Virtual PC and RAM disks
I know this subject has been talked to death but I have not been able to find good info on this specific.
Background: I am trying to convert the company I work for to Mac. Mostly because I'm tired of fixing Windows and the owner is sick of things not working.
I use a G4 PB 1.25, 512, and VPC w/ Win XP (when I have to) and yes it is slow but bareable with most of the services disabled. I don't have a copy of Windows 2K and refuse to pirate one.
The Point: I am preparing a virtual pc disk to take the local Apple store and run on a PM Dual 2.3 or 2.7 with 4GB of RAM. We use some windows only software so VPC is a must if there is to be a switch. I searched this forum and found mention of using a RAM disk to give a performance boost to VPC (4 or 5 fold). I found two apps that will create RAM disks but I need more info on an ideal setup for VPC. I talked with an apple rep who said (one of) the best way to run VPC is with no applications in the actual .VPC7 file (disk package) but instead to keep all data on the mac side including applications (program files) and just share the folders in VPC. Sounds like a good idea, but is it? I also planned to created a 1.5GB RAM disk just for the VPC file, allocate 512MB to Windows, and leave 2GB for OS X, anyone have experience doing something similar or could recommend a better option?
Thanks
Background: I am trying to convert the company I work for to Mac. Mostly because I'm tired of fixing Windows and the owner is sick of things not working.
I use a G4 PB 1.25, 512, and VPC w/ Win XP (when I have to) and yes it is slow but bareable with most of the services disabled. I don't have a copy of Windows 2K and refuse to pirate one.
The Point: I am preparing a virtual pc disk to take the local Apple store and run on a PM Dual 2.3 or 2.7 with 4GB of RAM. We use some windows only software so VPC is a must if there is to be a switch. I searched this forum and found mention of using a RAM disk to give a performance boost to VPC (4 or 5 fold). I found two apps that will create RAM disks but I need more info on an ideal setup for VPC. I talked with an apple rep who said (one of) the best way to run VPC is with no applications in the actual .VPC7 file (disk package) but instead to keep all data on the mac side including applications (program files) and just share the folders in VPC. Sounds like a good idea, but is it? I also planned to created a 1.5GB RAM disk just for the VPC file, allocate 512MB to Windows, and leave 2GB for OS X, anyone have experience doing something similar or could recommend a better option?
Thanks
Comments
Originally posted by octane
I searched this forum and found mention of using a RAM disk to give a performance boost to VPC (4 or 5 fold). I found two apps that will create RAM disks but I need more info on an ideal setup for VPC. I also planned to created a 1.5GB RAM disk just for the VPC file, allocate 512MB to Windows, and leave 2GB for OS X, anyone have experience doing something similar or could recommend a better option?
Thanks
I'd be very interested to see how your test goes. In general, one wouldn't think that a RAM disk in a Mach/BSD system would do much good, as the VM would eventually have the entire VPC loaded into RAM anyway, if you packed the machine full of physical RAM. Mach will try and use up every bit of physical RAM that you give it, as a matter of design. At that point, the RAM disk actually is a hindrance, because you are transferring data from one part of RAM to another for no reason.
But I have not tried using any RAM disk in OS X so I'd be curious.