Dedicated USB flash for ReadyBoost.

[Dolke]

Hi guys,

I use 8Gb Transcend USB flash drive as ReadyBoost on my Windows 7 pro x 86 with 4Gb of RAM.

I always dedicate the drive to ReadyBoost but each time I reboot a PC or shutdown and turn it back on, I need to manually dedicate the device all over again.

Is there a way to dedicate USB flash to ReadyBoost permanently so it stays dedicated and usable after reboot or shutdown?

Thank you
Dean

 

[LMiller7]

ReadyBoost was designed for systems with slow hard drives and limited RAM (under 2 GB). With 4 GB RAM I doubt ReadyBoost would make a noticeable improvement. ReadyBoost is essentially a disk cache and with 4 GB RAM there should be adequate RAM for caching purposes. ReadyBoost could even impair performance.

 

[Dolke]

Hi LMiller7,

Thank you for the info.

I also beleive that it wont do much but still is there actually way to make USB flash to be used as ReadyBoost permanetly?

 

[LMiller7]

I don't know of any such method and doubt one exists.

 

[Dolke]

Thank you, I apreciate it.

 

[Layback Bear]

With 4 gb of ram another option would be install a SSD without ready boost.

 

[Dolke]

I already have SSD installed...

 

[LMiller7]

Contrary to some misinformed articles ReadyBoost does not increase memory in a computer. The performance and operational characteristics of a flash drive (even the fastest) are totally wrong for that.

With an SSD drive for the OS using ReadyBoost would not be a good idea. A basic concept with any kind of cache (which ReadyBoost is) is that the media used for caching must be faster than the media being cached. As flash drives are slower than an SSD that is a violation of basic principles. ReadyBoost would impair performance.

Presumably there is a conventional drive for data storage and it might seem that ReadyBoost would enhance it's performance. Not so, at least not noticeably. USB 3 Flash drives (USB 2 is slower) have a transfer rate that is on a par with that of conventional drives but the seek time is much better. ReadyBoost uses this characteristic to advantage. Small blocks of data (typical for the OS and applications) would come from the flash drive if the data was resident there. This takes advantage of the flash drives short access time. Of course in this case the OS and applications are on the SSD which is faster than the flash drive. ReadyBoost is a minus in this case. Accessing larger blocks of data (typical for data access) would come direct from the hard drive to take advantage of it's better transfer rate. ReadyBoost is out of the picture. Bottom line is that ReadyBoost would be an overall drag on performance.

ReadyBoost was designed for low end systems with slow hard drives and limited RAM (under 2 GB). In this case it could noticeably improve performance. With an SSD and 4 GB RAM ReadyBoost is likely to impair performance.

 

[Andyrids]

Ready Boost should just stay configured / dedicated after you do it for the first time.. Exception to the rule being if you unplug the Flash Drive and use it in another system the Ready Boost cache will get removed and you will have to do it again, same applies even if you are multi booting using the same computer.

Have you tried using Ready Boost with an SD card instead ?

 

[Dolke]

I completly understand and agree with you.

Thank you for detailed explination.

ReadyBoost is then of the chart at least in my case. Now I need to find other ways to boost performance of my RAM as I cant use more then 4 due to 32bit limitation and I cant switch to x64 due to some other factors that are out of my power.

 

[Dolke]

Ready Boost should just stay configured / dedicated after you do it for the first time.. Exception to the rule being if you unplug the Flash Drive and use it in another system the Ready Boost cache will get removed and you will have to do it again, same applies even if you are multi booting using the same computer.

Have you tried using Ready Boost with an SD card instead ?

Actually I havent tried it. I would need to get some USB adapter as I dont have slot for the SD card on my desk PC...

 

[Andyrids]

With an SSD and 4 GB RAM ReadyBoost is likely to impair performance.

Yes I have noticed that happen on systems even without an SSD, but has 4GB RAM.