XBMC on RAM Disk - Printable Version +- Kodi Community Forum (https://forum.kodi.tv) +-- Forum: Support (https://forum.kodi.tv/forumdisplay.php?fid=33) +--- Forum: General Support (https://forum.kodi.tv/forumdisplay.php?fid=111) +---- Forum: Windows (https://forum.kodi.tv/forumdisplay.php?fid=59) +---- Thread: XBMC on RAM Disk (/showthread.php?tid=143856) |
XBMC on RAM Disk - Palthron - 2012-10-29 Seeing there's no simple how-to for running XBMC on RAM Disk using Microsoft Windows, here's a shot at it. Please note that this is a Work-In-Progress, meaning please be kind to errors. Suggestions are greatly appreciated and immensely needed. What we need 1. Microsoft Windows 2. XBMC Installer, either Stable Release or Nightly Builds 3. ImDisk Virtual Disk Driver by Olof Lagerkvist Steps 1. Install ImDisk Virtual Disk Driver 2. Open the ImDisk applet from Control Panel. 3. Create a new disk by pressing the Mount New button 4. Fill the forms with :
Close the ImDisk window. 5. Run XBMC installer. On the fourth window of the installer, change the default path (C:\Program Files (x86)\XBMC\) to R:\XBMC\ At the end of the installation, untick the Run XBMC check box. 6. From the start menu (Or any other shortcut you intend to run XBMC from), enter the Properties window. 7. At the end of the target box, add -p parameter (do not omit the space in front of it). Press OK. Now you can test run XBMC from the RAM Disk to confirm all is working well. To automatically populate RAM Disk with XBMC program folder at login, do the following : 1. Copy XBMC program folder (R:\XBMC) to, let's say, the root drive of C (C:\XBMC Backup Folder), resulting in a folder structure : C:\XBMC Backup Folder\XBMC 2. Using notepad, paste the following code : Code: echo off Give it a self-explanatory name, such as XBMC on RAMDisk.bat 3. Create a shortcut pointing to the batch file and save it on the startup folder (C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup Do not point the shortcut to the All User startup folder (C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup) as it will execute on another user's login activity, including Guests and RDPs. To backup XBMC to the assigned backup folder and re-run XBMC, do the following : 1. Using notepad, paste the following code : Code: echo off Give it a self-explanatory name, such as XBMC Backup.bat 2. Create a shortcut pointing to the batch file and save it on, say, Desktop or any other place easily reachable. Run this shortcut periodically or before the computer goes off / restarting. To do
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RE: XBMC on RAM Disk - baijuxavior - 2012-10-29 What is the advantage of using RAM disk? RE: XBMC on RAM Disk - Palthron - 2012-10-29 Speed mostly. It's like replacing an HDD to an SSD, but in XBMC terms. And it theoretically reduces wear on mechanical drives and eliminating wake time delay caused by mechanical drives going idle after a certain time of inactivity; or write cycles of SSDs. But speed mostly. RE: XBMC on RAM Disk - Palthron - 2012-10-29 Just experimented with Symbolic Links using Link Shell Extension with normal XBMC installation (Not portable) and it works, survives reboots and all. It uses 2 symbolic links : special://xbmc - C:\Program Files\XBMC OR special://xbmc - C:\Program Files (x86)\XBMC (Windows 64 bit) special://home - C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\XBMC References : XBMC Wiki : Special Protocol RE: XBMC on RAM Disk - LordMerlin - 2012-10-29 Why a garden fence with copying folders when there are normal programs to create a RAM disk, which let you save a disc image and when you turn off the data stored on it and restored when you reboot from it automatically? RE: XBMC on RAM Disk - Palthron - 2012-10-29 Simple reasons, I haven`t found one RAM Disk application that is free and to my liking. Should I put several alternatives to the original post along with each capabilities such as auto backup, compression, etc? UPDATE : Post #8 XBMC on RAM Disk - Symbolic Links - Palthron - 2012-10-30 UNTESTED Using Symbolic Links for normal non-portable installation What we need 1. Microsoft Windows 2. XBMC Installer, either Stable Release or Nightly Builds 3. ImDisk Virtual Disk Driver by Olof Lagerkvist 4. Link Shell Extension Steps 01. Install ImDisk Virtual Disk Driver 02. Install Link Shell Extension 03. Open the ImDisk applet from Control Panel. 04. Create a new disk by pressing the Mount New button 05. Fill the forms with :
Close the ImDisk window. 06. Run XBMC installer. At the end of the installation, tick the Run XBMC check box 07. Let XBMC fully load once, then Exit XBMC. 08. Create a folder on RAM Disk labeled R:\XBMC. 09. Copy folder C:\Program Files\XBMC (Windows 32 bit) or C:\Program Files (x86)\XBMC(Windows 64 bit) to R:\XBMC resulting in R:\XBMC\XBMC 10. Rename R:\XBMC\XBMC to R:\XBMC\Installation Folder 11. Delete (Or backup and rename) folder C:\Program Files\XBMC (Windows 32 bit) or C:\Program Files (x86)\XBMC(Windows 64 bit) 12. Right click on folder R:\XBMC\Installation Folder. Select Pick Link Source 13. Right click on folder C:\Program Files (Windows 32 bit) or C:\Program Files (x86)(Windows 64 bit). Select Drop As... - Symbolic Link 14. Rename the newly created Symbolic Link (C:\Program Files\Installation Folder (Windows 32 bit) or C:\Program Files (x86)\Installation Folder(Windows 64 bit) to C:\Program Files\XBMC (Windows 32 bit) or C:\Program Files (x86)\XBMC(Windows 64 bit) 15. Copy folder C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Roaming\XBMC to R:\XBMC resulting in R:\XBMC\XBMC 16. Rename R:\XBMC\XBMC to R:\XBMC\Configuration Folder 17. Delete (Or backup and rename) folder C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Roaming\XBMC 18. Right click on folder R:\XBMC\Configuration Folder. Select Pick Link Source 19. Right click on folder