How to use full 4GB RAM in Windows 7 32 Bit (Gavotte RAMDisk in Windows 7)
Introduction
I was using Gavotte's edition of the Windows RAMDisk driver for a while in my windows XP installation for a while already and my results were so far really good. Using the RAMDisk driver I was able to use my full 4GB RAM in my Windows 32 Bit environment.
Question is actually: How does it work? If Microsoft limits Windows to 3GB RAM how can this be extended?
Answer: Depending on the used hardware and BIOS configuration the non-usable memory between 3GB and 4GB (this is a area for reserved addresses for physical devices) is remapped to the area above 4GB.
Windows XP/Vista/7 32Bit editions are limited to 4GB RAM addresses so the memory above 4GB is just "unused".
The Gavotte RAMDisk is able to set the RAMDisk in the area above 4GB memory addresses and can enable the usage of this area for other purposes. I use the RAMDisk for setting my page file to this area but you can also use it for setting the TEMP folder or other stuff there.
It is just important to know that the RAMDisk is not persistent - so don't store any important stuff there - every reboot or power cycle the content is lost - so temporary files can be stored very good at this location.
I came across the RAMDisk driver when reading the famous German computer magazine c't which published an article in edition 7/2009, page 78 called "Ghost-Memory" (translated from German)
Installation in of Gavotte RAMDisk in Windows 7
Step 1: Download RAMDisk Package
First you need to download the RAMDisk driver from a suitable location. Use Google to find a file called...
Gavotte_RAMDisk_1.0.4096.5_200811130.7z
or
Gavotte_RAMDisk_1.0.4096.5_200811130.zip
...unzip the content to a suitable folder.
Step 2: Enforce PAE mode in Windows 7
Open a command line with elevated right (=run as administrator) and type the command ...
bcdedit /set pae ForceEnable
Run bdcedit and validate the result. "pae" should be listed as shows below:
Step 3: Reboot
Reboot your PC to have the PAE mode effective.
Step 4: Configure PAE mode for RAMDisk
In explorer locate the file "ram4g.reg" within the extracted set of files from the RAMDisk, double click the file to add the registry settings. The content of the REG file should look like this:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\RRamdisk\Parameters]
"UsePAE"=dword:00000001
Step 5: Install RAMDisk
Navigate to the folder where the RAMDisk files have been extracted and start "ramdisk.exe" with administrator permissions.
In the GUI of ramdisk.exe click on "Install Ramdisk".
After you clicked the button there will be a warning displayed by Windows Security to validate of you really would like to install the RAMDisk, click on "Install this driver software anyway".
Then... you need to wait a bit, on my box it took ~30 seconds to complete the installation. If completed the GUI should display something like:
Also you'll notice that a drive "R:\" is now available in your Windows Explorer using the size of your missing memory between 3GB and 4GB.
Step 6: Reboot (again)
Reboot (again) to validate that RAMDisk is installed correctly. After reboot the RAMDisk should be displayed in Explorer as drive R:\ again.
Step 7: Enjoy
Now you can be sure to be able to use the RAMDisk. I personally use it as swap space.
To set it up as swap space (swapping from RAM to RAM) you...
- Right click on "Computer" in Windows Explorer
- pick "Properties"
- then use the menu on the left for "Advanced System Settings"
- in the following dialog use the tab "Advanced"
- in the group "Performance" click the "Settings..." button
- on the following dialog use tab "Advanced"
- in the group "Virtual Memory" click on "Change..."
- in the following dialog (seems very advanced at this step already :-) unselect "Automatically manage paging file size for all drives" checkbox.
- Select your RAMDisk drive in the list box
- Select "Custom Size"
- Enter e.g. 1000 into "Initial size" box
- Enter e.g. 1000 into "Maximum size" box (whereas my RAMDisk had space of 1022MB available)
- Click on "Set" button
- Close the dialog with "OK"
- Close the dialog with "OK"
- Accept to reboot
After reboot you can enjoy having a computer swapping from RAM to RAM.
References
- Official Gavotte Homepage (seems to be not existing :-) ??
- Heise Verlag c't article about RAMDisk driver (German)
- Blog entry about installation in Windows 7 Beta (Japanese)
- Review of RAMDisk driver
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Gavotte_RAMDisk_1.0.4096.5_200811130.7z | 160.59 KB |
NO PAE may be required by your PC
Attention:
If you are a software developer using Microsoft Visual Basic 2010 Express, the setting "/NOPAE" may be required in your boot loader for VB2010 Express to function. The only way I could get VB2010 Express to function on my PC was to turn off the PAE in the bootloader using this /NOPAE switch.
I am both a musician and software developer. I use RAMDISK for memory enhancement with virtual synthesizers; but for software development in VB2010 Express I need to set the PAE to 'OFF'...
Hi, thanks for this pretty
Hi,
thanks for this pretty nice guide.
But my problem is the following...
i have 8 GB RAM and i created a Ram disc for about 4,74 GB, so that i could use the whole unused potential.
But the created Ram disc just uses 764 MB of 4,74 GB and the hardware monitor shows me that i have a maximum of 3327 MB.
Could you help me with that? :(
So if I use the ramdisk as
So if I use the ramdisk as virtual memory like your last step, then I can't hibernate? Doesn't work for me on win7, any work around for that?
RAMDisk and Hibernate
I assume this is a limitation in Windows - Hibernate only covers the RAM which is addreaable by Windows, as the RAMDisk is in the upper memory layer this would not be stored to disk in case of hibernate - thus the driver claims that hibernate power state is not supported.
