Being interested in Primo Ramdisk in order to reduce SSD writes in the amount of some 200GB/day done by BOINC Grid Computing, I have now read the product help to get thorough Information.
However, what I did NOT find out was the following: My BOINC Software including the data file (into which the program writes its 200GB per day) is already installed and running on my system; to simplify it here, let's call the data file C:\...BOINC data. Once I install Primo Ramdisk, what settings do I have to make that from then on, all data the BOINC software is writing to the file "BOINC data" ends up on the Ramdisc and NOT on the SSD?
Either I could not spot a clear answer to this in the product help, or it isn't in there.
Or putting my question the other way round: Do I hopefully NOT have to re-install the BOINC Software after installation of Primo Ramdisc with setting the path of the "BOINC data" file not to C:\ but rather to the drive letter of the Ramdisc ?
How to link folders from existing programs to Primo Ramdisk?
Re: How to link folders from existing programs to Primo Ramdisk?
Well, you may use NTFS junction point to redirect this folder to the ramdisk if your ramdisk is big enough.
See: https://www.romexsoftware.com/en-us/pri ... tools.html
Please note that after you make the junction point, the source folder "C:\...BOINC" will be just a symbol, no files will be actually stored in this folder. All files in this folder will be stored into ramdisk. So you have to enable the ramdisk image file feature to make sure these files are kept after computer shutdown if these files are not temporarily used.
You may backup the source folder "C:\...BOINC" before you do the above operations if you're not familiar with Junction Point.
See: https://www.romexsoftware.com/en-us/pri ... tools.html
Please note that after you make the junction point, the source folder "C:\...BOINC" will be just a symbol, no files will be actually stored in this folder. All files in this folder will be stored into ramdisk. So you have to enable the ramdisk image file feature to make sure these files are kept after computer shutdown if these files are not temporarily used.
You may backup the source folder "C:\...BOINC" before you do the above operations if you're not familiar with Junction Point.
Re: How to link folders from existing programs to Primo Ramdisk?
many thanks for your quick reply.
Since my file system is NTFS, the junction point solution might be worth trying. However, what I do NOT understand now is what is says in the explanations (the link you provided above):
"Tips:
a. Mount point must be an empty or non-exist directory."
My "C:\...BOINC" folder is, of course, filled with tons of data, about 8 or 9 GBs. If I delete this folder, I ruin the BOINC Installation and would have to install the whole BOINC new. Unless, if this would work: closing BOINC, saving the complete content of this folder to a different place first, than deleting all data in C:\...BOINC", then installing and setting up Primo Ramdisk, and then copying back the complete content from before.
Would this work?
Since my file system is NTFS, the junction point solution might be worth trying. However, what I do NOT understand now is what is says in the explanations (the link you provided above):
"Tips:
a. Mount point must be an empty or non-exist directory."
My "C:\...BOINC" folder is, of course, filled with tons of data, about 8 or 9 GBs. If I delete this folder, I ruin the BOINC Installation and would have to install the whole BOINC new. Unless, if this would work: closing BOINC, saving the complete content of this folder to a different place first, than deleting all data in C:\...BOINC", then installing and setting up Primo Ramdisk, and then copying back the complete content from before.
Would this work?
Re: How to link folders from existing programs to Primo Ramdisk?
You may just closing BOINC, making a copy of this folder for backup purpose, and then use Primo Ramdisk's junction tool to create the junction. Primo Ramdisk will prompt you when this source folder is not empty and do the file moving for you.
Again, please note that after the junction point is created, all files including new coming files are actually saved in the ramdisk. So you have to enable the image file feature to keep files across computer restarts. The folder you backed up before creating the junction will become an outdated copy.
Again, please note that after the junction point is created, all files including new coming files are actually saved in the ramdisk. So you have to enable the image file feature to keep files across computer restarts. The folder you backed up before creating the junction will become an outdated copy.
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InquiringMind
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Re: How to link folders from existing programs to Primo Ramdisk?
Erich56,
If you are going to create junctions, you may find the Link Shell Extension utility easier to use, with more options for cloning folders.
If you are going to create junctions, you may find the Link Shell Extension utility easier to use, with more options for cloning folders.
