Conference hydra::amiga_v1

    
    Yah, this recoverable ram disk is really nice.
    
    Something really amazing happened to me with it last night:
    
      1.  I booted a workbench containing the RRD.
      2.  Copied Preferences to the RRD.
      3.  Booted another workbench NOT containing the RRD.
      4.  Did a few disk type things...(not much though)
      5.  Rebooted the workbench containing the RRD and found that
          Preferences was still there!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    
     Awesome.
    
     steve mcafee

	Is this the version of DELETERAMDISK with the problem that was
	reported on USENET a few days ago. This is the only part of the
	ASDG.ARC I didn't seem to get to work.

    Sure is . I had a problem getting DeleteRamDisk to work .I had tried
    several different transfer methods and they all had the same results.
    I then went out to Plink and found an arced version of RamDelete.
    After dearcing it worked fine. I am not sure about the process
    required to upload the file and put it in an account where it can
    be copied .
    
    bill

    
    A good version of deleteramdisk was posted to the usenet a short
    time later.  You can find it in:
    
    ant::bipolar:[smcafee.public]deleteramdisk.uu
    
    steve mcafee
    

    
    Does anyone have a copy of the PD Katin VDK: "Sticky RamDisk" (shared
    or uuencoded)? This program gives the user the option of creating
    multiple ramdisks with no fixed size like the ASDG Ramdisk. I like
    the ASDG Ramdisk very much but am limited to one ramdisk besides
    the RAM: I have tried to create another ASDG Ramdisk VD1: and modified
    the mountlist accordingly but system crashes when I start running
    AmigaDOS commands in a window. Has anyone created more than one
    ASDG Ramdisk like VD1:? It seems the VDK: ramdisk would be a better
    application to run for multi-ramdisks environment, gives more options
    like parity checking and is recoverable after system crashes unless
    I'm wrong about that.
    
    

    
    
    	I don't understand. Why would anyone want more than ONE ram
    disk ??????
    
    

    
    Well,
    
    There is one good reason why one would want more than one ram disk...
    
    Since ASDG allows you to only allocate fixed number of sectors.
    And those sectors are allocated from the free ram list, even if
    the ram disk is just plain empty. I don't blame ASDG device for
    doing that since it tries to keep all of the ram in one piece 
    (prevent fragmentation).
    
    Typically, one creates a ram disk, just big enough to hold all of c:,
    fonts:, dev:, and s: directories. It would be sufficient for an
    user to run just applications, etc. Maybe just about a couple hundred
    blocks for t: directory, to speed up command files and editors.
    
    However, if the programmer wanted to load Manx c: directory for just
    a hacking session, the ram disk device wouldn't have enough room.
    The programmer is willing to give up lot of ram space, but the ram
    disk cannot be expanded dynamically. So it would be convienent to
    just create another ram device, load Manx c: and lib: (Manx libraries)
    into it, and hack away. After hacking, it is just easy to delete
    the second ram disk device, freeing up lots of memory for another
    applications.
    
    Extending this idea further, one can carefully craft a command file
    to create a second ram disk device, copy whole application c: directory
    and other directories to it, it would just be a snap to just execute
    a command file to set up "Manx", "Lattice", and "Tex" environments.
    
    Gee, if one could create a complete kickbench in a ram disk, and
    have Amiga boot from it, it would go lighting fast (after completing
    power up self tests) ! Just wistful wishing...
    
    Paul.
                 

    
    	I know that you have to set an upper bound, but I think that
    the ASDG RAM disk allocates memory as needed ( used ). So you can
    build a large ASDG disk and still not use up memory.
    	I also have a program that forces the disk to release any 
    unused RAM. It will release the ram without help but it takes
    some time.
    
    
    		Steve Peters
    

Both the claims of folks at ASDG and my personal experience confirms
that the ASDG disk allocates memory as needed.  I have my ram disk
configured with a 1.5 meg maximum limit, but most of the time it never
gets close to using all that memory.  Believe me, I would notice if the
ASDG disk was always using 1.5 meg out of my 2.5 meg system.

As reply .8 points out, when the amount of data stored in the ASDG ram
shrinks, the disk doesn't immediately deallocate unused memory.  It first
waits a short amount of time to see if you plan on coping new files to
it.  This prevents it from wasting lots of time in the AmigaDOS memory
manager.

	ASDG ram uses memory as required, not all at once,
	however they suggest you use the CLEANRAMDISK tool often
	to free memory which has been taken, then becomes garbage.

Dave