How to create a RAM Drive (RAM Disk) in Windows 2008 R2

Short-stroking is basically what you found. You specifically use only the last few tracks on each platter of your hard disk. I have heard of this, but haven't looked at it in a while.

Looking at new articles, as well as from memory, the details about this are a mixed bag, mainly bad from my perspective.

• Extremely reduced capacity for the drive because short-stroking only shows a benefit with very small "drive" sizes.
• Roughly 40% better random seek times.
• Slightly faster bulk transfer rates.
• Requires specialized software that doesn't seem to be widely available.
• When used in a RAID 0 array (as most articles recommend) this uses a lot of power for relatively small drive sizes.

I have previously recommended against ideas like this, as just buying larger, faster disks is cheaper in the long run, unless you don't pay for your electricity. The time savings may help in a database server with very little memory, but I can think of no other situation.

In general reading from the outside sectors of the platters is faster, as more sectors pass under the heads per second at 7500 RPM (or whatever) than towards the middle. Also, the heads rest on the outside of the drive when resting so, making a partition only near the center of the drive could actually give you worse seek speeds.

Are you using the Windows 2003 version of devcon? I don't think it is 100% compatible with Windows 2008. Try downloading the WDK from Microsoft and extracting the newest version from there. link text

The newest x64 version is in: WDK\setuptools_x64fre_cab001.cab - extract the _devcon.exe_00000 file and rename to devcon.exe. The proper version of the file should be 6.1.7600.16385.