Windows ReadyBoost does it actually work?

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  1. Posts : 116
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit
       #41

    natostanco said:
    yeah and this is what i get
    Then based on either your system specs or the flash drive, windows has determined ReadyBoost is useless to you. As an example, I believe if you use a SSD you will get that message.
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 3
    Windows 7 Ultimate and Home Premium 64-bit
       #42

    Yeah I'm at my max right now for ram. 8 gig of DDR3, the Tecra only supports up to 8 with its current configuration.

    Now if my understanding of ReadyBoost is Correct then you should be able to use your 1TB HDD for a ReadyBoost system. The largest I ever tried was 250GB because as we all know, for Windows 7, 256GB(250 when compressed to RB) is the largest we can go.

    However, if you use a 1TB or anything larger than the 256GB requirement here's what I believe will happen...

    A) You'll have to completely format that 1TB HDD in the ReadyBoost section of the disk properties
    B) If it goes that far, ReadyBoost will automatically shut down any access to the rest of that TB HDD
    C) The rules with ReadyBoost is that you cannot utilize the remaining space on the drive you are using while it is being used as RB.
    ex. If you plug a 32GB thumb drive into your computer and choose to only use 16GB of it, you'll have to format and OK it; once it is in use, you can not use that thumb drive to store data on even though you're only using half of if for RB because it simply won't allow that.
    D) So with that said, if ReadyBoost even allows you to use a 1TB HDD (only using 256GB of it) then you'd be basically wasting the rest of that drive because you wouldn't be able to read or write data from it. (again if my understanding of how it works is accurate)

    Hope that helps!

    p.s. I'm due for another external soon, I'm already using over 4TB worth currently... but before I use(no matter what the size is) I'll format it and try ReadyBoost on and and see what results I can get from it.
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 116
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit
       #43

    e1d8 said:
    Yeah I'm at my max right now for ram. 8 gig of DDR3, the Tecra only supports up to 8 with its current configuration.

    Now if my understanding of ReadyBoost is Correct then you should be able to use your 1TB HDD for a ReadyBoost system. The largest I ever tried was 250GB because as we all know, for Windows 7, 256GB(250 when compressed to RB) is the largest we can go.

    However, if you use a 1TB or anything larger than the 256GB requirement here's what I believe will happen...

    A) You'll have to completely format that 1TB HDD in the ReadyBoost section of the disk properties
    B) If it goes that far, ReadyBoost will automatically shut down any access to the rest of that TB HDD
    C) The rules with ReadyBoost is that you cannot utilize the remaining space on the drive you are using while it is being used as RB.
    ex. If you plug a 32GB thumb drive into your computer and choose to only use 16GB of it, you'll have to format and OK it; once it is in use, you can not use that thumb drive to store data on even though you're only using half of if for RB because it simply won't allow that.
    D) So with that said, if ReadyBoost even allows you to use a 1TB HDD (only using 256GB of it) then you'd be basically wasting the rest of that drive because you wouldn't be able to read or write data from it. (again if my understanding of how it works is accurate)

    Hope that helps!

    p.s. I'm due for another external soon, I'm already using over 4TB worth currently... but before I use(no matter what the size is) I'll format it and try ReadyBoost on and and see what results I can get from it.
    I'm just a semi-novice playing with the ReadyBoost, but I'm not sure that's totally correct. I have 1/2 of a 16gb drive allocated to ReadyBoost, and I'm able to use the other half at will, and have. I don't have it compressed, so I don't know if that is the difference or not. When I click on the ReadyBoost tab, it has a sliding scale of how much I want to use as long as I don't dedicate the whole drive to RB.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 3
    Windows 7 Ultimate and Home Premium 64-bit
       #44

    Two interesting points I came across when further researching ReadyBoost.

    "Because ReadyBoost stores its cache as a file rather than directly using the flash device in a raw manner, that file system must be mounted and assigned a drive letter. Simply mounting as a subfolder of another drive won't suffice, as only the root folder of a drive is suited for ReadyBoost cache — otherwise the “ReadyBoost” tab will not appear in the logical volume properties, nor will any previously created cache file be used."

