Why is HDD speed related to ReadyBoost?

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  1. Posts : 126
    Windows 7 Professional x64
       #1

    Why is HDD speed related to ReadyBoost?


    From the Windows help file:
    "If your computer has a hard disk that uses solid-state drive (SSD) technology, you may not see an option to speed up your computer with ReadyBoost when you plug in a USB flash drive or flash memory card. This is because some SSD drives are so fast they're unlikely to benefit from ReadyBoost."

    What does ReadyBoost have to do with HDD speed at all? Doesn't it just use a flash drive as fake RAM?
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  2. Posts : 21,004
    Desk1 7 Home Prem / Desk2 10 Pro / Main lap Asus ROG 10 Pro 2 laptop Toshiba 7 Pro Asus P2520 7 & 10
       #2

    Basically not much at all if you look at this it will explain. A lot of people think it is actually virtual RAM but only a sort of caching I never found it of any use whatsoever.
    ReadyBoost - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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  3. Posts : 126
    Windows 7 Professional x64
    Thread Starter
       #3

    Call me blind but I can't find anything on the Wikipedia page that says it's related to the HDD at all except that the flash drive cache is "faster than the hard drive being cached". This begs the question, why is readyboost disabled by default whenever you have an SSD?
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  4. Posts : 10,485
    W7 Pro SP1 64bit
       #4

    I could be wrong - but doesn't MS put the SuperFetch info into the ReadyBoost RAM space? I don't think that the RAM was intended as a generic addition to the existing RAM.

    The best thing would be to put the SuperFetch info into regular RAM.
    (But you might not have enough RAM - hence the ReadyBoost offer.)

    The second best thing would be to put the SuperFetch info into the swap file.
    (If that swap file is on an SSD...
    ...then that will be faster than putting the SF info into ReadyBoost RAM),

    Why would MS want to offer you an option to slow your computer down?


    edit: that info is wrong - I think.

    Again - I could have this all wrong. It has been a while since I looked into it.
    Last edited by UsernameIssues; 14 Nov 2013 at 05:43.
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  5. Posts : 126
    Windows 7 Professional x64
    Thread Starter
       #5

    What exactly do you mean by "SuperFetch info"? Wouldn't that just be the information Windows has about what programs to 'fetch' into memory, and thus be relatively small and probably not even in memory to begin with?
    If you mean the page file, well what if the page file is disabled?
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  6. Posts : 21,004
    Desk1 7 Home Prem / Desk2 10 Pro / Main lap Asus ROG 10 Pro 2 laptop Toshiba 7 Pro Asus P2520 7 & 10
       #6

    M4dn3ss said:
    What exactly do you mean by "SuperFetch info"? Wouldn't that just be the information Windows has about what programs to 'fetch' into memory, and thus be relatively small and probably not even in memory to begin with?
    If you mean the page file, well what if the page file is disabled?
    Windows Vista I/O technologies - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia scroll down to superfetch.
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  7. Posts : 126
    Windows 7 Professional x64
    Thread Starter
       #7

    As I said, SuperFetch info wouldn't need to be stored in RAM since it's just a bit of data about what programs are most used and whatnot
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  8. Posts : 10,485
    W7 Pro SP1 64bit
       #8

    M4dn3ss said:
    As I said, SuperFetch info wouldn't need to be stored in RAM since it's just a bit of data about what programs are most used and whatnot
    I don't think that your understanding of SuperFetch is complete.
    (I know that my understanding of SuperFetch is limited


    Perhaps this document can help us:
    Windows PC Accelerators

    Specifically:
    If a device supports ReadyBoost, it provides a dedicated area where SuperFetch can securely store a copy of performance-crucial data. SuperFetch can retrieve data from a cached copy on nonvolatile flash storage much faster than from disk. SuperFetch typically compresses the data that it writes to the cache at a 2:1 ratio; sometimes it can compress up to a 3:1 ratio. By default, SuperFetch encrypts using 128-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) to ensure security of the data.
    Some (most?) SuperFetch info loads/stays in RAM.
    edit: maybe not
    Last edited by UsernameIssues; 14 Nov 2013 at 05:45. Reason: Fixed formatting/font - I hope
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  9. Posts : 21,004
    Desk1 7 Home Prem / Desk2 10 Pro / Main lap Asus ROG 10 Pro 2 laptop Toshiba 7 Pro Asus P2520 7 & 10
       #9

    M4dn3ss said:
    As I said, SuperFetch info wouldn't need to be stored in RAM since it's just a bit of data about what programs are most used and whatnot
    Yes I think User described it better than me then - I am just curious as to why you need to know are you fixing an old machine or is it yours? Because if it is your machine and it is running perfectly ok I have lost the plot somewhere here.

    Now if it is your machine and it is running out of RAM just throw in another 4GB as I see it is DDR2 not that it is no good in fact my tester runs perfectly well on 4GB.
    If the machine spitting the dummy playing games maybe the RAM is on the way out in which case I would push a memtest through it.
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  10. Posts : 126
    Windows 7 Professional x64
    Thread Starter
       #10

    Sorry I misunderstood you, you made it sound like you meant SuperFetch info as in "the data that Windows stores about what should be prefetched" rather than "the stuff that is actually being prefetched".
    Anyway I still don't see what the HDD has to do with it, since prefetch data is either in RAM or it's on a ReadyBoost drive, never on a hard drive. Unless it's in the page file.
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