ReadyBoost not recognizing more than 2GB

[Asher]

I have a new Notebook, an LG X140, with Windows 7 Home Premium ... activated as Genuine.
It only came with 512 MB of RAM so I decided to use ReadyBoost and a 4 GB USB Drive to add more RAM.
I selected "Dedicate this device to ReadyBoost" which selected 3851 MB. It only actually created an extra 2 GB of RAM. I believe I understand why there was only 3851 MB available and why it only could create 2 GB of RAM from that... so that isn't so much of an issue for me.
I then used a 1 GB SD Chip which is ReadyBoost Compatible and added that to ReadyBoost the same way, hoping that I could push it to 4 GB of RAM ... however my computer still only shows 2 GB of RAM.

I have tried swapping different USB Drives and SD Cards but with no success, I can't seem to get my computer to recognize any more than 2 GB of RAM.

I'm hoping there is something I've either overlooked or wasn't made obviously apparent my Microsoft so that there is a way I can fix this to allow me to add 4 GB of RAM on my computer.

Any help will be much appreciated.
Asher

 

[carwiz]

Welcome to the forum.

ReadyBoost is not used for increasing memory. It's purpose is to act as a hard disk cache. SuperFetch monitors files that you access and preloads those files into the ReadyBoost cache. (Your USB drive)

To boost memory, you need to add more memory or increase your Pagefile size (which is on your hard disk).

 

[carwiz]

You would be better off adding memory to your laptop. Increasing virtual memory (Pagefile) will slow your PC down since it has to swap memory with disk I/Os. If you have a SSD, this time is drastically reduced but it's still accessing a disk drive. The price of memory has dropped over the past few months and is the best buy I've seen in years. To add performance to your PC, memory is the first step.

You just missed a great deal at Newegg. You could have purchased 4GB of RAM for what a USB cost two years ago.

 

[Asher]

Yes, I have read the reasoning as to why ReadyBoost is not real RAM and have read what it is really doing.
However, please consider these points:

1) I can not currently afford to buy any hardware to add in my computer at the moment

2) Using ReadyBoost has shown significant results for me so far... with the standard 512 MB memory, my computer was taking it's time running large applications but when I used ReadyBoost and got 2GB of 'ReadyBoost RAM' I can now easily use such programs as well as now run 2 programs I was completely unable to run.

3) Putting aside any debate as to whether people should or shouldn't use ReadyBoost, it's pro's and con's and what it's really doing despite the computer listing it as RAM ... my problem is that I am trying to use 4GB of ReadyBoost and for some reason it is not working when it is supposed to.

So without trying to sound rude or ungrateful for your willingness to respond to my post ... what I would like is to find out why ReadyBoost isn't using more than 2GB of the over 4GB I am providing.

 

[Corazon]

You must reformat your USB drive.

Most likely it's formatted to FAT32. That filesystem supports a maximum filesize of - you guessed it - 2GB. Actually, 4GB - I messed up on this one!

Since ReadyBoost works through a file created on the USB drive, it's subject to the same limitation. If you simply reformat as either NTFS or exFAT, the limitation no longer applies and you'll be able to use the full 4GB (actually a little bit less than that, but almost).

(On a sidenote, I would love to know what kind of company is crazy enough to sell a Windows 7 notebook with only 512MB of RAM...)

 

[Asher]

Thanks, I've reformatted so that they are NTFS.
However, after reformatting, then re-assigning them as dedicated to ReadyBoost ... my computer still only shows as 2GB of Memory.
Funny thing is, when I look at the USB and SD Card they show that nearly all the free space is taken up as if it is being used anyway.

 

[carwiz]

It's not a limit of FAT32. You can have up to a 2TB volume (32GB for Windows 7) and 4GB files under FAT32. What limits FAT32 is the number of clusters and sector size. Since the index (FAT) is part of the data segment, it reduces the amount of "Data" that can be stored. A typical 4GB USB drive formated under FAT32 should show about 3.87GB of usable space.

Post a snip of where you're seeing the 2GB of "memory". Also, post a snip of your Disk Management screen with the USB drive plugged in.

 

[Asher]

 

[carwiz]

You have 2GB of memory installed, not 512MB.
Your USB drive is working as intended.

It won't matter how many USB drives you add, it won't change your installed memory--Re-read my first post.

 

[zigzag3143]

Yep this is why we always ask for system specs.

 

[Corazon]

Cripes, carwiz is right - the filesize limit under FAT32 is 4GB, not 2GB.

Must've been going too long without sleep on that one.