Brilliant! Thanks, I will not
Brilliant! Thanks, I will not have to upgrade to 64bit after all
Gavotte RamDisk
Hello - sounds really interesting.
Before I mesh up something: should this work on a netbook running on Windows 7 Starter (is limited to use 2 GB-Ram maximum) with physically 4 GB-Ram installed, to make use of the excess 2 GB that is now waiting to be used?
Hope to hear your ideas!
Cool Idea
Sorry, I never have tested such a scenario - has someone else? Maybe I could test thius in a VM with the starter edition when I have time somewhen...
Email Feedback
Hi!
I've tested the setup after I upgraded my machine to 8GB RAM. This was also working, I had 3GB available RAM and a 5GB RAM Disk.
I tried to enable 5GB as Swap space but unfortunately Windows is limited to 4GB Swap per drive :-) But you can still put the %TEMP% folders to the RAM drive...
Thanks & Best Regards,
Jens Scheffler
-----Original Message-----
From: ****
jensscheffler [dot] de [mailto:****
jensscheffler [dot] de] On Behalf Of ejr@*******.com
Sent: Montag, 15. August 2011 23:58
To: ****
jensscheffler [dot] de
Subject: [Feedback] Gavotte RamDisk
Eugene sent a message using the contact form at http://www.jensscheffler.de/contact.
I have successfully used the ramdisk on systems with 4GB of memory. I get a disk of between 768 and 1 GB depending on the machine. I want to double my RAM to 8 GB. Will Gavotte be able to use the additional memory (have you tested that personally)?
Thanks.
System Managed
If you still want double pagefiles, the ones on the RAM and the ones on the disk, Set the RAMDisk's Disk Initial Size to the amount of RAM which is left unused by the OS.
And on the other HD you just write down Initial 16MB / Maximum 4096(or 8192)MB. (Just write it down on the maximum. It won't take that much unless the system needs it.)
I'm an heavy user, 4GB isn't just enough.
Hi Jens, thanx for the
Hi Jens, thanx for the info..
I've followed all your instructions, work nice, but i didn't see any 'big' differences.
Oya, I have 4GB's of RAM on Win7 Ultimate 32-bit. It says only 2.75GB usable. So i set the RAM-Disk for 1GB
I have some questions :
Thanx for your answer
Regards, i'm from Indonesia, forgive my bad English :-)
How to use 4GB Ram In Windows 7 32 Bit
Dear Adee,
Please Read this article "http://www.unawave.de/windows-7-tipps/32-bit-ram-barrier.html?lang=EN"
In the article all have shown how to use 4GB Ram In Windows 7 32 Bit. And Also You Can Use 64GB Ram!!!
Just Read It And You Will Understand All.
Thnak You.
Autobot
Question on multiple-swap files
In this example, you left the C drive swap file at "System Managed".
How do you ensure the 1 gig Ram disk swap file even gets used, instead of the C drive one? How do you know it's actually being accessed at all, instead of Windows just going to the main disk one?
It's not been accessed at
It's not been accessed at all! You are not saying windows to use this RAMdisk as a swap file.
System Managed
Hi, I assume this is a "bug" in the screenshot - of course the swap file on C: should be disabled.
re-check results
sorry, doesnt work. ram is allocated from free windows memory, check for yourself using taskmans ressource monitor. the ramdisk capacity gets allocated from windows' 3gig of usable memory. the 1gig difference stays untouched.
tested on a macbook running win7 with 4gigs of ram.
Finally !!!
Followed the instructions, then used R:\ as swap-file (762MB-762MB).
Resource Monitor: 2715 available + 555 in use + 769 hardware reserved = total 4039
Works clear as crystal !!! Thanks very much Jens !
Sorry pal. That's exactly the
Sorry pal. That's exactly the same result you get if the Ram disk is not installaled. Just try uninstalling the Ram disk and check the Resource Monitor again.
Just used this on win7 32
Just used this on win7 32 with 4 gigs and integrated 256 vid card (i will lower it to 64-128 tomorrow)
installed registry and then proceeded to install , clicked FIXED drive, didnt change the 16M and voila R drive was 768 Mb big, which is exactly the ammount of unused memory in my system (tomorrow will be 768 +128~(whatever i cut from the Integrated)
ive used ramdrive on other x64 systems, just for kicks, but its the first time i can actualyl use th eunused memory thanks!
feedback on PAE and Gavotte RAMDisk
Using the version of Gavotte RAMDisk you mention, I was able to load a RAMDISK using what I believe is RAM between 3GB and 4GB on my system, but without using the ForceEnable option on PAE with bcdedit. Given that PAE is supposed to be for addressing memory above 4GB on 32-bit systems, this does make sense, and since I only have 4GB of RAM, it doesn't make sense to have PAE enabled when it may result in a performance loss. It seems that the only thing required for Gavotte RAMDisk to use the 3GB+ memory is having the UsePAE option enabled in the registry. I tried changing this value to zero (disabled) and after reboot saw a 512MB (as was the setting in RAMDisk) - and noticed about the same amount being deducted from my system's available memory (as would be expected if it wasn't using the RAM above 3GB).
Also, regarding PageFile setings, I think it makes more sense to set a low initial size for the RAMdisk, such as the 16MB minimum, and a maximum size of 1000MB or similar. I think the practice of having a fixed-size paging file stems from trying to avoid fragmentation of the file on the hard disk due to its growth, but since this is a pagefile in RAM, fragmentation shouldn't be really be an issue. This also allows you to use the RAMdisk for other purposes, such as temp file storage.
Thanks for the info!