Can I make my own Hybrid RAMdisk / SSD System?

[packdaddy777]

I have recently got back into computers and have just discovered SSDs and RAMdisks. Is there software out there that will let me use a RAMdisk in combination with an SSD the way an SSD and HDD are currently being used in combination?

I have 14GB RAM + 256gb Samsung 840 EVO + HDD for mass storage

I have no particular application for it, just want to get reacquainted with new technology coming out.

 

[WyomingKnott]

First: I don't think that there is any real reason do do this. Your Windows should actually manage memory better than this would, keeping what it needs in that expansive 16 GB (what a strange number) or RAM and going to the SSD for what it does not. So it's not practical.

But it might be fun to play with. What you want is software that will allow you to cache one drive using another drive, but the second drive happens to be a RAMdisk. There's a fair number of packages / "drivers" to do this, but I suspect that they assume that the data on the cache disk is still present after shutdown and restart, and in the case of a RAMdisk it won't be.

There are,in fact, already commercial products to do what you describe, such as http://www.superspeed.com/desktop/supercache.php . But since the OS is supposed to do it anyway, I don't really see a practical application.

 

[packdaddy777]

Thanks for the actual answer. I was kinda expecting my idea to be blown out of the water by overly opinionated people. It should be very educational at the least.

 

[manofchalk]

Well, the way most SSD+HDD combinations are done is pretty much is a JBOD (Just a Bunch of Disks) array, in that they aren't really linked at all. Managing data between them is on the users end.
If your talking about caching solutions, that's definitely possible from a RAM Disk and I would say one of the few legitimate uses of making one.

Pretty much all you would need is some RAM Disk software (I believe even AMD has its own utility for it) and another for typical software caching, just point it at the newly created RAM Disk rather than a traditional SSD or HDD.

It would be fun to play with, though dont expect whatever is on the RAM Disk to survive turning the computer off, unless that software also supports flushing the cache to a drive upon turning off.

 

[packdaddy777]

Thanks again for the encouragement. I'm currently using "RAMDisk" as my software, setup using 4 GB and auto-saving a disk image at shutdown and reloading at startup. The additional 60 seconds on rebooting is not a big deal to me unless I plan on doing repeated reboots. Then I just uncheck the box. It still saves the the most recent image so no real loss.

I am using it for Temp files, internet Cache, and SimCity (game saves to SSD), and also use as a temp download location to launch *.exe files. I have been so impressed with the additional speed that it has peaked my interest in what else can this do. I don't have much hands on experience with how caching works but this should be frustratingly-fun to learn.