Moving .bsa Files To Ramdisk

[RoyBatty]

NVAC removes the 255 char limit btw.

[commoner31]

I dont know if this is obvious, but you dont need Link Shell Extensions to make this work.

Of course its a viable option, I merely mean to suggest an alternative.

If you are using Windows Vista or newer you can create symbolic links natively using mklink

Its an option for people who would rather not install 3rd party software and are comfortable using CMD.

An example of the syntax appears as follows:

mklink "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Fallout New Vegas\Data\MyBSA.bsa" "F:\FileLocatedOnRamdisk\MyBSA.bsa"

 

 

[RoyBatty]

symlinks are a feature also in XP.

It's also best to use a junction for that type of stuff.

 

[commoner31]

Well, if you wanted to softlink directories mklink can do that as well.

mklink /d "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Fallout New Vegas\Data" "F:\FileLocatedOnRamdisk\"

Of course, that would redirect your entire data drive, which may not be desirable.

If you wanted to, say, only have 1 or 2 bsa in the ramdisk, then a direct file symbolic can be desired.

And although XPs implementation of NTFS did support symlinks and junctions, there wasnt an easy to use native tool in the OS to manipulate them.

Thats why tools like the shell extension mentioned above are so neat.

mklink is native Vista and onward and felt it'd be nice to mention it.

I use it a couple dozen times a month in my profession to do this and that.

Its very useful when tricking applications into thinking their config files are on a local disk, and not on a central file server somewhere.

 

[FiftyTifty]

Creating direct .bsa symbolic links does not work with New Vegas, Fallout 3 and Oblivion. Skyrim works fine with them, and I think Morrowind does too.

Also, using symbolic links for .esm files for any of Bethesda's games will cause the game to crash; it does so for the vanilla .esm files, anyway.

Junctions mitigate all these problems.

 

I recommended Link Shell Extension because it saves a bunch of bother. No need to faff around with command prompt.

[commoner31]

I completely understand where you are coming from.

Odd though, I used mklink to redirect my bigger game archive files to "Faster" drives and RAMDISKs before I replaced everything with SSDs and stopped bothering.

I had not had any issues.  Tested with FO3, Skyrim, and FNV.

Did this with Civ4 as well, which if memory serves, also used Gamebryo.

I wouldnt have suggested anything I hadnt tried for myself.

Though I concede to experts here.  If others had issues then its obviously not a reliable solution.

However, command prompt is not Faffy!  My drive balancing scripts were very elegant!  I promise!

Pure push button sexiness.

[RoyBatty]

For me it wouldn't work at all without using a junction. Other tools like FNVEdit and GECK will also throw a fit if it's not a junction.

 

[lustephelon]

Iffin your going to do this command prompt style..  you might wanna write things up in notepad (or equiv) so you can turn it into a batch file. 

I haven't tried a RAMdisk on TTW/FO#/FPNV yet. but i have used it on some other programs, and it does help 'stuttering' do to drive access a lot.  Now that I have an SSD my stuttering while still occasional, is 80%+ improved and so I've been at the living with it stage.  I might consider trying the RAMdisk to see how it goes. 

[TJ]

So you're wanting the game to dump your RAM to HDD when you run out of RAM, then have an external component come in behind it and ..... move it back to RAM?

 

Sounds to me like that's not gonna work out so well.

[RoyBatty]

The stuff in configurator is all a bunch of bullshit, you should delete that "utility".