| | | Can a ram disk be used to test an image?
Yes and no.
For the "Yes" part, one can restore an image to a RAM drive. Before writing this answer, I did just that, using Microsoft's ImageX software. After restoring, I compared the contents of the RAM volume with the conventional disk volume I used for testing. They were identical.
I'm assuming that doing this successfully would meet most requirements for testing an image. If the image was defective, I'd expect the restoration would fail, or at the least issue a warning.
For the "No" part, I must point out that without actually running the system after it's been restored one cannot be totally confident that the operation has been successful.
Here, the difficulty lies not with the restoration operation, but instead, with getting Windows to run from a RAM disk. Since most RAM disks are created as Windows starts, (or shortly after) we're stuck with a timing challenge: Windows cannot run from a disk that needs a running Windows for its creation.
Hope this helps.
Cheers, PW.
P.S. Windows PE is a special case. Here, after the system boots using an alternate media (like a Windows Installation DVD) a RAM Disk is created and the Windows Preinstalled Environment is written to this RAM Disk. Once this completes, control is passed to Windows PE.
When one boots from a Windows installation DVD, one of the first things that happens is they see a message telling them that Windows is loading files. This message is accompanied by some progress graphics. Once this step completes, the installation continues. Extracting the Image to the RAM disk is what's taking place during this step.
If one examines the contents of a Windows installation DVD, they'll see a large file Boot.WIM
Boot.WIM contains the Windows PE image that will be placed on the RAM Disk. |
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