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DESCRIPTION
Esperance DV is a prefpane for System Preferences for creating a RAM Disk. The object is to place the temporary files such as the mask of a navigator, the Builds files & Intermediates xCode's, etc... A RAM Disk is the use of a part of read-write memory (RAM) as a hard disk.
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WHAT'S NEW
Version 2.3.2: Fix assistant bug when uninstall Espérance DV.
REQUIREMENTS
Mac OS X 10.3 or later.

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SCREENSHOT

Developer:Michael Parrot
Downloads:12,609
  - Version d/l:8,110
Utilities:System
License:Free
Date:03 Jun 2006
Platform:PPC/Intel
RATING
*****
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    Esperance DV User Reviews (11 posts)Write A Review
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    Jun 5 2009

    DIMAVS  There is a bug for more than 4 GB memory. My MBP got 6GB of memory and application shows -2GB available and slider is only from 0 to 16MB  
    (Version 2.3.2)

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    Dec 24 2008

    PHILLMAN5  The comment below is misleading. It looks to me the RamDisk size can be quite large, at least 1/2 of physical RAM. The slider starts at 16 MB, it doesn't end there.  
    (Version 2.3.2)

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    Nov 28 2007

    PIXELFILMS  This is a question for Michael Parrot.

    Is there a way to create a RAM Disk larger than 16 MB if I have 4.5 GB of RAM in my Mac? (16 MB seems small for an upper limit). Thanks.  
    (Version 2.3.2)

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    Nov 28 2007

    MACUPDATE ADMIN  The developer's support webpage is here:

    http://www.mparrot.net/index.php?page=support&lang=en  
    (Version 2.3.2)

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    Jul 15 2007

    JETFIREDX  Cool little tool now that I have a pretty large amount of memory. Reminds me of the RAM: drive on the Amiga. Is there a way you could have the disk dynamically change size to the amount of free unused memory in the system? That way, you don't have to create a disk of a set size, it is just there and able to hold as much stuff as you have free ram...if the OS needs more memory, it takes it and the disk loses free space to the point that it is "full" if you have files copied in there. (Then it really would be like the RAM: drive on the Amiga.)   
    (Version 2.3.2)

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    Apr 30 2006
    *****

    ð BORN YETERDAY ð  My hats off to an amazing little pref.pane that doesn exactly as it should, create a Ram Disk on the fly!

    I backup the ramdisk contents using DropDMG to create disk image of it, and just copy it's contents back onto the Ram disk as needed.

    So nice to have a super fast scratch disk again!

    And for free!!!

    Many thanks!!!!  
    (Version 2.3.1)

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    Apr 30 2006

    WINGK1314  Is there a way for the files inside the ram drive to stay after a shut down or restart?

    I really want to keep some specific programs/files in it but having to re-copy them every time is quite a hassle especially when i use those files often.  
    (Version 2.3.1)

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    Jun 3 2005

    ANONYMOUS  Be careful. The installer creates the prefPane with world-writeable permissions. You may want to run 'chmod o-w /Library/PreferencePanes/*' after installing it.  
    (Version 2.1)

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    Jun 2 2005

    ANONYMOUS  to Anonymous:

    You load an application into a Ram Disk and it runs ultra fast  
    (Version 2.1)

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    Mar 4 2006

    BLAZEDRAGON555  What do you mean by that? Do you put an application into the disk image and the applications runs really fast?  
    (Version 2.3)

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    Jun 3 2006

    IANWEIR  Not so much runs fast as launches fast. A lot of load time is putting it into memory, so if it's on a RAM disk, it's already in memory. It won't effect the speed much (if at all) once the program is launched, but it will speed up your launch times a lot.  
    (Version 2.3.2)

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    Nov 19 2004
    ****½

    LOU KASH  Works good for Safari cache.

    Unfortunately, unlike in OS 9, the Seti@Home screensaver doesn't support moving its data files to another location (i.e. to a RAM disk) using a folder alias (or a symlink), but obviously this is not Esperance's fault.

    Generally, I had some troubles to change the settings in Esperance DV. I had to delete the disk image manually and log out and in a couple of times until it did what I wanted... But that's okay, it's free after all.  
    (Version 2.0)

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    Nov 19 2004

    MICHAëL PARROT  You can make symbolic link for dupe Seti.

    Yes, Esperance DV is not perfect (with save and restore functions) but is not because is free...  
    (Version 2.0)

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    Nov 19 2004

    MICHAëL PARROT  Use DiskUtility for eject, no logout...

    Note : Esperance DV update UI only on load. (not by click on prefs window)...  
    (Version 2.0)

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    Nov 18 2004

    ANONYMOUS  Anyone care to explain what this is used for to someone that doesn't quite get it? I understand using RAM as storage space but why do you need to get to these files? Doesn't X Code take care of everything it needs to do? I'm just curious. I'm assuming its one of those "if you dont know then you dont need it" things.  
    (Version 2.0)

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    Nov 18 2004

    YOUALPA & DEAD YANKEES IN IRAQ  I suppose you wasn't using Macs in the old days, or were you? Anyway, if you don't know what it is and what it can be good for, the key is that accessing your computer's RAM is always way faster than accessing your hard drive, no matter how fast this latter can be. The down of it is that Unix-based systems cannot take fully advantage of something like a RAM disk the way Mac pre-OSX systems did, due to the way they manage memory.  
    (Version 2.0)

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    Apr 25 2005

    YOUALPA AND DEAD MUSLIMS IN IRAQ  You can also run things off of the Ram disk so that you don't have to access the hard drive, thus saving battery power on a laptop.  
    (Version 2.0)

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    View all 11 posts >>