ReadyBoost®
Basics
- Windows® ReadyBoost® is a feature available if
you have a Microsoft® Windows® 7, 8 or Vista Operating System.
- When enabled, the flash memory in products
such as memory sticks, flash drives and SD cards is used by the computer
as a cache.
- Because most flash memory devices have a
higher random read/write speed than hard drives, a performance gain is
obtained by using Readyboost®.
- Although Readyboost® improves the speed of
random read/write operations, it doesn't get involved in sequential
read/write operations, as the computer's own hard drive can do this best.
ReadyBoost® therefore uses logic to recognize large sequential read
requests and reads from the hard drive for these.
ReadyBoost Requirements
For ReadyBoost to
improve your computers performance the following requirements need to be met:
- The memory stick, flash drive or SD card must
have a capacity greater than 256mb.
- The memory should have a 2.5MB/sec throughput
for 4K random reads and 1.75MB/sec throughput for 512K random writes.
- The memory stick, flash drive or SD card
should be 1-3 times the size of the RAM on your computer.
- Note that if you have a flash drive with more
capacity than 4GB, this excess will not be used by ReadyBoost® due to
limitations of the FAT32 file system
Initiating Windows® ReadyBoost® with a Flash Drive
Windows® ReadyBoost®
is only available with Windows® 7, 8 and Vista, using it is very simple.
i.
Plug
in your flash drive into the USB Port on your Windows® 7, 8 or Vista PC.
ii.
The
following window should then appear:
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iii.
Select
'Speed up my system'
Setting a Flash Drive up for ReadyBoost®
i.
Assuming
that you have plugged the flash drive in, and initiated Readyboost as above, go
to 'My Computer', right click your flash drive icon and select 'properties'
ii.
The
following menu should appear, click on the 'ReadyBoost' tab
iii.
'Use
this device' should be selected, and you can scale the amount of memory the
computer can use for ReadyBoost®
Examples of when Windows ReadyBoost is Effective
- Readyboost® is especially useful when seeking
performance gains from a computer lacking free expansions slots for RAM.
Note however that if your computer has free RAM slots and you consistently
find a lack of computer performance, there is no substitute for installing
more RAM.
- ReadyBoost® is most effective for aiding RAM
intensive programs
Operations
where Windows® ReadyBoost® gives noticeable speed gains.
- Opening and closing of applications such as
Adobe® Photoshop® and Microsoft® Word.
- Computer Games
- Heavy Internet Browsing (e.g. streaming
content or multi-tabs browsing)
Resources
on Windows® ReadyBoost® Performance:
http://www.anandtech.com/systems/showdoc.aspx?i=2917&p=6
http://blogs.msdn.com/tomarcher/archive/2006/06/02/readyboost-q-a.aspx
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/products/features/readyboost