Is there a way to install Windows to a RAMDisk?

General Discussion
1

I’d like to see how responsive a desktop OS such as Windows would be when running purely from RAM.

However, I don’t want the system to be running as a “Virtual machine” within another OS.

Is there a solution for creating a virtual drive from within a Windows installer, or another pre-install option?

Edit: This endeavor would be purely for fun, I don’t intend to have any data persistence at the end.

2

Well, this isn’t really the forum to get answers to questions like that.

But the frist thing you will need is a bunch of ram. I honestly have no idea how to do it these days. In the old days there were ways to beat Windows into submission but today is an entirely different game. I think a fast machine and lost or RAM, and a solid VM. Not a VM on windows, a type I hypervisor like ESXi. Free version of course.

3

I was going to say the same, but this is the off-topic section.

Ah, that would do it. I was trying to imagine how the contents of the RAMdisk would persist through the several reboots that are part of the Windows installation process, but if your hypervisor handles that part, and presents it to the guest as just another disk, that should work. Though of course you’re introducing overhead with the hypervisor then.

4

I cannot imagine any other way to do it :frowning:

5

Using a good well developed Type I hypervisor such as ESXi is a very lightweight piece of software. It is totally different from a Type II hypervisor running on an OS, such as Windows for example. The business community doesn’t use ESXi because it has a high overhead and is slow. And you can get the free version, and I like free. It is fully functional like the paid version for what you would be doing. I ran FreeNAS and TrueNAS on it for a decade and only recently dropped using it since TrueNAS VM has become more reliable.

As for how to run ESXi, you install ESXi onto say a SSD, 256GB is way more than enough but gives you room for a virtual disk, but you want a RAM Disk, and you can do that as well. Do a Google Search for “ESXi RAM Disk” and you will find some information on how to do this. This can be tricky because a RAM Disk goes away when the power goes off. Read and read again. Test and play.

6

While I agree with this needing to be virtualized to work - I’m also confused now about if ESXi is lightweight or not :stuck_out_tongue:

1 Like
7

You’re parsing:

ESXi is slow and has high overhead, THEREFORE the business community does not use it.

Try from the premise that the business community actually DOES use ESXi…