XFast Ram on WHS 2011 unused 8 GB?

[JeffRH]

I am running Windows Home Server 2011 with 16 GB of Corsair Vengence RAM. But as I found out, WHS only utilizes 8GB of RAM. So I have 8GB wasted. I thought I could use ASRock XFast RAM to utilize that unused RAM. But when I setup the XFast RAM, it uses part of the 8GB that the WHS is using. Is it possible to have it use the unused 8GB for the XFast RAM?

Thanks
Jeff

H77 Pro4-M

[parsec]

Re: XFast Ram on WHS 2011 unused 8 GB?

First, ASRock states that the wasted memory feature works with 32bit OS's. I've never used a 32 bit OS with XFast RAM, so I'm not 100% sure how it works.

The main question is does WHS 2011 see the 16GB of memory? Does it recognize it? I assume the UEFI/BIOS sees it. If WHS only reports 8GB to XFast RAM, then it cannot use what it is not aware of. 32 bit Windows will see the memory beyond 4GB, but cannot use it.

Unless someone knows how this is otherwise done, I don't think you can.

[JeffRH]

Re: XFast Ram on WHS 2011 unused 8 GB?

Thanks for your reply parsec. In WHS system info it say 16 GB (8 useable). If you go into task manager, resources, memory tab, it shows the 8 GB unused in a gray bar. So it knows it's there. But you are right that ASRock does say it can use the unused memory on a 32 bit system. WHS 2011 is a 64 bit system with a self imposed memory limit of 8 GB. Would be great to use that unused 8 GB though!

[parsec]

Re: XFast Ram on WHS 2011 unused 8 GB?

Oh great, even worse actually. Windows sees the extra memory, but apparently XFast RAM does not. I really wonder how that works?

To bad, as the XFast RAM disk works well in my experience. I have it set for temporary files, and for the Windows page file. When I set it up and started it, it set the page file to the RAM disk, set the size given how much space I gave the RAM disk (4196MB), all automatically. It maintains itself after a complete shutdown. It's also very fast, much faster than any SSD or SSDs in RAID 0, not a surprise but fun to see. Really a nice feature. I wonder if they can fix this, since I can't see any way to configure it to find your extra memory.

[JeffRH]

Re: XFast Ram on WHS 2011 unused 8 GB?

Maybe I can send in some kind of request to have them take a look at it. I would really like to take advantage of that 8 GB just sitting there.

What would be really incredible is if they could imlement the XFast RAM at the BIOS level so your OS woundn't even know about the memory being used, and your OS would see the RAM drive as just another AHCI drive. Actully that is how I thought it worked when I first heard about it, but later realized it is just an app.

[profJim]

Re: XFast Ram on WHS 2011 unused 8 GB?

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[parsec]

Re: XFast Ram on WHS 2011 unused 8 GB?

Maybe I can send in some kind of request to have them take a look at it. I would really like to take advantage of that 8 GB just sitting there.

What would be really incredible is if they could imlement the XFast RAM at the BIOS level so your OS woundn't even know about the memory being used, and your OS would see the RAM drive as just another AHCI drive. Actully that is how I thought it worked when I first heard about it, but later realized it is just an app.

It's close to working that way, Windows sees it as a drive, and listed my usual drivers (RAID at that!) in that "drive's" properties. I dragged and dropped files and folders onto it. I have some huge tiff image files that usually take a second or two to load, but on the RAM disk it's instant.

Disk Management lists it, but it is FAT32 format, and some of the usual option are not available. Device Manager sees it as a SCSI disk.