When Apple Computer, Inc. (now Apple, Inc.) introduced System 7 nearly 15 years ago, one of the newest things was Virtual Memory. This control panel allows the user to allocate hard disk space to the system so that it can be used as if it were RAM. Another new feature was RAM Disk. It’s a control panel function which allows the user to allocate part of RAM so that it can be used as a virtual disk. Those days, I put Norton Utilities’ Disk Doctor and Speed Disk with a tiny system in RAM Disk to quickly fix disk problems and then perform defragmentation. Under System 9.1, one could not start up a system from RAM Disk any more. Also, Apple incorporated Virtual Memory and RAM Disk into a single control panel called Memory in System 9. (See Screenshot 01.)
So what happened to RAM Disk under OS X? When I eventually switched to OS X several years ago, I was disappointed to know that the new system didn’t support RAM Disk. But there are several freeware and shareware titles that let you create a virtual disk out of RAM. One such Mac freeware title is Esp�rance DV (hereafter, Esperance DV) by Michael Parrot. Esperance DV is a mere PreferencePane, which is accessible by System Preferences. (See Screenshot 02.) Unfortunately, it hasn’t been updated since June, 2006. Perhaps, it doesn’t require an update. Anyway, we don’t know if Esperance DV runs under 10.5 Leopard. What else is available? And we’ve found Ram Disk Utility Pro.
 Screenshot 01 System 9.2.2J |
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Okay. Let’s see how RAM Disk Utility Pro works. Unlike Esperance DV, RAM Disk Utility Pro is an application per se. You launch it to create a RAM disk. When you first launch the application, you will be asked to choose the language of your preference. (See Screenshot 03.) In order to create a RAM disk, click on the Add button. Then you will get to name the disk and decide how much memory you want to allocate. (See Screenshot 04.) After clicking on the OK button, you won’t get a RAM disk yet. So click on the Mount button to mount the disk. (See Screenshot 06.)
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There is nothing difficult in the way you create a RAM disk with RAM Disk Utility Pro so far, right? There are a couple of small problems with it. No. 1, RAM Disk Utility Pro is slow and unreliable. After doubling on the application icon, you have to wait for 10 to 15 seconds till it’s finally loaded. If you try to quit the application, it will stick around, again, for about 10 to 15 seconds. (See Screenshot 08.) When you launch the application, it often quits itself (Under OS X 10.4.11) before you are even able to click on the Mount button.
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Another problem is that when I tested it, RAM Disk Utility Pro’s Auto Mount didn’t work. I tried to automatically launch RAM Disk Utility Pro with Accounts under System Preferences. (See Screenshot 09.) I restarted my Mac, and RAM Disk Utility Pro quit itself anyway. And the RAM disk didn’t get automatically mounted. After doubling on the application icon, the window showed up and the Unmount button was active, indicating that the RAM disk was already mounted. (See Screenshot 10.) Eventually, I had to click on the Unmount and then Mount buttons to bring the RAM disk to the desktop. (See Screenshot 11&2.) In sum, I would have to launch RAM Disk Utility Pro every time I want to use mount a RAM disk.
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So who is developing this software? It seems that the software developer is from Taiwan. That’s all I can find about the developer by looking at its website except that the developer calls him/herself EShen Shiou. There is no office address listed on the website. This developer uses a Gmail account to let people contact him/her. Furthermore, we don’t know what system requirements are. And I don’t know if it’s compatible with Leopard. Apparently, the website is poorly maintained.
By the way, the software icon is very cheap, right? They just re-designed Mac OS’s default drive icon and put RAM cards on it.
Ram Disk Utility Pro is a product of EShen Shiou.
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