Hi Oluf
Of course this makes no sense. You cannot use the -f .awealloc syntax unless awealloc is started. And if it is started, it would never affect anything else with imdisk or any other driver unless you use the .awealloc syntax somewhere to access it.
Yes, when reading your earlier answer, that was also my first thought, that the awealloc driver must be started in order to be used.
The awealloc and imdisk drivers are completely different things for different purposes. ImDisk is a virtual disk driver and awealloc is a driver that allocates AWE memory to emulate a file.
But when testing it on my Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit I actually did get the
opposite results, as told above
So there must have been some other problem around there.
Yes/maybe/probably -
But what???
I really want to find out why it's the opposite on my computer, and maybe you can guess it, reading my documentation of what I tested, and as you can see, I have never used bcdedit to change my boot settings neither about AWE or PAE.
So to show you what happened, I executed this command line script on my Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit computer with 8GB RAM, being a lokal administrator:
@echo.
bcdedit /enum
@echo.
systeminfo
@echo.
dir /A:h pagefile.sys
@echo.
@echo Installing imdisk manually only using IndiskInst.exe and receiving the 7z msgbox about installation OK
@echo.
pause
@echo.
net start awealloc
@echo.
wmic os get TotalVisibleMemorySize,FreePhysicalMemory
@echo.
imdisk -a -f .awealloc -s 14G -m R: -p "/fs:ntfs /q /y"
@echo.
ImDisk.exe -a -t vm -m R: -o rw,fix,hd -s 14G -p "/FS:NTFS /q /y"
@echo.
wmic os get TotalVisibleMemorySize,FreePhysicalMemory
@echo.
imdisk -d -m R:
@echo.
ImDisk.exe -a -t vm -m Z: -o rw,fix,hd -s 15G -p "/FS:NTFS /q /y"
@echo.
imdisk -d -m R:
@echo.
@echo Uninstalling imdisk manually using control panel, and can't do another install without a reboot
@echo.
pause
And the the Danish results is translated by me:
C:>bcdedit /enum
Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
id {bootmgr}
device partition=DeviceHarddiskVolume1
description Windows Boot Manager
locale da-DK
inherit {globalsettings}
extendedinput Yes
default {current}
resumeobject {b1486731-1460-11e1-883c-2c27d73fe19c}
displayorder {current}
toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}
timeout 30
customactions 0x1000085000001
0x5400000f
custom:5400000f {c6676e76-14aa-11e1-8efd-2c27d73fe19c}
Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
id {current}
device partition=C:
path Windowssystem32winload.exe
description Windows 7
locale da-DK
inherit {bootloadersettings}
recoverysequence {c6676e76-14aa-11e1-8efd-2c27d73fe19c}
recoveryenabled Yes
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot Windows
resumeobject {b1486731-1460-11e1-883c-2c27d73fe19c}
nx OptIn
C:>systeminfo
Hostname: ***** <my computername> *****
OS-name: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium
OS-version: 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601
OS-vendor: Microsoft Corporation
OS-configuration: Separat arbejdsstation
Operatingsysystems build-type: Multiprocessor Free
Registrated owner: ***** <my username> *****
Registrated organisation: Hewlett-Packard Company
Product-id: 00359-OEM-8992687-00010
First installations date: 21-11-2011, 17:45:00
Systems starting time: 29-07-2012, 21:17:59
System vendor: Hewlett-Packard
System model: G5470sc
System type: x64-based PC
Processors: 1 processor(er) er installeret.
[01]: Intel64 Family 6 Model 42 Stepping 7 GenuineIntel ~3100 Mhz
BIOS-version: AMI 7.14, 21-10-2011
Windows-folder: C:Windows
System folder: C:Windowssystem32
Starting device: DeviceHarddiskVolume1
Systems country standard: da;Danish
Country standard: da;Danish
Timezone: (UTC+01:00) Copenhagen, Stockholm, Oslo, Madrid, Paris
Total physical memory: 8.173 MB
Free physical memory: 6.679 MB
Virtual memory: max. size: 6.346 MB
Virtual memory: avaiable: 14.747 MB
Virtual memory: used: 1.599 MB
Pagefile folder: C:pagefile.sys
Domain: WORKGROUP
C:>dir /A:h pagefile.sys
Content of C:
29-07-2012 21:18 8.569.835.520 pagefile.sys
1 fil(e) 8.569.835.520 bytes
0 folder® 487.940.034.560 bytes free
---------> Installing imdisk manually only using IndiskInst.exe and receiving the 7z msgbox about installation OK <----------
C:>pause
C:>net start awealloc
The AWE Memory Allocation Driver service is started.
C:>wmic os get TotalVisibleMemorySize,FreePhysicalMemory
FreePhysicalMemory TotalVisibleMemorySize
6779824 8368980
C:>imdisk -a -f .awealloc -s 14G -m R: -p "/fs:ntfs /q /y"
Creating device...
Error creating virtual disk:
There is not enough free memory using this command.
C:>ImDisk.exe -a -t vm -m R: -o rw,fix,hd -s 14G -p "/FS:NTFS /q /y"
Creating device...
