Before using ReadyBoost...

[m256997683119]

I am thinking of using ReadyBoost to see if it will augment an old pc with 3gb ram W7 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 W7 and XP sp3 --separate hdd's), are there any issues that I need to know?

Appreciate the tips guys and thank you!

 

[noobvious]

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.

 

[m256997683119]

Can I use 2 usb sticks at the same time with ReadyBoost? Or does W7 just allows one stick?

 

[noobvious]

Can I use 2 usb sticks at the same time with ReadyBoost? Or does W7 just allows one stick?

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

 

[Brink]

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://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReadyBoost%23Performance&rct=j&q=2+usb+flash+drives+at+once+readyboost&usg=AFQjCNEwsR2SdP-8RyV-5cjy-_DVTs0tpg&sa=X&ei=JyG0TtWSGqmg2AXfvcjMDQ&sqi=2&ved=0CFoQygQwAA

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[Corazon]

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.

 

[Big Tom]

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

 

[rubyrubyroo]

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":shock:

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.

 

[Corazon]

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

 

[m256997683119]

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

 

[rubyrubyroo]

may have had trouble "removing" the flash drive, (I would think it would try for a bit longer than a minute, but...) and therefore flagged the flash as dirty? and you saw the scandisk utility, which was so fast and hard to read because the drive is fast and small

(BTW do you know the file system format of the flash drive, they normally come FAT/or a variant so their mac compatable, I reformat NTFS and seem to get the same speed, but the added file verification, and so forth)

mike

 

[cluberti]

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

Well, technically this is not correct. The limit is indeed 8 flash devices (USB, CF, etc), with a max of 32GB of ReadyBoost space per device (that's a max of 256GB per machine). It's a lot, but it's not unlimited.

 

[Corazon]

I stand corrected.

 

[rubyrubyroo]

I stand corrected.

No harm, no foul Corazon,

I'm sure my friendly local best buy staffers will gladly refund my five thousand eight hundred and sixty four dollars & seven cents once I piece all the plastic scraps of the retail blister packs from the 43 powered USB hubs and 128 64Gig Flash drives back together with duct tape and bubble gum. :shock:

but how self-centered of me to not recognize how insignificant my problem is, when it is a true man's most difficult moment to admit his own error!


good times,
mike

 

[cluberti]

Lol - bad day to be a BB employee

 

[Corazon]

Rotfl

 

[Darcy Peal]

To check my 12GB of ReadyBoost I just timed how long it takes to open a complex program, such as PhotShop CS5.
It went from 1:30 to 30 seconds on my system.

 

[m256997683119]

Thank you all for the wonderful contributions here. I am now using 2 8gb usb sticks with ReadyBoost and I also noticed an improvement with Photoshop and Fireworks(opens a bit faster than before but I noticed an improvement when I edit images and open multiple instances of both at the same time.

 

[rubyrubyroo]

that's about the best/only place your going to really notice any improvement m25#######, Like for me my only improvement that I commonly grab some fast one's for is my ridiculous tendency to CONSTANTLY get side tracked on the internet without wanting to lose my original place, and so it is not very uncommon for me to have 30-50 browser windows open (plus storing the history trails in particular ones! (you may ask why not just use your fav's bar/folder/etc , and I'd answer, because although I am unaware of one, particular to this specialized folder, I am quite certain that there is a limit on the count (or at least the size) of the shortcut/file contents of this folder and I am not exactly "looking forward to" making the determination as to what the limit is, or what will happen to the OS as the limit exceeds this value in real-time!

Mike the

 

[Troy Chaney]

GUI for ReadyBoost

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

using perfmon to monitor Readyboost Cache - Sysinternals Forums