ReadyBoost - Setup and Use

How to Setup and Use ReadyBoost in Windows 7​

   Information

Windows 7 supports Windows ReadyBoost. This feature uses external USB flash drives as a hard disk cache to improve disk read performance. Supported external storage types include USB thumb drives, SD cards, and CF cards. Since ReadyBoost will not provide a perfor¬mance gain when the primary disk is an SSD, Windows 7 disables ReadyBoost when reading from an SSD drive.

This will show you how to setup and use ReadyBoost in Windows 7 with USB flash drives and flash memory cards to help speed up your computer.

However, you most likely will not notice any increase in performance if your computer meets or exceeds the minimum system requirements of 1 GB RAM (4 GB recommended) for 32-bit Windows 7 OR 2 GB RAM (8 GB recommended) for 64-bit Windows 7 installed.

   Note

External storage must meet the following requirements:

• Capacity of at least 256 MB, with at least 64 kilobytes (KB) of free space.The 4-GB limit of Windows Vista has been removed. For ReadyBoost to effectively speed up your computer, the flash drive or memory card should have at least 1 GB of free available space.
• At least a 2.5 MB/sec throughput for 4-KB random reads
• At least a 1.75 MB/sec throughput for 1-MB random writes
• You can enable or disable ReadyBoost for a specific flash drive or other removable storage device (ex: memory card).
• Windows 7 shows you how much space it recommends that you allow it to reserve and use on the flash drive or memory card for optimal performance at the bottom of the properties window. (See screenshot below step 4B below)
• If your flash drive or card doesn't have enough available space for ReadyBoost, you'll see a message telling you to free some space on it.
• For best results, use a flash drive or flash memory card with at least double the amount of available space as the amount of memory (RAM) in your computer.
• There's a limit of 8 flash devices (EX: USB flash drive or memory card) that could be used at once for ReadyBoost with a max of 32GB of ReadyBoost space per device for a max total of 256GB per machine.
• Should you have the USB flash drive formarted as FAT32 or NTFS:
  • The FAT32 file system has size limitations. While you cannot have a FAT32 partition greater than 32 GB (32728 MB), you also cannot save/store a file larger than 4 GB on a FAT32 partition. This limits you to only being able to use up to 4 GB for ReadyBoost on a USB flash drive formatted with FAT32.
  • To be able to use more than 4 GB for ReadyBoost on the USB flash drive, you would need to have the USB flash drive formated with NTFS instead.

For more information about ReadyBoost in Windows 7, see:

• USB and SD storage media – ReadyBoost with a SD card or a flash drive | Microsoft Support
• Understand ReadyBoost and whether it will Speed Up your System

   Warning

• If your Windows 7 is installed on a solid-state drive (SSD), 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 SSD drives are faster and they're very unlikely to benefit from using ReadyBoost.
• In some situations, you might not be able to use all of the memory on your device to speed up your computer. For example, some flash memory devices contain both slow and fast flash memory, but ReadyBoost can only use fast flash memory to speed up your computer.
• ReadyBoost cannot beat the performance gain by just adding more RAM in your computer instead.
• ReadyBoost uses the Superfetch service that needs to be enabled and set to be "Started" and "Automatic".

Here's How:
1. Plug a USB flash drive or flash memory card that you want to use ReadyBoost with into your computer.

2. If AutoPlay pops-up, click on Speed up my system. (See screenshot below)

A) Go to step 4.
OR

3. If AutoPlay does not pop-up, then open the Start Menu and click on Computer. In Computer, right click on the USB flash drive or flash memory card, and click on Properties. (See screenshot below)

4. To Turn On ReadyBoost

A) To use all of the flash drive or memory card free space for ReadyBoost

• Select (dot) Dedicate this device to ReadyBoost. (See screenshot below)

B) To specify how much free space on the flash drive or memory to use for ReadyBoost

• Select (dot) Use this device. (See screenshot below)
• Either slide the slider or enter the amount of free space you want to reserve to ReadyBoost.
  NOTE: See the note box at the top of the tutorial for details about how much free space to use.

5. To Turn Off ReadyBoost

• Select (dot) Do not use this device. (See screenshots above)

6. Click on OK.

7. You will see this for a brief moment while Windows 7 configures the ReadyBoost cache on your flash drive or memory card. (See screenshot below)

   Tip

To Temporarily Remove the ReadyBoost Device
NOTE: If you wanted to temporarily remove the USB flash drive or memory card that ReadyBoost is currently using, then this will show you how to safely remove it.
1. Open the Start Menu and click on Computer, then right click on the USB flash drive or flash memory card being used by ReadyBoost, and click on Eject. (See screenshots below)

A) Click on Continue. (See screenshot below)

B) Go to step 3.
OR

2. Click on the Safely Remove Hardware icon in the notification area on the right side of the taskbar, then click on the USB flash drive or flash memory card being used by ReadyBoost to eject it. (See screenshot below)

3. When you see this, it is now safe to remove the USB flash drive or flash memory card. (See screenshot below)

4. When ready, you can just plug the USB flash drive or flash memory card back in to have ReadyBoost automatically start using it again.

That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Speed Up the Performance of Windows 7

 

[eilhart]

Ok, thank you. I'll try when I get home and report back. I'm having choppiness with a particular flash-like game. I think it will show if any performance is gained.

Obviously, it's not Ultimate (under join date) on my netbook. It's Home Premium. Ultimate is on my destop pc.