Re: How to link folders from existing programs to Primo Ramdisk?
there is one question the answer for which I did not find anywhere so far:
what happens if eventually the folder for which I made a junction gets bigger than the size of the Ramdisc?
Why do I ask this? The main work of this PC is BOINC grid computing. I am working on various projects simultaneously, like GPUGRID, ATLAS@Home, Rosetta, VirtualLHC@Home, etc. Everything that's happening during computation is stored in the BOINC folder. This folder normally is between 12GB and 14GB in size, occasionally it can grow up to 16GB for short time.
So, if I set the size of the Ramdisk at 14GB (having 18GB "free" system RAM left, which is needed), and the data in the BOINC folder would start exceeding 14GB - what would happen? Would BOINC crash? Would the whole system crash? Or would the data which exceeds 14GB simply be written on SSD?
It's important for me to get a clear picture on this.
what happens if eventually the folder for which I made a junction gets bigger than the size of the Ramdisc?
Why do I ask this? The main work of this PC is BOINC grid computing. I am working on various projects simultaneously, like GPUGRID, ATLAS@Home, Rosetta, VirtualLHC@Home, etc. Everything that's happening during computation is stored in the BOINC folder. This folder normally is between 12GB and 14GB in size, occasionally it can grow up to 16GB for short time.
So, if I set the size of the Ramdisk at 14GB (having 18GB "free" system RAM left, which is needed), and the data in the BOINC folder would start exceeding 14GB - what would happen? Would BOINC crash? Would the whole system crash? Or would the data which exceeds 14GB simply be written on SSD?
It's important for me to get a clear picture on this.
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InquiringMind
- Level SS
- Posts: 477
- Joined: Wed Oct 06, 2010 11:10 pm
Re: How to link folders from existing programs to Primo Ramdisk?
If the folder reaches the size of the ramdisk, then any further writes would encounter a "disk full" error, just as they would if an SSD or hard disk filled. What happens with the application involved depends on how well it is programmed - whether it closes gracefully with a helpful error message or just crashes without any further explanation.
My post in the "Cache Space" thread provides some suggests for dealing with this.
My post in the "Cache Space" thread provides some suggests for dealing with this.
Re: How to link folders from existing programs to Primo Ramdisk?
thanks for the information.
in my posting viewtopic.php?f=33&t=4092&p=9847#p9847 in the "Cache Space" thread I have responded to your ideas and suggestions.
It's still not quite clear to me which way to go
in my posting viewtopic.php?f=33&t=4092&p=9847#p9847 in the "Cache Space" thread I have responded to your ideas and suggestions.
It's still not quite clear to me which way to go
Re: How to link folders from existing programs to Primo Ramdisk?
Yesterday, I uninstalled PrimoCache and installed RamDisk for trying it out. The main porpose of this PC is grid computing with BOINC, hence I created a junction with the BOINC working files folder.
As far as I can see after this short time, the tool seems to meet my expectations.
I am using the image file feature, in order not to loose data at shutdown.
There was one thing though that did not work properly, or I did something wrong: after I had found out that I need to enlarge the Ramdisk from 12,5GBto 13,5GB, I did this with the view/edit disk function, and at the very end of the various steps, when it came to "save", I got the notification that I cannot save these settings because the image file has a different size than the Ramdisk.
Beside the fact, that at that point of time, the image file was very small, it is clear that after changing the size of the Ramdisk, the image file linked to it will never be same size as the Ramdisk, right?
So, in order to be able to finish up and save my new settings, I created another image file, which of course then was empty at that point of time. Of course, what happened then was that after the restart of the PC (which has to be made in order to set the new settings into effect) the BOINC folder was empty, and BOINC did not work properly any more. So I had to uninstall and re-install BOINC. A lot of data was lost, which was an annoyance, of course.
So I need to get clarification as to why after editing the Ramdisk settings, the tool claims that it cannot save the settings because of the different size of Ramdisk and image file. Something dies not seem logical here.
Either it is faulty programming of the tool, or I am doing something essentially wrong.
Please let me know, so that when I am going to edit the Ramdisk settings next time (which might be the case soon, as I am still kind of experimenting to find out which is best size of Ramdisc in my case), this does not happen again.
As far as I can see after this short time, the tool seems to meet my expectations.
