Windows 7: Is it possible to boot windows from a ram disk?

Hi there

1) a RAM disk is only "persistent" until the computer is powered off so the RAM disk needs to be initially loaded from some physical device first.

2) The well known Hirens boot cd can be booted from a USB stick.
The "Mini XP" system on it is loaded on to a RAM disk which is then the Windows system drive. Once booted you can remove the USB stick. Windows XP runs from the RAM disk.

3) Since some versions of Hirens boot CD contain proprietary software you'll have to search out links yourself but it does what you need once the system has booted.

Some Linux Live distros work like that too.

cheers
jimbo

"My Dell Mini 9 Netbook only had an 8GB SSD and I was able to load Windows 7 Professional on it"

As noted, I don't speak Windows 7, so I couldn't be sure, but I thought 36GB sounded like a whole lot for any operating system. Aside from anything else, how would they distribute it, since that is bigger than any convenient portable memory? We would be back to the days of a handful of floppy discs, but now it would be a handful of DVD's:-(