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Most disks (more accurately, volumes) are backed by some sort of permanent storage, such as an optical disc (as in CD and DVD), magnetic hard disk, or flash memory. In all of these cases, the data on the volume will persist after the computer is shut down, because it's been written to permanent storage. (Sometimes that isn't true, but it's very very rare.) A RAM disk, on the other hand, has no permanent storage behind it. The data on the RAM “disk” is stored only in RAM (memory), and will be forgotten at shutdown.
A RAM disk is very, very fast—in fact, it's the fastest disk you can possibly have (without buying an expensive RAID). It's great for things that you need to read or write quickly, especially if you don't need to keep them around. A RAM disk is great for iShowU temp files (see the Storage tab of its preferences). You can also put your Downloads folder (in Safari, Mail, Adium, etc.) on a RAM disk, since you won't always want to keep things you download. Don't leave anything on your RAM disk that you want to keep. As soon as you decide to keep something, copy it to some kind of permanent storage, such as your hard disk (especially if you're on a desktop Mac, since you never know when the power will go out).
Universal Binary
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MajorGeeks TX
Internode
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