and all its people the great favor they have done me. Greetings, and I hope to continue learning from all of you.

Attached Files

•  VHD compression to save space and speed up the load on RAM.pdf   433.77KB   83 downloads

[samotc]

If after executing sdelete.exe you get the message that "the file xxxx.vhd is not a regular file", apply a defragmentation of the .vhd file and the folder that contains it with the following program: wincontig.exe, which can be downloaded here:

https://wincontig.md...it/es/index.htm

Once this program was run, I have never had any problems for lz4 compression vhd files.

Best regards.

[sj46]

I've tried to boot from USB, but get this error? I've also tried booting to RAM, but it stays on 304, in the progress? Secure boot is disabled.

Any idea?

BTW, I have 16GB RAM

Attached Files

•  IMG_20201115_003214.jpg   391.43KB   2 downloads

[Kuni]

You can try ram effect with foobar ram plugin. Pretty mutch similar as in ram windows. I used to have ram windows, but not anymore

[sj46]

Managed to get the SSD to boot, but still won't load to RAM, stops at 304M.

[sj46]

Got a copy of the glrdr, from the UBCD which worked  https://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

 

FYI, I had to use BCD boot/edit to get the VHD to boot from the SSD in the 1st instance

 

Run CMD as admin, with the VHD attached (f: refers to the VHD location)

bcdboot f:\Windows

bcdedit /set {default} description "name of VHD"

 

Hope this helps someone else. 

 

A big thanks to @FelipeRolim, for providing the information.

Attached Files

•  grldr.zip   146.72KB   24 downloads

[Horst]

Hi,

 

here you can find my 44-page self-made tutorial for installing a audiophile Server 2016/2019 Ramdisk

Perhaps some of you are interested in it, although it is only available in German so far.

https://www.dropbox....m2B5gZprLa?dl=0

I plan to create an English version, but for this I need a few users who are willing to donate a small amount via PayPal for the benefit of these tutorial.

For more details about PayPal donation, please read the information on the last page of the tutorial.

Version 1.0a is free for everyone.  It is a complete tutorial for a easy, uncomplicated creation of a audiophile Server 2016/2019 Ramdisk.

It took a few weeks to write this tutorial with all the helpfull screenshots.

For all PayPal donors I will immediately sent my extended version (actually only German language) via the PayPal email address. I'm currently at version 1.4 (49 pages).

 

Have fun with the tutorial!

 

Horst

[Chanh]

Thanks Horst for the post and link. 

 

 

[ts8]

Hi Folks,

 

I tried this tweak however the VHD fails to boot after config Firadisk (before this was fine), the error was :

 

0xc0000248 Windows\system32\drivers\firadisk.sys error

 

It's really a waste! I spent so much efforts...able to boot up from USB stick...two different notebook, still the same result!

 

Any helps is appreciated! Thank you!

[ts8]

Hi Folks,

 

I tried this tweak however the VHD fails to boot after config Firadisk (before this was fine), the error was :

 

0xc0000248 Windows\system32\drivers\firadisk.sys error

 

It's really a waste! I spent so much efforts...able to boot up from USB stick...two different notebook, still the same result!

 

Any helps is appreciated! Thank you!

 

The firadisk.sys error turn out to be the over optimismed OS.

 

No problem on a regular OS however in order to get the Firsdisk installation right:

 

1. Disable secure boot from BIOS, if any, then complete the three steps: update reg, set off, and install the inf file and check from the device manager that the driver is working

 

And I have to change the start up from EFI to BIOS from the BIOS setting for Windows 10 in order to go to the grub4dos  menu.

 

​Not recommended for beginner

 

Didn't manage to load the OS to the RAM, "Selected item cannot fit in the memory" thought I've reduced the size of the OS to 3GB, to load on 8GB RAM

[ts8]

I'm able to load Windows 10 to the RAM (loading 6GB for less than a min to the 16GB RAM) on another more powerful 16GB notebook, the below problem is solved using pavgeris's version (provided in this thread) of grub4Dos:

 

"Didn't manage to load the OS to the RAM, "Selected item cannot fit in the memory" thought I've reduced the size of the OS to 3GB, to load on 8GB RAM"

 

Update: Able to load the above OS to the RAM using pavgeris's version of grub4Dos, also took less than a min to load, surprisingly!

[ts8]

Managed to load the OS to RAM for UEFI BIOS. This is because I bought an Intel NUC for jplay and it didn't support legacy BIOS any more, and I believed most of the new hardware after year 2000 didn't' support legacy BIOS.

 

So, it's time to move on! 

 

I used the guide, VHD_WIMBOOT PDF, from https://msfn.org/boa...-in-vhd/page/5/

 

Software download link: https://github.com/w...IMBOOT/releases

 

Things to note:

 

1. Make sure you have the Jan 29 2022 version of VHD_WIMBOOT PDF. It's simplified the steps.

 

2. Start from page 2 then 1. This is enough for one to build the OS RAMDisk.

 

3. Under the sample of the wimboot tool images, the owner use an external SSD OS to build the RAMDisk. As I used my local OS to build the RAMDisk, so, everything should be C:\

 

4. You only need to insert USB stick at page 1, step5. Everything before this step are all done on C:\.

 

5. The windows will hang after the OS loaded to the RAM. What you need to do is press F8 just before the end of the RAM count, this will bring you to the page where you are able to disable the driver signature enforcement. 

 

6. I've skipped some of the steps, e.g. "Add_to_USB_y" or "Set Drive-Y", mainly I don't understand, but it still work!

 

It's time to return to the MCLEES!