Windows 7: What's the new Readyboost option?

I am running 7048 on an OLD machine. I can't believe aero even works but it does. 512MB of ram is what this machine has. I plugged in a spare FAST 2GB flash drive and noticed a new option. "Dedicate this device to Readyboost" How is it different from "use this device"? I've looked around....there is not much info on this. Thanks.

Second hit with Google...............

Still applies to Windows 7

And a thread from November........

Windows 7: Readyboost

Thanks for the reply but I still can't find the answer to my question. Maybe I am missing it. What is the difference between "use this device" and "dedicate this device to readyboost" All I can deduct is if you dedicate the device, it allows you to use more than one device. I guess...... Can you use two devices if you pick "use this device"?

Your answer is in the post above, click on his link Windows7 Readyboost

I must be missing it. haha Thanks guys. If anyone knows what it does when you choose "dedicate device" .....let me know.

Hi Nate,

I would assume it "dedicates" the drive to the purpose by formatting the complete device and allocating all to readyboost, That would seem a logical explanation but don't quote me as this is Microsoft Pre-release software, and meanings might change before release.

Yea Thanks Barman. I was just wondering if it formats it to NTFS or what. There is not much info on this. I don't understand why you can't adjust the slider to use all. There is some indication it may have something to do with using the exFAT system. I will wait until more info surfaces to use it. Thanks.

I found this posted somewhere.
Quote -
exFAT (Extended File Allocation Table, aka FAT64) is a proprietary file system suited especially for flash drives, introduced by Microsoft for embedded devices in Windows Embedded CE 6.0 and in their desktop operating system, starting with Windows Vista Service Pack 1.[1] exFAT can be used where the NTFS file system is not a feasible solution, due to data structure overhead.

The advantages over previous File Allocation Table (FAT) file system versions include:

* Scalability to large disk sizes
* Theoretical file size limit of 264 bytes (16 exbibytes), limit raised from 232 bytes (4 gibibytes in FAT32)
* Cluster size of up to 2255 sectors, implementation limit of 32 MB
* Free space allocation and delete performance improved due to introduction of a free space bitmap
* Support for more than 216 files in a single directory
* Support for access control lists (not supported yet in Windows Vista SP1)[2]
* Support for Transaction-Safe FAT File System (TFAT) (optionally WinCE activated function)
* Provision for OEM-definable parameters to customize the file system for specific device characteristics
* Timestamps can be in UTC[3] rather than only local time (starting with Vista SP2)

Additionally, exFAT requires less disk space overhead than NTFS; One reviewer who performed comparative tests found that a 4GB flash drive formatted with NTFS uses 47.2 MB of disk space for overhead, whereas exFAT uses 96 KB.[4]

The disadvantages compared to previous FAT versions include:

* Devices using exFAT will not be able to use Windows Vista SP1's ReadyBoost capability. (Windows 7 supports the new exFAT filesystem with ReadyBoost[citation needed]) [5]
* Licensing status is unclear. However, Microsoft has previously patented portions of the FAT file system.[6]
* Not available for previous versions of Microsoft Windows.[7]

According to user experiments, exFAT formatted drives can be fully used also on Windows XP/2003 systems, by copying two files (uexfat.dll and exfat.sys) from an existing installation into the corresponding folder of Windows XP/2003.[8]

The readyboost device is formatted in ntfs on my PC. Win 7 also allocates the space used automatically when dedicated.

Thanks Romulinx2...are you saying when you chose this option to dedicate it formatted the drive or was it formatted in NTFS before?

Well I formatted it with the default settings then windows allocated the space. It had been used with previous Windows 7 builds.