 

[whs]

However, you may not notice any increase in performance if your computer meets or exceeds the minimum system requirements of 1 GB RAM for 32-bit Windows 7 OR 2 GB RAM for 64-bit Windows 7 installed.

I'm using Windows 7 on my netbook. It has 1 GB of RAM. Does that statement above mean I won't be able to get any performance increase from readyboost? Not a native speaker, so it confused me a bit.

It will completely depend on the amount of paging activity you have (e.g. when browsing the web RB cannot help) and on the speed of your USB stick. Test is with HD Tune. If the access time is around 1ms, then you can use it. If it is a lot slower, it may be counterproductive.

 

[eilhart]

It didn't help with the game performance I was talking about (Monster Dash on Chrome browser). However, I noticed overall performance improvement as in unzipping files, moving files, starting applications etc. It felt faster responding than usual. I spared 2048 MB on my Toshiba 4 GB usb disc to use with Readyboost.

P.S. I tested usb disc with HD Tune. It gave 0.6 ms of access time.

I will test more today as well. I'm not sure why that game is so choppy. Maybe it requires a better CPU or better system overall.

 

[whs]

I am sure your game needs a faster CPU and especially a better graphics. And 0.6ms is a very good access time.

 

[eilhart]

Ah, yeah I forgot about the graphics. GMABooster may help. I think it's Intel GMA 950. CPU is Intel Atom N270 (1.6 Ghz). Thanks for the help you guys.

I cannot give you any rep. It says to give someone else before giving you again. I think last time you helped me again. Was a long time before though.

 

[Brink]

Eilhart,

I'm happy to hear that your performance has improved. Thank you for posting back with your results.

 

[shine602]

hi im using ready boost and the memory wont seem to show up or be usable can u help me with this problem? thanks in advannce.

~Shine602~​

 

[Brink]

Hello Shine, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Please post back with some screenshots of your USB key's "ReadyBoost" tab like under step 4, and of your Task Manager "Performance" tab before and after using ReadyBoost.

 

[whs]

hi im using ready boost and the memory wont seem to show up or be usable can u help me with this problem? thanks in advannce.

~Shine602~​

If you expect the ready boost storage to show up as RAM, then that is not so. The ready boost storage will only be used for an additional pagefile.

 

[naiduklr936]

Need Ready Boost Soft.,

unable to download readybosst... could anyone please send me that software to this mail ADDRESS REMOVED

 

[Dwarf]

You don't need to download anything. ReadyBoost is a feature that is provided for by the Windows Memory Manager, and it comes into effect when you insert a USB memory stick that meets the requirements (available space and speed). See the main Tutorial for details.

 

[Brink]

Hello Naiduklr, and welcome to Seven Forums.



ReadyBoost is already included in Windows 7, so there is nothing to download or install.

Are you not able to use ReadyBoost as described in the tutorial on the first page of this thread?

If not, please give more details about this.

 

[Jerry1978]

Hello to all what is the best way to set readyboost ..the option (A) To use all of the flash drive or memory card free space for ReadyBoost ? or (B) To specify how much free space on the flash drive or memory to use for ReadyBoost .. because im new with the readyboost I would like to know... thanks

 

[Brink]

Hello Jerry,

There's really no best option, but just what you would prefer to use based on your needs instead.

Hope this helps.

 

[whs]

Hello to all what is the best way to set readyboost ..the option (A) To use all of the flash drive or memory card free space for ReadyBoost ? or (B) To specify how much free space on the flash drive or memory to use for ReadyBoost .. because im new with the readyboost I would like to know... thanks

As Shawn says, there is no 'best' option. But if you assign 4GB, you should be OK.

You should know that the Ready Boost will only buy you something if you have a really fast stick - and even then you should not expect wonders. Test the speed of your stick - e.g. with HD Tune - and see whether the access time is within +/- 1ms. Anything much bigger will not yield any advantage because there is a certain overhead with Ready Boost for which you need some compensation.

Note: You have to let HD Tune run to the end in order to get the access time.

 

[tpsingh21]

readyboost problem

i hav done all the steps u seen above for making ur ram increase with ur usb device....i did but now when i plugged in again my usb..then nither thr is any space available nor the ram prosess for the ready boost..so in this case..i just want to know tht how can i my usb take back in original position ..

my usb is of scandisk 8 gb..and i did readyboost with 7.5gb for ram process..not nothing is done wheni tried many times..for getting back the size or readyboost..so please help me how could i solve this problem..as soon as possible..reaply plz.

 

[Brink]

Hello tpsingh, and welcome to Seven Forums.

While you have the USB drive connected, were you able to use step 5 in the tutorial?

If not, then please post some screenshots showing what you are seeing instead of what's in the tutorial.

 

[MarkmBha]

Good Information

Good information.

 

[Troy Chaney]

Readyboost Myths

I have an SSD so my Readyboost option is disabled. I would like to enable it anyway. Can someone help me with that?

That is not possible and would not buy you anything (apart from additional overhead). The reason is simple, the SSD is minimum 10 times faster in access time than any stick.

When Readyboost is used it offloads some of the already processed memory to another bus so the processor has faster access to it without having to use the allready data channel of the HDD and its Cash memory.

I have a laptop that has a ExpressCard slot that i just use for Readyboost (Bcache in Linux) that I run 2 VMs at a time with no problem. as a matter of fact the expresscard bus is faster then the native SATA2 bus for my HDD0 =/

 

[whs]

I commented on the RB usage with a SSD - you comment on a HDD. Two completely different scenarios.