-
Hello MLAers! We've re-enabled auto-approval for accounts. If you are still waiting on account approval, please check this thread for more information.
Availability of RAM Disk under System 7
- Thread starter Aektann
- Start date
040 or PPC, I'm not sure the reason why.
If the RAM disk is not available by the default system software, then software can be added to perform a similar function.
The linked TIL9334 article mentions some of the alternatives.
Apple's documentation archive has sample code:
https://developer.apple.com/library...on/Intro.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/DTS10000430
I don't know what features the built-in RAM disk functionality has that this other software does not have. The TIL says the built-in solution can save the RAM disk automatically. It is built into the ROM - does that mean it can boot from the RAM disk?
It can boot from the RAM disk if the machine supports it in the Memory control panel: you'd simply copy a boot folder to the RAM disk, go to Startup Disk, select the RAM disk, and reboot.
The built-in one can save to disk, this just means whenever you shutdown it automatically dumps the contents to the internal storage before it shuts down.
The built-in one can save to disk, this just means whenever you shutdown it automatically dumps the contents to the internal storage before it shuts down.
I believe that for some systems, if you performed a soft reboot the contents of the ram disk will stay in memory. The Macintosh Portables and Powerbooks can do that. TIL08090 System 7 Installing on a Macintosh Portable's RAM Disk, TIL12259 Powerbook Settung up to run from a RAM Disk, TIL17699 Resetting the PRAM Causes Loss Of RAM Disk Contents. There are about 20 TIL articles related to RAM disks, search in page for RAM_disk
Back in the day, I used this with my Mac Plus and System 6. Dunno if it was ever updated and working with 7, though.
You could copy a system folder to it, select that as the startup disk, and restart - it would stay loaded and boot from the ram drive.
I should try it again to see if I'm remembering the process right. But I definitely was booted from a RAM disk with that.
RamDisk+ v1.x - Macintosh Repository
RamDisk+ v1.x (Mac abandonware from 1987)
www.macintoshrepository.org
You could copy a system folder to it, select that as the startup disk, and restart - it would stay loaded and boot from the ram drive.
I should try it again to see if I'm remembering the process right. But I definitely was booted from a RAM disk with that.
RAMDisk+ cannot preserve the contents of a RAM disk when a machine is rebooted. Only Q700+ that have the RAM disk allocation in the Memory control panel can do this. What you're probably thinking of is the automatic hot-swapping of the active volume that RAMDisk+ v2 likes to do automatically.
When using System 6 and RAMDisk+ and using the hot-swapping, you have to make sure the same Control Panels and Extensions that you want on the RAM Disk are loaded on the disk based boot drive. You cannot install them after.
On Macs that had no HDD, using a 1.44 MB floppy you can have System 6 and a few Control Panels and Extensions. I used a Zip 100 with a full System 6.0.8 and every Control Panels and Extensions needed because a floppy doesn’t have the needed space. Supposing the Mac still has no HDD installed, once the Zip disk had everything needed I copied the contents to a read-only disk image that mounts on my server and is shared over AppleTalk.
The RAMDisk+ control panel allows you to not only save the contents at shutdown but on boot it allows for automatically copying the items to the RAM disk from the source. In this case the read-only disk image on the server. ( you just check the box to have the share auto mount on boot in the Chooser) It then automatically does the hot swap as well.
This was a big deal on Macs without a Hard Drive providing you can spare the RAM.
On Macs that had no HDD, using a 1.44 MB floppy you can have System 6 and a few Control Panels and Extensions. I used a Zip 100 with a full System 6.0.8 and every Control Panels and Extensions needed because a floppy doesn’t have the needed space. Supposing the Mac still has no HDD installed, once the Zip disk had everything needed I copied the contents to a read-only disk image that mounts on my server and is shared over AppleTalk.
The RAMDisk+ control panel allows you to not only save the contents at shutdown but on boot it allows for automatically copying the items to the RAM disk from the source. In this case the read-only disk image on the server. ( you just check the box to have the share auto mount on boot in the Chooser) It then automatically does the hot swap as well.
This was a big deal on Macs without a Hard Drive providing you can spare the RAM.