Created device 0: R: -> VM image
Formatting disk...
Filsystemtype is RAW.
The new filsystemtype is NTFS.
Expressformatting 14336 MB
The disk device is not conneted. All open handles to this disk device is now not valid.
Creating system structures.
The formatting is now finished
14,0 GB total disk size
13,9 GB free to use
Notifying applications...
Done.
C:>wmic os get TotalVisibleMemorySize,FreePhysicalMemory
FreePhysicalMemory TotalVisibleMemorySize
6717464 8368980
C:>imdisk -d -m R:
Notifying applications...
Flushing file buffers...
Locking volume...
Dismounting filesystem...
Removing device...
Removing mountpoint...
Done.
C:>ImDisk.exe -a -t vm -m Z: -o rw,fix,hd -s 15G -p "/FS:NTFS /q /y"
Creating device...
Error creating virtual disk:
There is not enough free memory using this command.
C:>imdisk -d -m R:
Notifying applications...
Flushing file buffers...
Locking volume...
Dismounting filesystem...
Removing device...
Removing mountpoint...
Done.
---------> Uninstalling imdisk manually using control panel <----------
As you can see my free RAM was only minimized with 62360 bytes when mounting and formatting 14 GB
without using .aweallocBut I can't show you the next without a reboot after the uninstall, because I get error when trying to do a new re-install.
So I'm rebooting my computer, and executed this command line script on the same Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit computer with 8GB RAM, being a lokal administrator:
----------> Installing imdisk only using your install.cmd with among others - rundll32 setupapi.dll,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 132 .imdisk.inf <----------
pause
@echo.
net start imdsksvc
@echo.
net start imdisk
@echo.
net stop awealloc
@echo.
imdisk -a -f .awealloc -s 6G -m R: -p "/fs:ntfs /q /y"
@echo.
net start awealloc
@echo.
wmic os get TotalVisibleMemorySize,FreePhysicalMemory
@echo.
imdisk -a -f .awealloc -s 6G -m R: -p "/fs:ntfs /q /y"
@echo.
wmic os get TotalVisibleMemorySize,FreePhysicalMemory
@echo.
imdisk -d -m R:
@echo.
imdisk -a -f .awealloc -s 7G -m R: -p "/fs:ntfs /q /y"
@echo.
net stop awealloc
@echo.
imdisk -a -f .awealloc -s 14G -m R: -p "/fs:ntfs /q /y"
@echo.
imdisk -d -m R:
@echo.
net start awealloc
@echo.
imdisk -a -f .awealloc -s 14G -m R: -p "/fs:ntfs /q /y"
The result of this was:
C:>net start imdsksvc
The specified service is already started.
C:>net start imdisk
The specified service is already started.
C:>net stop awealloc
The AWE Memory Allocation Driver service is not started
C:>imdisk -a -f .awealloc -s 6G -m R: -p "/fs:ntfs /q /y"
Creating device...
Error creating virtual dis: The specified file is not found.
C:>net start awealloc
The AWE Memory Allocation Driver service is started
C:>wmic os get TotalVisibleMemorySize,FreePhysicalMemory
FreePhysicalMemory TotalVisibleMemorySize
6744488 8368980
C:>imdisk -a -f .awealloc -s 6G -m R: -p "/fs:ntfs /q /y"
Creating device...
Created device 0: R: -> .awealloc
Formatting disk...
Filsystemtype is RAW.
The new filsystemtype is NTFS.
Expressformatting 6144MB
The disk device is not conneted. All open handles to this disk device is now not valid.
Creating system structures.
The formatting is now finished
6,0 GB total disk size.
6,0 GB free to use
Notifying applications...
Done.
C:>wmic os get TotalVisibleMemorySize,FreePhysicalMemory
FreePhysicalMemory TotalVisibleMemorySize
1082948 8368980
C:>imdisk -d -m R:
Notifying applications...
Flushing file buffers...
Locking volume...
Dismounting filesystem...
Removing device...
Removing mountpoint...
Done.
C:>imdisk -a -f .awealloc -s 7G -m R: -p "/fs:ntfs /q /y"
Creating device...
Created device 0: R: -> .awealloc
Formatting disk...
Filsystemtype is RAW.
The new filsystemtype is NTFS.
Expressformatting 7168
The disk device is not conneted. All open handles to this disk device is now not valid.
Creating system structures.
The formatting is now finished
7,0 GB total disk size.
7,0 GB free to use
Notifying applications...
Done.
C:>net stop awealloc
The AWE Memory Allocation Driver service is stopping........
The AWE Memory Allocation Driver service could not stop.
C:>imdisk -a -f .awealloc -s 14G -m R: -p "/fs:ntfs /q /y"
Creating device...
Error creating virtual disk: The specified file was not found.
C:>imdisk -d -m R:
Notifying applications...
Flushing file buffers...
Locking volume...
Dismounting filesystem...
Removing device...
Removing mountpoint...
Done.
Please note that I lost 5661540 bytes of free physical RAM with this test.
I'm sure the same test on your server version will create another result, but the above is what happened on my computer.
Edited by TrywareDk, 29 July 2012 - 08:28 PM.