Can one set up a 20.5GB RAM disk in a 24GB machine running winXP?

[peterh337]

I can hear you all laughing...

But this is not the nonsensical one about putting the swapfile onto a RAM disk, all within the memory addressable by the OS.

XP can access 3.5GB max.

I am building a winXP/win7-64 dual boot machine (have some old apps which need XP) with 24GB RAM. It would be nice to give XP a big fast swapfile, in the unused RAM.

The Q is whether a driver running under XP can access memory beyond the 3.5GB? And is there such a product? Google turns up various silly debates and dead ends.

BTW the MB is an EX58-UD5 (AFAICT the best MB which has both XP and win7-64 drivers) and the CPU is an i7-970. The HD is a 2TB WD Black, SATA.

 

[basroil]

Don't bother trying, the system is already faster than XP can handle.

In fact, don't bother with XP dual boot at all unless you need specific drivers. If you only need it for applications, use Windows 10 Pro with Hyper-V and RemoteFX, it'll be almost as fast as native without the mess. You can even load your VHD into memory with some workarounds and get SSD speeds without the disk degradation that XP causes

 

[peterh337]

However, is there such a product?

BTW -

"without the disk degradation that XP causes"

Do you know what the cause is?

I can confirm it, having lost every SSD within a year, on 24/7 machines.

 

[cdabc123]

yes it is possible their used to be a software that did it great however finding a ramdisk that can access the unused ram, work with xp, and isnt malware will be a difficult task

 

[13thmonkey]

as above virtualise the XP machine.

 

[peterh337]

" the system is already faster than XP can handle. "

Not sure I understand that. XP is just software. It will run at whatever speed the computer runs at.

 

[13thmonkey]

Asus used to dish out software that allowed the use of ram that the OS couldn't reference as a ram disk, doubt it is xp compatible though. Virtualisation is the answer, a physical to virtual conversion P2V would help create a virtual image of your physical machine and then run it on vmware player or oracle virtual box.

 

[peterh337]

I posted a reply but it vanished

BTW I didn't select the above as the solution, though I may have pressed the wrong button.

I have played with Virtualbox. It doesn't do what I need (special comms drivers, etc).

 

[basroil]

However, is there such a product?

BTW -

What, ramdisk software? Sure, but usually requires some deep workarounds like installing a 64bit hypervisor or modifying core windows functions.

"without the disk degradation that XP causes"

Do you know what the cause is?

I can confirm it, having lost every SSD within a year, on 24/7 machines.

XP wasn't made with SSDs in mind, so it uses pretty horrible access patterns and lacks TRIM support. Special drivers can offset some damage, but not all.

" the system is already faster than XP can handle. "

Not sure I understand that. XP is just software. It will run at whatever speed the computer runs at.

Yes, XP is software, but software needs to communicate with hardware. It's not as simple as you think, and hardware functions like AVX are simply not supported. The i7 800/900 series was the last with just SSE4.2, but it added a few changes to the chip structure that XP couldn't take advantage of.

If your issue is just poorly programmed software, hyper-v or VMWare's stuff is highly recommended for your virtualization needs.

 

[peterh337]

I found the Asus RAM disk here, but no more info
http://rog.asus.com/technology/republic-of-gamers-motherboard-innovations/ramdisk/

Also here
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-2361113/asus-ramdisk-work.html

 

[peterh337]

Nobody has come back with a solution.

It occurred to me that one way to do this might be to run winXP in a VM which allows drives to be mapped between the real machine and the VM (I recall the MS VM allows that; VMware doesn't IIRC) and then set up a RAM disk in the real machine, and map it across.

This assumes your winXP apps will actually run in a VM. Many won't...

 

[basroil]

Nobody has come back with a solution.

It occurred to me that one way to do this might be to run winXP in a VM which allows drives to be mapped between the real machine and the VM (I recall the MS VM allows that; VMware doesn't IIRC) and then set up a RAM disk in the real machine, and map it across.

This assumes your winXP apps will actually run in a VM. Many won't...

Unless you need specific USB hardware, ALL applications should work. With Win 10 Pro+remotefx as the host, even dx9 games should!

 

[peterh337]

There is actually plenty of old software which won't work in a VM. I have two such apps, both very high value.

It is the smallest thing which stops it e.g. some weird way the app interacts with the mouse, or implements zoom/pan, etc etc.

Also some work in VMware and not in MS VM (I have one here too).

 

[basroil]

There is actually plenty of old software which won't work in a VM. I have two such apps, both very high value.

It is the smallest thing which stops it e.g. some weird way the app interacts with the mouse, or implements zoom/pan, etc etc.

Also some work in VMware and not in MS VM (I have one here too).

It's very rare, and usually a sign the software is not only poorly written, but possibly malware/ sleazy (many high end CAD systems detect VM status and shut down). Most of the time though it's just poor setup of the VM or just user error

 

[peterh337]

Well, all true, but there is a saying here "beggars can't be choosers"

In the bad old days, storing data under Program Files was common and there are $10k apps which do that. No win7+ for those.

Yes, checking for a VM and aborting is also popular. Also I have software which checks whether it is being accessed over RDP (remote desktop) and it exits.

But the bottom line is that if you have some app you need then you have to deal with it! It's no good saying what is all over 99.456% of the internet e.g.

- winXP is obsolete, you will catch a virus, move on with your life
- old software is old, dump it
- everything runs under a VM

etc

People are looking for SOLUTIONS, not to be told something which is not even tangential to the issue.

 

[CountMike]

There's also 64 bit XP.

 

[peterh337]

That was the worst option of all. Very few bits of hardware ever got winXP-64 drivers.

Or maybe you are saying it could support > 3.5GB RAM?

 

[basroil]

That was the worst option of all. Very few bits of hardware ever got winXP-64 drivers.

Or maybe you are saying it could support > 3.5GB RAM?

XP x64 can "support" >2gb memory (for applications) and >4gb address space (3.5GB issue is because your GPU/mobo takes up ~512mb), but it's a broken PoS

 

[13thmonkey]

People are looking for SOLUTIONS, not to be told something which is not even tangential to the issue.

The solutions lie with the providers of the software that is non-functional under several std ways of running older OS's. if they are holding their hands up and saying not our problem, or buy the new version then you know who not to go to next time, but software does move on, keep it up to date, or issues like this happen.

Have you tried all of the VM option out there, oraclebox? vmware? i'm sure there are others. hypervisor? I know that early win 8 images would not work on vmware but would work on oracle box. Have you tried a physical to virtual conversion of a known good winxp installation.