C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Roaming. Select Drop As... - Symbolic Link 20. Rename the newly created Symbolic Link (C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Roaming\Configuration Folder) to C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Roaming\XBMC To automatically populate RAM Disk with XBMC program folder at login, do the following : 1. Using notepad, paste the following code : Windows 32 bit Code: echo off Windows 64 bit Code: echo off And save it on the backup folder C:\XBMC Backup Folder as a batch file. Give it a self-explanatory name, such as XBMC on RAMDisk.bat 2. Create a shortcut pointing to the batch file and save it on the startup folder (C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup Do not point the shortcut to the All User startup folder (C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup) as it will execute on another user's login activity, including Guests and RDPs. To backup XBMC to the assigned backup folder and re-run XBMC, do the following : 1. Using notepad, paste the following code : Code: echo off Give it a self-explanatory name, such as XBMC Backup.bat 2. Create a shortcut pointing to the batch file and save it on, say, Desktop or any other place easily reachable. Run this shortcut periodically or before the computer goes off / restarting. RE: XBMC on RAM Disk - Palthron - 2012-10-30 RAM Disk softwares (WIP) RE: XBMC on RAM Disk - rumpleforeskin - 2012-10-30 I also employ a Ram Disk to speed up XBMC though in a slightly different way as I only have my thumbnail folder moved to the Ram Disk. I have done this by moving my thumbnail folder from the local XBMC folder and pasting it to the Ram Disk Then I used the mklink command (windows command prompt) which will create a link from the old thumbnail location to the new. This way XBMC still believes that the thumbnail folder in in the original location even though it has been moved to the ramdisk This is the command for creating the symlink (folder junction) mklink /j c:\users\"USERNAME"\appdata\roaming\xbmc\userdata\thumbnails "RAMDISK DRIVE LETTER":\thumbnails replace USERNAME and RAMDISK DRIVE LETTER I use the asrock XfastRAM Ram Disk utility, it has the option to save and load the ramdisk conents automatically at shutdown and reboot. The only downside is that it is limited to users who have an AsRock motherboard. This method basically loads all the artwork to the RAM after a reboot, when in XBMC this significantly speeds up the posters/fanart loading when going into "Movies" or "TV Shows". The downside of this is that after a reboot i need to allow 1 min before launching XBMC for the data to be restored to the ramdisk. This is good for as my XBMC machine only gets a reboot for windows updates every few weeks, the rest of the time it uses sleep, which preserves the data in RAM. RE: XBMC on RAM Disk - LordMerlin - 2012-10-30 Gavotte Ramdisk Free, command line, load image, save image, unmanaged memory usage. RE: XBMC on RAM Disk - Palthron - 2012-10-31 (2012-10-30, 11:49)rumpleforeskin Wrote: I also employ a Ram Disk to speed up XBMC though in a slightly different way as I only have my thumbnail folder moved to the Ram Disk.That's how I did it originally. But since I've been using the Aeon MQ skin (Latest being version 4) and the extrapacks, I chose to backup the whole home folder as the skin itself kept backgrounds etc. on its own folder that sized up to 400MBs or more. I don't know how much impact differences it does to the performance, I just took the easy way. (2012-10-30, 11:49)rumpleforeskin Wrote: I used the mklink command (windows command prompt) which will create a link from the old thumbnail location to the new.MKLink IS a better implementation. Apparently I didn't do enough research. I'll update my post as soon as i experimented with it. Thank you. NB : That is a disturbing username (2012-10-30, 14:14)LordMerlin Wrote: Gavotte RamdiskMany thanks for the reference. I couldn’t find an official website, only references in various forums and newsgroups, e.g. TechSnack. But a quick read indicates a working set of command to mount/unmount image that can be executed from a command line. So maybe I've misunderstood your post. ImDisk does support image creation etc. but i opted for manual xcopy operation so as to easily maintain backups just like an ordinary folder; and rawcopy (the original command to make images from ImDisk) is oddly slower than manually copying folders in and out. Either that or I've missed something in the GUI there. Is this what you meant on your first post? RE: XBMC on RAM Disk - LordMerlin - 2012-10-31 In the utility I offered you can save the image of the RAM disk. This can be done from the GUI or from command line., RamDisk Packer/Utility v1.1 Usage: rdutil {filename|drive:|registry} [filename|registry] rdutil {load|save} filename rdutil unpack packed unpacked rdutil link dir target RE: XBMC on RAM Disk - Livin - 2012-12-14 What is the rela-world speed comparison running RAM Disk vs on an SSD? In other words... is it noticeably faster when navigating and playing/stopping music, videos, scripts, etc? RE: XBMC on RAM Disk - Livin - 2012-12-20 so lots of chit chat but no one has any feedback on their results? RE: XBMC on RAM Disk - Palthron - 2012-12-30 (2012-12-14, 08:17)Livin Wrote: What is the rela-world speed comparison running RAM Disk vs on an SSD? In other words... is it noticeably faster when navigating and playing/stopping music, videos, scripts, etc?Compared with Crucial M4, it's a wee bit faster on startup and the first thumbnails view (On wall view mode), but may not be as feasible if you're already on SSD. Tested on an uninformed user, he said that it is noticeably faster compared to the previous setup (SSD). But to be fair, my SSD is nearly full with only 20GBs free space. NB : MKLinks work wonders, but i haven't got the drive to write a full blown tutorial. |