For the booting from RAM some new "terms" and "phenomena" are in order and it may be good to know which is named what.
RAM-OS Disk : The HDD provided by Phasure, that comtaining an internal layout and boot structure which allows for "multi-boot" hence more than one Operating System stored in it, all under control of the XXHighEnd Boot Menu.
XXHighEnd Boot Menu : A menu showing the Operating Systems stored in the RAM-OS disk with several options for Booting, Repair, Adding and Removing of Operating Systems :
Disk : Not formal, but commonly used within XXHighEnd and forums : a storage medium which can hold files. It is to be explicitly noted that "disk" as such can refer to any such medium, like a hard disk drive (HDD), a solid state disk (SSD) or even an USB Flash Drive and probably more.
It is thus best to see the Disk as "general storage" medium, while the specific media like HDD, SSD - are just that more specifically.
RAM : Random Access Memory.
In the end this is just our internal memory (like the "16 GB" we often have in the PC).
Persistent Storage : Normally not in order much, although part of our every day use;
It is all what is capable of holding data without the necessity of power to let that data sustain. Generally speaking we could say that it is all but Internal Memory (RAM).
External Storage : It is allowed to think this is just the same as Persistent Storage. However, in today's XXHighEnd usage and the RAM-OS, we might refer to External Storage as storage which normally is not mounted and readily present. It is thus the BASE Disk we removed from the system due to SQ reasons and which is possible because we booted from RAM.
RAMDisk : A Disk which is emulated in RAM (in Internal Memory). It can have a Drive Letter as usual and functionally we can see a volume and file structure and all, as if it is a normal Disk.
The data on the RAMDisk is always volatile, hence is not persistent. If it looks to be persistent, it is software which makes you think it is, like under the hood copying its contents to Persistent Storage and copy that back later (at a next boot). It is the most different from "booting from RAM".
Volume : A logical unit or entity that contains files (or at least can do that) with a name and unique identifier (usually a Drive Letter) in the system. One volume can hold one Partition.
Partition : Can be regarded the same as a Volume but implies better that it can occupy only part of a Disk.
Notice : when we are this far in understanding, we can see that a computer system can hold Disks, a Disk holds Partitions (at least one), a Partition holds files and a file
can hold an Operating System. This latter is unusual for us, but RAM-OS is all about that.
Boot (noun) : The Operating System with capability to run, usually denoted by an Operating System Name. Thus, in the screen shot above you e.g. see a W10-10074 Boot, meaning an Operating System which is not only installed somewhere but which can physically start and run.
To Boot (verb) : The start up of an Operating System. Thus we can boot an OS (start the OS) and we can also reboot an OS (start it again from a state it's already running - thus shut down and restart in one functional activity).
Be aware of the fact that an Operating System needs more than the Operating System itself, in order to be able to boot. For example, the TRIAL OS you see in the screen shot above needs to be "a partition" with boot capabilities plus a "bootstrap" method (sequence of data to read and process in order to let the system start).
The BASE OSes you see reside in a file which can be regarded a partition, but still is a normal file *in* a partition *and* it needs the bootstrap capabilities.
The RAM OSes you see have a very special bootstrap procedure that copies the BASE OS to RAM and from there continues with the bootstrap procedure.
BASE Disk : The HDD or SSD containing the Operating Systems like you saw in the above screen shot. It must be mounted before any of its BASE Volumes can be reached.
BASE Disk can be regarded an acronym for RAM-OS Disk or at least it is the same phenomenon. "RAM-OS" as such can be regarded a kind of Phasure Trademark.
BASE Volume : Say a Partition holding an Operating System. More of them can exist on a BASE Disk. An example is the W10-10074 BASE you see in above screen shot.
RAM Boot : A term which is not explicitly used in the Program but is in order anyway, once the OS of concern has been booted from RAM. An example is the W10-10074 RAM Memory you see in the screen shot above.
The "Memory" you see behind the "RAM" lines, is superfluous (redundant) and is added by XXHighEnd. Thus, might you yourself have named these OS Menu Entries, then you had named them like W10-10074 RAM. This is just your indication "hey, this is my RAM entry". XXHighEnd added the "Memory" because it has detected that it runs from Memory (RAM).
TRIAL : The one and only normal volume on the BASE Disk. FYI : If the BASE Disk is phyically 500GB then the TRIAL volume can be that size too (its partition is - or can be as large as the Disk), but anyway it is about the fact that all of the other OSes are contained *within* that TRIAL version as "files" (insiders are allowed to think these are virtual OSes, but in the end they are not.
Operating System File (OS File) : A file, holding a complete Operating System, usually in a so-called Virtual Hard Disk;
Several of these type of files exist for Windows, each with their own "properties"; The fact that today one of the file types is used by XXHighEnd (with .vhd extension), does not tell this will never change. Anyway the file type used is used for its technical and functional reasons.
Virtualized Operating System : An operating System which is emulated within another Operating System. This is
not used in/by XXHighEnd. We notice it though, because of avoiding confusion, also knowing that Virtual Hard Disk Files normally are - or can be used for that "virtualizing" purpose.
