OS X (Panther) Ram Disk for iBook G4 (Do I need one?)

O

One Sick Puppy

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1) I've done some Googling on the topic and my understanding is that, for the most part, OS X makes RAM disks obsolete.

However, as mentioned in one of the articles, one reason why one would want a RAM disk in OS X (and this is my main conern here) is particularly to conerve battery power.

For me, when I'm at school taking notes, I'm generally only using MS Word, but during the course of a lecture, I may need to load up other programs. So, instead of loading up MS Word first, then later on waking up the hard drive to simply get another program, only to do it yet again later on, wouldn't I be better to set a RAM disk with my most frequently used programs and not access the HDD at all during a lecture (except for the bootup)?

2) If I attach a USB flash drive to my iBook G4 to store my documents, might it be practical for me, if I had a RAM disk, to load the contents of my USB flash drive to a RAM disk for faster access and less power? (I realize that my USB flash drive is RAM so it's probably not going to use much power, but I figured I'd ask anyway).

3) If RAM disks are not practical, how about storing my programs and documents on a USB flash drive? How about OS X on a flash drive?

Thanks!
 
OS X does not give you an option to set up a RAM Disk.

First, while you are working in Word, the hard drive is not sleeping. You can set up your book to launch at start up all the programs you need... then use Expose to bring one or the other to the front... or use the hide command... then use the dock to click on the program you want up front. I would not install the OS on the flash drive. It gets its power from the USB port and the system folder will be using space as you have to start up the book for the USB port to get power.

And there are some programs that need to install more files than just the .app. There may be files installed in the system, library, etc. Depending on the program will depend if it can run installed in a place other than the application folder in the hard drive.

And you are using battery power when you save, either to the hard drive or the USB flash drive. Your best way is to set up folders in your document folder for each class. When you start notes for one class, get new document, type in the date, then save to its folder.

And if you use the flash drive, make sure it is tied to your wrist so you don't loose it.
 
There is a significant problem with any RAM disk -- it occupies RAM memory in your computer. Because it occupies RAM, it forces the system to pageout and pagein far sooner and far more often than the system would otherwise need to. The end result most likely will be to degrade the overall system performance.

RAM disks were sometimes useful in the classic Mac OS running on relatively slow computers with lots of RAM and their relatively inefficient VM turned off. Their use on today's faster machines running OS X, with its very efficient VM, is highly questionable except in very limited circumstances.
 
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