Have SSD; would thumb drive Readyboost help performance?

I have a SanDisk Extreme 120GB SSD, alas, driven only by a SATA-2 capable motherboard. Would a thumb drive Readyboost help performance? All my thumb drives are USB 2 (but I do have an active USB 3 adapter in the system). I have various sizes from 128MB to 32GB -- does size matter?

Boost what perfomance? What's the problem?

No, thumb drives are slower than your SSD. Also, Readyboost really only arguably helps with small memory footprints

Well I looked at your system specs you listed in your profile and it says you have 8gb of ram,usually thumb drives will only help about if you got low amount of ram like 1gb or a slow hdd. I don't believe it will help your system,ssd's are already really fast and you have 8gbs of ram.

As soon as you add a SSD the ReadyBoost feature isn't even recognized any longer as your disk is the fastest source.

Thanks for the input. I'm always in the market for cheap performance improvements. I'm afraid now that the next significant step would be to get an up-to-date motherboard that supports SATA-6, a faster (I7) processor, 16GB RAM, and faster graphics cards. Might as well start a new build as to do all of that. So, I'll muddle along with what I have. Occasionally Photoshop drags down a little, but that is rare. I should probably consider myself blessed with what I have.

Thanks to all for your input!

As mentioned, Readyboost is only helpful when you have a LOW amount of memory.

It's all but useless with anything over 1.5-2GB of system ram.

It probably wouldn't make any difference to performance as it would largely go under utilized.

Make sure you're running a Clean Boot with no freeloaders as shown in Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7.

I would also want a perfect install following the best practices for Win7 as given in Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7- same steps for retail.

gregrocker said:

Make sure you're running a Clean Boot with no freeloaders as shown in Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7. I would also want a perfect install following the best practices for Win7 as given in Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7- same steps for retail.

Click to expand...

I recently did a Clean Reinstall with the Windows 7 update disk (the only one I have); it went fine.

The only problem I have is that since last month when I replaced my "C" drive (a Western Digital Raptor) with a SanDisk Extreme SSD, I occasionally get dumps, which take about 60-80 seconds to complete, but locks me out from doing anything while the dump takes place.

For what it is worth, I recently had a complete system lockout (could not even boot up in safe mode) and took it to local repair person. He removed all the hardware, tried to boot with one of his test drives, and got the same result. So he reset the BIOS and it booted fine. He then installed one device (starting with C, the SSD) at a time, an, with the exception of the occasional dumps, works like a charm.

Websquad,

Explain to me what is a "dump" mean to you? As we normally use that word, then a dump is very fast. Are you referring to your syste hanging, blue screening, or what.

Since there seem to be some misconceptions about Readyboost, then I'm including some links for your perusal.

Keep tabs on ReadyBoost with Windows 7's Performance Monitor _ Microsoft Windows _ TechRepublic.com
Monitoring ReadyBoost on Windows 7 - Saveen Reddy's blog - Site Home - MSDN Blogs
ReadyBoost - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
ReadyBoost - Windows 7 features - Microsoft Windows
ReadyBoost Performance Test _ Windows Vista and Windows 7 Help
ReadyBoost with a SD card or a UFD Usb flash drive
Take a closer look at ReadyBoost features in Windows 7 _ Microsoft Windows _ TechRepublic.com
Windows 7 Readyboost Really Boosts _ Connected Internet

I'm confused. How did we get from ReadyBoost to system lockout, dumps, cheep performanc, build a new computer? All in nine post.

Yes, the dump sounds more like a hang which is not acceptable in Win7.

Work through the troubleshooting steps to do due diligence and familiarize yourself more with the System's resources and methods.

readyboost works on the basis that the secondary cache device is faster than normal i/o, since ssd beats usb sticks for i/o speeds readyboost would make things slower. So no dont use it.

karlsnooks said:

Explain to me what is a "dump" mean to you? As we normally use that word, then a dump is very fast. Are you referring to your syste hanging, blue screening, or what.

Click to expand...

To me "dump" means that Windows has detected a fault in the operating system, a device driver, or a hardware component, and halts all activities (the screen is frozen, but not "blue," and the mouse is inoperable), copies all the 16GB to RAM to a special place on the system drive, and after that is done, recovers and allows one to continue using the system. When this occurred when my system drive was a disk, it took several minutes -- but fortunately this was a rare event. Now with the SSD system drive it takes about 60 seconds; alas, it occurs usually once a day for no apparent (to me) reason).

At least it is not as bad as when I was working in my state's computer center; now only I am inconvenienced, and then for only a minute -- back then, 35,000 employees on "dumb" terminals would sit around waiting for 30-45 minutes.

I understand now I think. Your problem isn't readyboost. Try this.
Crashes and Debugging - Windows 7 Forums

websquuad,
We have a forum devoted to Crashes and BSODs. I suggest you start a fresh thread stating your crash problem.

By doing such, then the crash and BSOD experts will see your post.

Please the instructions yuu will see there.

http://www.sevenforums.com/crashes-debugging/96879-blue-screen-death-bsod-posting-instructions.html

I would like for you to follow this procedure precisely. This procedure will guarantee that minidumps are generated and generated correctly, etc.

[FONT=&quot]MEMORY DUMPS - REQUIREMENTS[/FONT]


Enable automatic management of the Paging file
WIN + PAUSE/BREAK key combo |
Advanced system settings (left-hand side) |
Advanced tab, Performance section, Settings |
Advanced tab, Virtual Memory section, Change |
checkmark Automatically manage paging file size for all drives |
OK | OK | OK



STARTUP AND RECOVERY SETTINGS
WIN + PAUSE/BREAK key combo |
Advanced system settings (left-hand side) |
Advanced tab, Startup and Recovery section, Settings |
System Failure section | checkmark Write an Event to the system log
| uncheck Automatically restart |


Under Write debugging information, select Small memory dump |
in the Small dump directory: box, enter %SystemRoot%\Minidump| OK

If Overwrite any existing file is checked, then:
Ø Under Write debugging information, select Kernel memory dump
Ø Uncheck Overwrite any existing file
Ø Under Write debugging information, select Small memory dump
Ø OK button
If you get a crazy message from Win 7 about your paging file being too small, then just ignore the message since we have already made sure that the paging file is set to be managed by Win 7.

ENABLE THE WINDOWS ERROR REPORTING SERVICE
WIN key | type SERVICES.MSC | ENTER |
Scroll down to Windows Error Reporting Service |
Rt-clk on Windows Error Reporting Service | Properties |
General tab | for Startup type, choose Automatic |
In Service status, Start button (unless grayed out) | OK


ASSURE THAT CCLEANER IS NOT DELETING DUMPS
CCLEANER | Cleaner icon | Windows tab | System category |
Uncheck Memory Dumps
· WINDOWS ERROR REPORTING SERVICE must NOT be disabled!
· WIN | Services.msc | Enter
· Under Name, locate Windows Error Reporting Service
· If Status is not Started, then
Right-click on Windows Error Reporting Service |choose START
· If Startup Type is not Automatic, then
Right-click on Windows Error Reporting Service |
choose Properties | General tab |
set Startup type to Automatic
· Close Services.msc (I like to use ALT + F4)

After a crash, the minidump file will be in %SystemRoot%\Minidump
%SystemRoot% is generally C:\Windows