Use USB Drive to increase RAM in Vista

[SciD]

If you've got a spare USB drive laying around, hold onto it till you start running Windows Vista. Using Vista's new ReadyBoost feature, a spare USB 2.0 key with enough space can speed up the OS performance.

Plug in your drive and choose "Speed up my system" from the AutoPlay menu to enable ReadyBoost, which uses some fancy-pants disk-caching to make Windows a bit snappier. Still looking to unload a few extra drives? The hardware experts at Gizmodo have some links to donate 'em too.

 

[Kshitiz_Indian]

Well, even though I haven't used this feature till now, I just wonder how it can cache faster than hard disk. I mean, according to the stats,
USB 2.0 = maximum transfer rate 480 Megabits/sec = 60 Megabytes per second.

Now that's the standard's transfer rate, and most old USB drivers are much slower than even that speed. And any decent hard disk with Ultra DMA 5 or more, SATA II and 7200 RPM can easily hit 55-60 Megabytes per second reading or writing rate. So, How is the USB drive supposed to be used for cache better than the hard drive? Let me tell you though that these are all statistics.

Lol I once emailed to MS tech support about it and have never got a response since.

 

[SciD]

Well he got confused like me after reading that.

I only use Vista on my Laptop and will never require this feature cos I dont run any system hungry game or program on it. Just watched it on Tech2.com and thaught I should share it cos 99.9% people dont even know this feature.

 

[Kshitiz_Indian]

Yeah I know, most people are unaware, and its a brilliant idea. But somehow either MS stumped or I am stumped.

EDIT : - http://www.everythingusb.com/usb2/faq.htm See this page. It explains that most flash drives top out at 30 MB/s. And a hard drive's faster than that.

Actually, Vista readyboost uses the principle that Vista uses the flash drive as if it were RAM, for additional storage space, like for cache etc.

 

[SciD]

Yeah and increase is also minimum. A 4GB will give additional RAM of 200 MB only.

I used to set my one 8 GB Hadr Disk partition for full use by Temporary Cache when I had less RAM so wast it right idea to use HD as RAM booster rather than USB?

 

[Kshitiz_Indian]

Yeah and increase is also minimum. A 4GB will give additional RAM of 200 MB only.

I used to set my one 8 GB Hadr Disk partition for full use by Temporary Cache when I had less RAM so wast it right idea to use HD as RAM booster rather than USB?

It depends on how new your hard drive is and, in some kinds of exceptional cases, one must make sure if its running in DMA mode.
To check it, right click Computer --> Properties --> Device Manager --> IDE host controllers --> Check all the channels by double clicking them and see the advanced tab. Make sure the enable DMA button is checked and check what's your drive's current status. DVD , Cd roms are generally Ultra-DMA mode 2, and good hard drives Ultra DMA Mode 5 or more.

 

[Cricketman]

So, If I plugged in a 4GB USB drive, i'd get 4GB more RAM?

 

[WORLD CHAMPIONS]

So, If I plugged in a 4GB USB drive, i'd get 4GB more RAM?

It will give you 200 MB

 

[Cricketman]

Only 1/20th of the space on the thing is used?

Hmm. Better then nothing I suppose.

 

[Abhas]

Also, the difference in speed is noticeable only if you have about 512 mb ram.
In my system i have 1GB ram, and readyboost does NOT make the system run any faster.

I read somewhere it was effective only for 512 mb ram, where the difference in speed could be noticeable.
It was a nice thought of feature, but probably not well implemented.

Another thing, not all pen drives are compatible with this. I had a transcend 2gb usb drive, which Vista did not allow for readyboost. On the other hand, my kingston usb drives are easily recognised and configured.

 

[Kshitiz_Indian]

Also, the difference in speed is noticeable only if you have about 512 mb ram.
In my system i have 1GB ram, and readyboost does NOT make the system run any faster.

I read somewhere it was effective only for 512 mb ram, where the difference in speed could be noticeable.
It was a nice thought of feature, but probably not well implemented.

Another thing, not all pen drives are compatible with this. I had a transcend 2gb usb drive, which Vista did not allow for readyboost. On the other hand, my kingston usb drives are easily recognised and configured.

Probably right, because its only systems with less than 512 MB memory that become saturated, and hence the need for more RAM is felt....

And I just thought of one thing, isnt it that connecting two 256MB pen drives will give much faster experience than connecting one 512MB one? Because theorotically the bandwidth will be doubled, which is the main bottleneck.

 

[Abhas]

No. i've tried that. i connected a 4gb, and a 2gb. could hardly notice any difference.

If you buy 2 high speed pen drives to boost your RAM, it would be much better to just buy another stick of RAM. much faster, more effective, and a long-term solution.

 

[Ollie_H]

I have started using this since yesterday and I have to say have noticed a difference. I'm using a Cruzer Micro 1GB pen and its going really well.

 

[Kshitiz_Indian]

No. i've tried that. i connected a 4gb, and a 2gb. could hardly notice any difference.

If you buy 2 high speed pen drives to boost your RAM, it would be much better to just buy another stick of RAM. much faster, more effective, and a long-term solution.

Lol that last line is brilliant.

 

[Abhas]

I have started using this since yesterday and I have to say have noticed a difference. I'm using a Cruzer Micro 1GB pen and its going really well.

How much RAM do you have?