    Keep tabs on ReadyBoost with Windows 7's Performance Monitor | Microsoft Windows | TechRepublic.com

    Go to that site and follow step-by-step instructions. It will let you view what ReadyBoost is doing, and if you wish, to create a data collection to be looked at and better understand what ReadyBoost does and when!


    "On laptop computers the performance shifts more in favor of flash memory, laptop memory being priced higher than that for desktop systems, and with many laptops using relatively slow 4200 RPM and 5400 RPM hard drives. Additionally, on a laptop, ReadyBoost caching can reduce hard drive access, allowing the hard drive to spin down for increased battery life.[10] Also, because of the nature of the power management typically enabled during mobile use of a laptop it is a more power efficient way of increasing equipment productivity."
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 55
    Windows 7 Ultimate
       #45

    gregrocker said:
    Have you considered increasing your physical RAM, perhaps doubling it?

    Thanks for the testimonial. First good report on ReadyBoost I've seen, and from someone who actually relies upon it.
    My Netbook is already maxed out on RAM (2Gb)
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 1
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
       #46

    Perhaps a more real world scenario would help.

    My laptop is maxed out at 4GB RAM and, thanks to Dell's slight of hand and 32 bit Northbridge chip, only able to access 3.25GB of that. (Precision M65 - their top of the line laptop 3 years ago!)

    I develop software and a typical set of open applications on my machine would be:

    * Two instances of Visual Studio
    * SQL Server management Studio
    * A web browser or two with at least half a dozen open pages
    * Several explorer windows
    * IIS serving up local copies of web services
    * Streaming audio

    Needless to say this fills up the ram in no time and compiling large projects can take many minutes.

    For a while I've used a 1GB USB stick for ReadyBoost and thought I noticed a slight improvement. Today I picked up a cheap 4GB USB stick to replace the 1GB one. I now notice a real improvement in the compilation times and general responsiveness of the machine. I'd much rather be able to stick another 4GB of system memory in the machine but, as I said, that's not possible.

    At some point I'll get a new laptop, but at around £1200 for the sort of machine I need that can wait a bit!

    I've just got a USB 3.0 card for the machine and an toying with putting a swap file onto a drive connected to it.

    BTW: if you're interested, USB 2 memory sticks perform about 30% faster on random reads through a USB 3.0 port!
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 1,653
    Windows 10 Pro. EFI boot partition, full EFI boot
       #47

    natostanco -

    if your device is formatted to a block size greater than 4096 bytes, it can;t be used by readyboost (I got this error wit ha 16k block size, reformatted to 4K, then it worked). With such a large drive I expect maybe you formatted it with a larger block size?

    btw after installing readyboost device I started getting BSODs - even after deactivating the readyboost drive. It is almost impossible to uninstall - it adds a readyboost filter in all disk hardware and there is no "uninstall". I ended up using system restore to correct.

    Gene
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 11,424
    Windows 7 Ultimate 64
       #48

    As mentioned ready boost works when it can improve speeds, my 8gb sd was helping out a little in my system till I noticed it wasn't adding anything one day. Well I had added my SSD and ready boost no longer could add a performance gain to my new system disk.
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 296
    Windows 7 Professional
       #49

    pablo712 said:
    I have a doubt about readybost.
    RAM speed....8000 MB/s aprox
    HDD speed....80 MB/s aprox
    Pendrive....... 2 - 20 MB/s (being 20 the fastest top of the line pendrives)
    USB 3.0 Pendrive.....35-70 MB/s

    That's with average early stage USB 3.0 pendrives, top of the line ones made for speed are just going to get faster as the technology improves.

    USB 2.0 = 480 Mbit/s (~57 MB/s)
    USB 3.0 = 4800 Mbit/s (~572 MB/s)


      My Computer

  10.    #50

    Don't waste your money on a speedy flash stick - invest it in a RAM upgrade or SSD which will actually improve performance.

    RAM is cheap, SSD becoming more so.
      My Computer


 
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