We're developing Java/SpringSource applications with Eclipse on 32-bit Vista machines with 4GB RAM. The OS exposes roughly 3.3GB of RAM due to reservations for hardware etc. in the virtual address space. I came across several Ramdisk drivers that can create a virtual disk from the OS-hidden RAM and am looking for suggestions how best to use the 740MB virtual disk to speed development in our environment.

The slowest part of development for us is compiling as well as launching SpringSource dm Server.

One option is to configure Vista to swap to the Ramdisk. That works, and noticeably speeds up development in low memory situations. However, the 3.3GB available to the OS is often sufficient and there are many situations where we do not use the swap file(s) much.

Another option is to use the Ramdisk as a location for temporary files. Using the Vista mklink command, I created a hard link from where the SpringSource dm Server's work area normally resides to the Ramdisk. That significantly improves server startup times but does nothing for compile times. There are roughly 500MB still free on the Ramdisk when the work directory is fully utilized, so room for plenty more.

What other files/directories might be candidates to place on the Ramdisk? Eclipse-related files? (Parts of) the JDK?

Is there a free/open source tool for Vista that will show me which files are used most frequently during a period of time to reduce the guesswork?