ReadyBoost

JohnLawrence · Jul 3, 2008

ReadyBoost can be useful or really can speed up system's performance,but if you only have the minimum requirements for ReadyBoost 230/250Mb I think.....likely there will be no difference,and can cause start up slow down because of the Universal Bus Driver (USB)...
But if you have a more that a Gig flash/sd/card,It's possible to have a faster performance in Vista

Hogtowner · Jul 21, 2008

I have to admit to some confusion here (like that's a special occasion).

I have 8GB of memory installed, and apparently the system hardly ever uses more than a couple GB of that (OK, I got it on sale, and empty sockets bother me. What can I say, I'm a Guy.) So, I take it that ReadyBoost isn't going to help me. Why would the OS use the slower USB port than use the RAM sitting idle on a 800MHz bus?

However, I did get a nice 4GB USB stick that is fast enough for Vista to let me use it as ReadyBoost, so I tried it out, and sure enough it is flashing like billy-ho. So, apparently Vista is actually using it? :sarc:

Any idea what gives here, or is this another MS mystery (where's Leonard Nimoy when you need him)?

Brink · Jul 22, 2008

Hi Hogtowner, Vista will make use of any memory you give it. However, with you having 8GB, I'm surprised it uses it that much.

Shawn

WildEagle · Aug 8, 2008

I disabled the Readyboost Service since I have 8GB's of ram, and don't have a use for Readyboost. I can always reenable the Readyboost Service, should I need Readyboost again at some point.

Brink · Aug 8, 2008

Yeah, I disabled the ReadyBoost service also. I did not see the need to have an extra process running taking up resoures that I wasn't using either.

WildEagle · Aug 8, 2008

I tried Readyboost before I got 8GB's of ram, and my 4GB Crucial Memory stick, though it's supposed be Vista compliant, had nothing but problems, it wasn't stable and it didn't seem like Readyboost was running, to Vista having to run chkdsk on it, on one reboot. After that mess, I just disabled Readyboost, and use it as a normal USB memory stick.

Brink · Aug 8, 2008

I agree, with memory prices a lot cheaper now, it only makes sense to add RAM instead of using ReadyBoost. The performance gain is just much better that way instead.

nigel2205 · Aug 13, 2008

Hi
My autoplay not working, plug in any usb and no flash screen

eldron · Aug 13, 2008

I'am currently using the ReadyBoost on Vista...

But, 1 thing,

My Laptop become 2 times SLOWER!

I thought it suppose to boost, not slow down?

Brink · Aug 13, 2008

Hi Eldron,

ReadyBoost with a USB flash drive will always be slower than justing adding more RAM. It also depends on the rated speed of the USB flash drive. The faster the better.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Brink · Aug 13, 2008

nigel2205 said:
Hi
My autoplay not working, plug in any usb and no flash screen

Hello Nigel,

The USB flash drive that you have may not be compatible for using it with ReadyBoost. See the added Tips box at the top of the tutorial to help see if it is.

Shawn

Equation · Aug 24, 2008

I have found out that ReadyBoost only works for people that only have 512MB to 2GB of Ram installed. People that have 3GB of ram or more really don't need ReadyBoost for Vista 32 / Vista x64
Personally I think Readyboost is a joke and your only limited 2GB Max on a Readyboost drive. Readyboost is the ideal notebook user that has less then 3 GB ram With Memory prices dropping its really pointless to even use this Feature when you can just add more memory at the same price as a USB Flash Drive

Brink · Aug 25, 2008

Hi Equation,

I agree ...

It is correct that people that have more than 4 GB of RAM will probably never actually use the space in ReadyBoost, but it depends on how much you run at one time too. If you have a lot open, then you might use some of it. If you are able to add more RAM, then that would be the best option for better performance though. ReadyBoost is really for those that have under 4 GB of RAM or cannot add more RAM.

ggbib · Aug 25, 2008

It seems to be some confusion about what readyboost does and why use a flash drive. The point of using a flash drive is to put the system cache on it and improve the speed of reading from the cache.

With that said, unless you have a flash drive that is readyboost able, the service can be turned off in my opinion.

It has nothing to do with the amount of physical RAM installed on your system.

ReadyBoost - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia :

'Using ReadyBoost-capable flash memory (NAND memory devices) for caching allows Windows Vista to service random disk reads with performance that is typically 80-100 times faster than random reads from traditional hard drives.'

'Microsoft has stated that a 2:1 compression ratio is typical, so that a 4 GB cache could contain upwards of 8 GB of data.'

I use a 4gb usb stick, and see some improvement in performance.

J

Equation · Aug 25, 2008

Few days ago I was running Windows Vista 32bit but updated to the X64 bit version and found out how much better and more stable it really was. The sad thing is I can't use ready boost since I have 3GB of ram installed but that’s good though. More resources saved :D!
Also found out how much more memory addressing is way better then 32bit Kernel

Brink Thank you for having a good forum. this place is awesome its Heaven for me

stormy13 · Aug 25, 2008

One thing completely omitted in that wiki link above, ReadyBoot,

ReadyBoot
Windows Vista uses the same boot-time prefetching as Windows XP did if the system has less than 512MB of memory, but if the system has 700MB or more of RAM, it uses an in-RAM cache to optimize the boot process. The size of the cache depends on the total RAM available, but is large enough to create a reasonable cache and yet allow the system the memory it needs to boot smoothly.
After every boot, the ReadyBoost service (the same service that implements the ReadyBoost feature just described) uses idle CPU time to calculate a boot-time caching plan for the next boot. It analyzes file trace information from the five previous boots and identifies which files were accessed and where they are located on disk. It stores the processed traces in %SystemRoot%\Prefetch\Readyboot as .fx files and saves the caching plan under HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Ecache\Parameters in REG_BINARY values named for internal disk volumes they refer to.

Windows Administration: Inside the Windows Vista Kernel: Part 2

zivilipirati · Oct 10, 2008

About this Site.

I JUST WONT TO SAY OUT LOUD, AND CLEARLY:

T H I S I S T H E F A R E S T B E S T A L L - A B O U T -V I S T A W E B S I T E / F O R U M PERIOD.

THANK YOU EVERY ONE, ESPECIALY SHAWN

The information you get here, its priceless !!!

Shone.

Brink · Oct 10, 2008

Your welcome Shone, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Thank you,
Shawn

yen2ken · May 5, 2010

I am trying use READYBOOST with SD MMC slot and two cards .. one is LEXAR SDHC 8Gb at 60x and the other is SANDISK SD ULTRA 4Gb at 15?/sec.

When I tried the former, I got message "wrong type" and was not able to take option "use to increase speed", and also the option "dont test again" came up checked.

I exited, pulled card, put in SanDisk card. This time got no option to use READYBOOST, and card came up with 0 free bytes, 0 empty bytes ..

Machine is an HP notebook: Pav dv2-1118nr with 64b athlon neo processor and running vista premium 64b

What is going on .. pls help

ReadyBoost

Attachments

Banned

My Computer

Ay, No Disrepect.

My Computer

My Computers

Banned

My Computer

My Computers

Banned

My Computer

My Computers

My Computer

My Computer

My Computers

My Computers

New Member

My Computer

My Computers

New Member

My Computer

New Member

My Computer

Member

My Computer

New Member

My Computer

My Computers

New Member

My Computer