Windows Readyboost

Discussion in 'other software & services' started by Eagle Creek, Apr 2, 2008.

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  1. Eagle Creek

    Eagle Creek Global Moderator

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    Hi!

    Anyone here got experience with Vista's feature 'Readyboost'? It's supposed to speed up your PC since it uses a fast USB stick over a slow hard drive when pagefile information needs to be accessed.

    I like the idea behind it but..
    1. I don't experience any difference, not even when I'm stressing my computer.
    2. My USB sticks are randomly qualified and disqualified as "Readyboost Capable". Even when I've used a certain stick on a certain PC, there's a change the next time I connect (or only reboot the machine) Vista tells me the stick is not RB capable.
    3. Microsoft says you should be able to pull out the stick any time without data loss. They say that all the data on the stick is also being backed up on the hard disk. But if it's writing to two locations you would think it could cause performance loss instead of profit.
     
    Eagle Creek, Apr 2, 2008
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  2. RAD

    RAD Registered Member

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    There are numerous ReadyBosst performance analyses on the web.
    I tried it, and ended up deciding there was no improvement with my 4 Gig of Ram. In fact, there were some odd instability issues that I suspect it was causing, because they disappeared when I quit using it. I tried really fast SD cards and compactr flash cards also (266X).

    A synopsis of the reviews:
    If you have less than 1 Gig of memory, it will significantly help. But the benefit falls off rapidly until it is just barely measureable with 2 Gigs.

    I thing the best way to get higher performance is just load up on RAM. More RAM ALWAY helps !

    Then, a faster processor, video card, and faster hard drives. ReadyBoost seems almost irrelevent to real performance increases.
     
    RAD, Apr 2, 2008
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  3. Eagle Creek

    Eagle Creek Global Moderator

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    Interesting, just what I thought.
    I know there are several analyses available but the thing is that they also contradict each other.

    I've tried ReadyBoost on Vista machines with 1 GB, 2 GB and 4 GB and my experiences are the same.
    And if it works as explained, it should also work on a 2 GB machine heavy loaded. The pagefile will always be used (when you don't disable it of course).
     
    Eagle Creek, Apr 2, 2008
    #3
  4. lucas1985

    lucas1985 Retired Moderator

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    In most cases, ReadyBoost doesn't work.
     
    lucas1985, Apr 2, 2008
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  5. InfinityAz

    InfinityAz Registered Member

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    InfinityAz, Apr 2, 2008
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  6. AKAJohnDoe

    AKAJohnDoe Registered Member

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    Last edited: Apr 2, 2008
    AKAJohnDoe, Apr 2, 2008
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  7. midway40

    midway40 Registered Member

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    The thing with turning off ReadyBoost is that you also turn off ReadyBoot as well.
     
    midway40, Apr 3, 2008
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  8. AKAJohnDoe

    AKAJohnDoe Registered Member

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    Apparently not completely.

    I have a C:\Windows\Prefetch\ReadyBoot folder, created when I booted up this AM, that contains a 12,800KB file, ReadyBoot.etl, that was modified less than a half hour ago.
     
    AKAJohnDoe, Apr 3, 2008
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  9. midway40

    midway40 Registered Member

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    I have read on several other forums that this happens when you disable ReadyBoost. In that article I linked to it mentions this:

     
    midway40, Apr 4, 2008
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  10. AKAJohnDoe

    AKAJohnDoe Registered Member

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    I expect that it happens even when ReadyBoost is enabled.
     
    AKAJohnDoe, Apr 4, 2008
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  11. RAD

    RAD Registered Member

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    What does "disable Readyboost" imply ?

    I haven't done anything to "disable" it, but I am not using it with any removable media.
     
    RAD, Apr 5, 2008
    #11
  12. Eagle Creek

    Eagle Creek Global Moderator

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    Eagle Creek, May 18, 2008
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