Menu

RamDisk with MountPoint fails at startup

Wizard
2025-03-04
2025-03-04
  • Wizard

    Wizard - 2025-03-04

    Hi,
    This new version has the same long standing "issue" as imdisk when you want to create a RamDisk at startup into a mountpoint, say C:\RamDisk. The issue is that you have to create an empty folder and mounting can only happen while that folder is empty. If you then point TEMPs to it, eg. C:\RamDisk\Temp then at startup, there's 2 problems. The folder turns junction/reparsepoint at mount, but at dismount at shutdown, doesn't get changed back to a folder, so next startup-mount fails, cause there's a reparsepoint with the name of the folder where it expects there to be an empty folder to mount "into", so mounting fails. 2nd problem is with the Temp. Temp gets assigned before the ramdisk location C:\RamDisk is realized. And then even when there's an empty folder to mount "into", other processes start, lookup the TEMP-variable and dump stuff in the then still folder C:\RamDisk\Temp, causing an otherwise would be succesful mount also to fail. Perhaps this is the right time to see if a few routines could be inserted to prevent these conditions, improving startup-mount succes... :-) ? Many thanks in advance for all the work you put into this. I've been using imdisk for as long as I can remember succesfully (albeit with custom startup-shutdown scripts to prevent said issues !)

     
  • v77

    v77 - 2025-03-04

    I just checked and ImDisk Toolkit did not have such issue.
    About AIM, there were several fixes about mount points in the last release, including what you are describing.

    About the Temp folder, it's up to each service and application to check whether this folder exists.
    We could imagine various tricks such as changing TEMP variables at shutdown and startup, but I have the feeling that other issues might appear.
    This is the drawback for building a ramdisk from a user mode service, and this will likely not change for this application.

     
  • Wizard

    Wizard - 2025-03-04

    imdisk aswell as AIM do not create a folder for mountpoint, nor do they remove the reparsepoint or turn it back into an empty folder at shutddown. But to be fair, I guess your right, the fact they are done as a user mode service has these consequences. I'm just saying though, that it might be beneficial to create a folder before mount, and either then just simply delete the empty folder again on shutdown as a little "help" with that use-case :-)

     
  • v77

    v77 - 2025-03-04

    imdisk aswell as AIM do not create a folder for mountpoint, nor do they remove the reparsepoint or turn it back into an empty folder at shutddown.

    So what? The mount point is overwritten at startup.

    I'm just saying though, that it might be beneficial to create a folder before mount, and either then just simply delete the empty folder again on shutdown as a little "help" with that use-case

    No, it is best to keep the mount point between reboots, because if we have a folder at startup and a service or driver creates a file in this folder before the ramdisk service, the ramdisk creation will fail because only an empty folder can be converted into a mount point.

     

Log in to post a comment.

Want the latest updates on software, tech news, and AI?
Get latest updates about software, tech news, and AI from SourceForge directly in your inbox once a month.