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EDIT :
I'm now using Windows 8 x64 Enterprise and the speed difference on the same hardware and the same dataset is amazing. Whatever the team has done to improve the caching algorithms, they did something VERY right! :-)

Edit: This question didn't help. How can I keep a file in Windows 7's cache?

I am looking for a way to speed up access to certain directories and files that I access often.

I am using a workstation running Win7x64 Ultimate with a relatively slow HDD. However, I have 24GB of RAM. I want a product that I can tell to keep, for example, "c:\stuff" (the entire tree), "d:\morestuff\bigfile.big", "e:\even\more*.stuff" in memory so that Windows reads and writes to those files in memory, and then the product writes those files to the hard drive in it's own time.

My preference would be:

  1. Open Source
  2. Free
  3. Free, with limited features, e.g. only 8GB of cache allowed
  4. Beta
  5. Free, with a time limit
  6. Proprietary

Edit 2: I had a look at using hardlinks and a RAM drive (FancyCache,) but I want the product to be write the data to the HDD in an asynchronous manner. Not data to something like and image file of the RAM drive, but the actual directories and files on the HDD.

Thanks a bunch!

Community
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AndrewJacksonZA
  • 119

4 Answers4

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I recently used "Dataram RAMDisk" with success http://memory.dataram.com/products-and-services/software/ramdisk . It has a freeware edition.

This site lists some alternatives: http://alternativeto.net/software/dataram-ramdisk/?platform=windows , where I see one of them is open source. Havent tried any others than RAMDisk though.

Allanrbo
  • 316
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Although I have not played with it, Microsoft's Sysinternals CacheSet may be a solution for you. CacheSet is an applet that allows you to manipulate the working-set parameters of the system file cache. You could play with the settings and increase Windows file system cache settings.

Keltari
  • 75,447
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Saw this on the front page and I don't know if you still need this, but one option could be use Sandboxie and have it's backing store on RAMDisk. You would need to manually flush the cache out to your persistent storage.

I don't know if it would give you better or worse performance, but it is something to try.

Scott Chamberlain
  • 31,164
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I'm now using Windows 8 x64 Enterprise and the speed difference on the same hardware and the same dataset is amazing. Whatever the team has done to improve the caching algorithms, they did something VERY right! :-)

AndrewJacksonZA
  • 119