RAM Disk on Windows 11

Anonymous
2023-03-24T16:40:00+00:00

Hi, I wanted to create a RAM disk on Windows 11. I found an article for Windows 7 and 10 which has been updated recently:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/create-a-ram-disk-drive-in-windows-7-and-windows/cd42aac4-8b0e-4b61-a2ea-9560a3e17d5b

However, when I tried it on Windows 11, it didn't seem to work properly.

After making changes to the TEMP and TMP environment variables as well as some application specific temp / cache paths to point them towards the RAM disk, everything appeared fine initially. But when running more intensive workloads, I experienced intermittent crashes and eventually a blue screen: DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL (probably related to the storage driver implementation used by ImDisk).

After reverting the changes I made to the temp / cache directories, removing the RAM disk, and uninstalling ImDisk, everything has been stable again.

My question is: Is there any way to set up a RAM Disk on Windows 11 without compromising system stability?

For my use case, I don't require persistent storage, but it should be auto-mounted on boot.

Thank you, Paul.

PS: Please ignore discussions regarding why someone might need such a setup; each person has their own unique use case which doesn't necessarily apply universally.

PPS: Revisiting this thread after nearly a year reveals that there is no official solution from Microsoft. While there may be paid options available, given the history of free solutions causing issues under load, I am hesitant to invest time and money checking each one individually.

In summary, there seems to be no official or unofficial (but endorsed) solution at present.

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Devices and drivers

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  1. Anonymous
    2025-04-03T03:01:41+00:00

    Good morning, everyone!

    I wanted to share a bit of nostalgia with you all. Back in the days of MS-DOS 6.2, Windows 98, and even Windows XP, RamDisk was an incredibly useful tool for me. It played a crucial role in optimizing system performance.

    To set it up in MS-DOS, we had to configure the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files, specifically loading RAMDRIVE.SYS, the essential driver that made it all work. Those were the times when tweaking system settings manually wasn’t just a necessity—it was an art!

    Those were the times when tweaking system settings manually was both an art and a necessity! I believe I still have those old configuration files archived somewhere. If anyone’s interested, I’d be happy to dig them up and share some insights from that era.

    Let me know if you have any memories or experiences with RamDisk—I'd love to hear them!

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  2. Anonymous
    2025-01-30T00:16:24+00:00

    Hello all,

    When working with Windows Embedded 7 & 8 and later with Windows IoT versions, I learned about File Based Write Filters (more recently titled the Unified Write Filter). I would use this "lock down feature" to revert the machine back to a state prior to when the write filter was turned on. Depending on how broadly the filter was employed, it had the benefit of protecting the machine from any changes (and protected the device from the BSOD resulting from non-graceful PC shut downs e.g.: power failures). This tool was used for edge devices that we knew absolutely would never have a graceful shutdown.

    https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/configuration/unified-write-filter/uwf-turnonuwf

    I noticed this is available in Windows 11 in the add or remove windows features for the Device Lockdown section, but I have not explored this feature as of yet for my own purposes. My OS Build 22631.4751.

    Good luck

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  3. Igor Leyko 112.4K Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2023-03-25T13:52:27+00:00

    > Also, very interesting Igor, I'm going to check if I find any sources on that

    Please share the information if you'll find any public mention of this. I've got this information from some private source or during visiting Microsoft campus in Redmond. Sorry, I do not remember exactly.

    And I may add, the effect of RAM drive could be effective with a lot of creating, reading, deleting files by some process, e.g. during a project compilation. In other cases available RAM decreasing has more negative effect than gain from a RAM drive. And this gain is much smaller mow due to hard drives replacing with very fast M.2 SSDs.

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  4. Igor Leyko 112.4K Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2023-03-25T12:13:43+00:00

    Microsoft have no recommendations to use virtual drives in Windows. 10-15 years ago, the developers studied the effect of RAM drives using in Windows, but it was found this may be useful only in some special cases not in general use.

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  5. Anonymous
    2023-03-25T01:55:15+00:00

    Please run the V2 log collector and post a share link into this thread using one drive, drop box, or google drive.

    https://www.tenforums.com/bsod-crashes-debugging/2198-bsod-posting-instructions.html

    https://www.elevenforum.com/t/bsod-posting-instructions.103/

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