Windows 7: Before using ReadyBoost...

I am thinking of using ReadyBoost to see if it will augment an old pc with 3gb ram Windows 7 x32 (old pc Asus AMD K8 3Ghz, ATI 256mb agp card) just to see if there will be a significant change or not. I have read the lengthy post about it and that got me interested really. Is there like a resource monitor or something that I can see how ReadyBoost is working or if it is working other than say, see if the usb is blinking...?



I am planning on using an idle Imation 8gb usb for it. All of it dedicated to ReadyBoost.

Any tips that I need to know or do prior trying it out..?

Any things that I need to look-out for?

How about logging-off and shutdown time? Will it be affected? I have made the registry tweak based on the tips here (from the default to 4 seconds). I was wondering how will it affect logging-off...

Can I leave the usb stick there and not remove it? If I leave it and I boot to XP(I bios boot Windows 7 and XP sp3 --separate hdd's), are there any issues that I need to know?

Appreciate the tips guys and thank you!

I doubt you'll notice much, if any difference if you already have 3GB RAM installed. It has helped me a little bit on my netbook with 1GB RAM installed though. I use a 4GB class 10 SDHC card for the ReadyBoost.

Can I use 2 usb sticks at the same time with ReadyBoost? Or does Windows 7 just allows one stick?

That's a good question....I don't know.

Hello M,

I cannot try it, but the link below claims that Windows 7 enables the use of up to 8 flash drives at once, allowing up to 9 parallel sources.

You could give it a try and see. Please let us know how it went.

http://www.google.com/url?url=http:/...ed=0CFoQygQwAA

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Windows 7 will use as many USB drives simultaneously for ReadyBoost as you're physically able to connect to your PC. That includes regular USB sticks, SD cards, anything you can throw at it.

this is correct

So w/ USB 2.0 I could hook up 128, lets say 32GB flash sicks, and pump in plenty of power to the multi-multi-multi... fanned-out hubs. bet that would be interesting to see in action

Food for thought,
"Mike" playing the role of "Mike"

EDIT: talk about bandwith! I'm guessing thats just under 1/2 a Gb/s TOTAL reguardless of the stick speed, since that would be the limiting factor.

Now that WOULD be cool...basically a DIY SSD using parallelization through multiple USB sticks.

Hi all,

Thanks for the responses here! I really appreciate it. Okay I will try to use 2 usb sticks at eh same time. Am suing one 4gb usb stick for ReadyBoost now and saw some differences. Seem to see that the the Shutdown/Log-off was a bit longer(it's set at 4sec prior ReadyBoost now it's a +/- 1minute). Any ideas?

Also, the 4gb usb stick when I leave it and reboot, the system shows a pop-up about scanning or something or continue without scanning something..sorry I wasn't able to get a screenshot. What's it about?

How can I monitor the cache performance of the ReadyBoost stick?

Thanks again guys