Create VM RAM disk at boot time in Windows XP

Question

Using ImDisk for a 250MB RAM drive, with the TEMP environment variable, speeds up our Windows XP systems a lot - probably because the NTFS write-through latency when creating new files is avoided, or maybe just because it reduces disk activity, so that other disk operations don't get interrupted by seeks.

However, I haven't found a way to make ImDisk re-create the temp drive and format it at boot time. How can I make ImDisk or another similar tool create a ram drive in virtual memory at boot time, and have it formattet?

Answer 1

I found a solution myself. This will create a 100MByte P: drive and format it:

c:\windows\system32\imdisk -a -t vm -s 100M -p "/fs:ntfs /q /y" -m P:

Put this into C:\WINDOWS\System32\GroupPolicy\Machine\Scripts\Startup\ramdisk.cmd

Then: "Start" "Run" type gpedit.msc Under "Computer Configuration" "Windows Settings" Double click "Scripts(Startup/Shutdown)" Double click "Startup" in right pane. Click "Add" button and pick ramdisk.cmd and then click "ok" then Click "Ok" again. you can now exit out of all the Group Policy editor..

Now when Windows XP Pro boots up, before the user logs on, the ram disk will be present.