Hi all

I've been working on an anim which reads and writes some data files on every
frame, and was wondering if (using pov under windows 98) I could io the
files to ram - I suspect this would give negligible speed up on small files,
but may help with larger ones.

Before I got a PC, I used an Amiga, where the path to the ram was RAM: in
the same way the path to the harddisk or floppy is c: and a: on a PC.

So is this possible?

Thanks
jim

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Hi Jim,

I also had an Amiga, and I also installed a RAM drive on my PC, and I also
use Win98.. I browsed the net and found the only program that will work.. I
think.. It's a small freeware program that activates from Dos.. Here:

http://www.thetechzone.com/downloads/ram_drive.zip

Of course this will reduce your available RAM for other purposes. Complete
instructions are in the read me file (and please read it) but it's not so
complicated.. Here is a line I added to autoexec.bat :

c:\progra~1\ramdrive\xmsdsk 25600 J: /t

25600 is the size of disk.. But beware - and this is quite important! - that
I assigned "J" as my RAM-drive letter, because I already have used A, C, D,
E, F, G, H, I to harddisks etc.. But you probably shouldn't do that. You
should use the letter that comes next to *your* last used drive.. Otherwise,
your Windows will freak out and it's difficult to make it run normally ever
again.. Apart from that, I found no problems with the program.

Regards,
Hugo

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"James Taylor" <jim### [at] blueyondercouk> wrote in message
news:3ce6a09e@news.povray.org...
> Hi all
>

<snip>

You don't say what version of windows - under '95 and possibly later
versions, there is the config tool ramdrive.sys, which can add a ramdrive if
loaded as a device in config.sys

Something like (for a 1000kb drive)
device=c:\windows\ramdrive.sys 1000

check "help ramdrive.sys" under dos for more info.

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I don't see any advantage in using a ramdrive because the OS will cache
the disk I/O anyways. Using a ramdisk will just be a waste of memory.

-- 
#macro N(D)#if(D>99)cylinder{M()#local D=div(D,104);M().5,2pigment{rgb M()}}
N(D)#end#end#macro M()<mod(D,13)-6mod(div(D,13)8)-3,10>#end blob{
N(11117333955)N(4254934330)N(3900569407)N(7382340)N(3358)N(970)}//  - Warp -

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>   I don't see any advantage in using a ramdrive because the OS will cache
> the disk I/O anyways. Using a ramdisk will just be a waste of memory.

But not with big files? Or many small files of your choice? That you want to
keep while you're doing something else on the machine? ..I don't know..  :o)
Anyway, I used it for video purpose, and it was the only way to get windows
to play from memory.

You're right of course, that it's usually a waste of memory, since it's
locked from normal use.. Fortunately the dos program allows you to turn the
ramdrive on/off at every startup.

Regards,
Hugo

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"Hugo" <hua### [at] post3teledk> wrote in message
news:3ce6a9dd@news.povray.org...
> Hi Jim,
>It's a small freeware program that activates from Dos.. Here:
>
> http://www.thetechzone.com/downloads/ram_drive.zip
>

Thanks for the link - I only just downloaded it due to that pesky RL thing
happening again...
Anyway it works fine and even chops about 10% off the total rendering time
(parse+trace) for my current WIP.

Thanks again
jim

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