I am using the image file feature, in order not to loose data at shutdown.
There was one thing though that did not work properly, or I did something wrong: after I had found out that I need to enlarge the Ramdisk from 12,5GBto 13,5GB, I did this with the view/edit disk function, and at the very end of the various steps, when it came to "save", I got the notification that I cannot save these settings because the image file has a different size than the Ramdisk.
Beside the fact, that at that point of time, the image file was very small, it is clear that after changing the size of the Ramdisk, the image file linked to it will never be same size as the Ramdisk, right?
So, in order to be able to finish up and save my new settings, I created another image file, which of course then was empty at that point of time. Of course, what happened then was that after the restart of the PC (which has to be made in order to set the new settings into effect) the BOINC folder was empty, and BOINC did not work properly any more. So I had to uninstall and re-install BOINC. A lot of data was lost, which was an annoyance, of course.
So I need to get clarification as to why after editing the Ramdisk settings, the tool claims that it cannot save the settings because of the different size of Ramdisk and image file. Something dies not seem logical here.
Either it is faulty programming of the tool, or I am doing something essentially wrong.
Please let me know, so that when I am going to edit the Ramdisk settings next time (which might be the case soon, as I am still kind of experimenting to find out which is best size of Ramdisc in my case), this does not happen again.
Re: How to link folders from existing programs to Primo Ramdisk?
Yesterday, I uninstalled PrimoCache and installed RamDisk for trying it out. The main purpose of this PC is grid computing with BOINC, hence I created a junction with the BOINC working files folder.
As far as I can see after this short time, the tool seems to meet my expectations.
I am using the image file feature, in order not to loose data at shutdown.
There was one thing though that did not work properly, or I did something wrong: after I had found out that I need to enlarge the Ramdisk from 12,5GBto 13,5GB, I did this with the view/edit disk function, and at the very end of the various steps, when it came to "save", I got the notification that I cannot save these settings because the image file has a different size than the Ramdisk.
Beside the fact, that at that point of time, the image file was very small, it is clear that after changing the size of the Ramdisk, the image file linked to it will never be same size as the Ramdisk, right?
So, in order to be able to finish up and save my new settings, I created another image file, which of course then was empty at that point of time. Of course, what happened then was that after the restart of the PC (which has to be made in order to set the new settings into effect) the BOINC folder was empty, and BOINC did not work properly any more. So I had to uninstall and re-install BOINC. A lot of data was lost, which was an annoyance, of course.
So I need to get clarification as to why after editing the Ramdisk settings, the tool claims that it cannot save the settings because of the different size of Ramdisk and image file. Something does not seem logical here.
Either it is faulty programming of the tool, or I am doing something essentially wrong.
Please let me know, so that when I am going to edit the Ramdisk settings next time (which might be the case soon, as I am still kind of experimenting to find out which is best size of Ramdisc in my case), this does not happen again.
As far as I can see after this short time, the tool seems to meet my expectations.
I am using the image file feature, in order not to loose data at shutdown.
There was one thing though that did not work properly, or I did something wrong: after I had found out that I need to enlarge the Ramdisk from 12,5GBto 13,5GB, I did this with the view/edit disk function, and at the very end of the various steps, when it came to "save", I got the notification that I cannot save these settings because the image file has a different size than the Ramdisk.
Beside the fact, that at that point of time, the image file was very small, it is clear that after changing the size of the Ramdisk, the image file linked to it will never be same size as the Ramdisk, right?
So, in order to be able to finish up and save my new settings, I created another image file, which of course then was empty at that point of time. Of course, what happened then was that after the restart of the PC (which has to be made in order to set the new settings into effect) the BOINC folder was empty, and BOINC did not work properly any more. So I had to uninstall and re-install BOINC. A lot of data was lost, which was an annoyance, of course.
So I need to get clarification as to why after editing the Ramdisk settings, the tool claims that it cannot save the settings because of the different size of Ramdisk and image file. Something does not seem logical here.
Either it is faulty programming of the tool, or I am doing something essentially wrong.
Please let me know, so that when I am going to edit the Ramdisk settings next time (which might be the case soon, as I am still kind of experimenting to find out which is best size of Ramdisc in my case), this does not happen again.