Is a RAM Drive Useful?

[Anonymous]

I'm running Windows XP and ArchiCAD 12. After every auto-save my hard drive goes nuts for about 10 seconds on its own. I'm guessing that it is writing temp files. I have heard that a program can only address 2GB of RAM. Assuming all this is true, since I have 3.5GB of RAM, would it be any advantage to me to set up a RAM Drive and point my temporary file paths there?

[Karl Ottenstein]

Hi Jay,

Actually, there is a /3GB switch you can use with XP's boot.ini file to address more memory. And, it is more likely that you will run out of temp space by allocating a RAM drive, I think, and then get yet another problem.

The 'rats in the attic' after an autosave isn't normal. I'm wondering if your disk partitions are heavily fragmented? Do you defrag regularly?

Cheers,
Karl