Speed up my Windows XP Pro. SP3 with Flash USB drives/drives?

[Ant]

Hello.

I read that Vista and Windows 7 can be sped up faster by using Flash USB
sticks/drives (have 256 MB to 1 GB sizes). Can this be done with an
updated Windows XP Pro. SP3 too?

Thank you in advance.
--
"The general, unable to control his irritation, will launch his men to
the assault like swarming ants, with the result that one-third of his
men are slain, while the town still remains untaken. Such are the
disastrous effects of a siege." --Chapter 3 in Sun Tzu's The Ancient Art
of War (Translated by Lionel Giles)
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Phil/Ant @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site)
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Ant is currently not listening to any songs on his home computer.

 

[Hank J.]

Hello.

I read that Vista and Windows 7 can be sped up faster by using Flash USB
sticks/drives (have 256 MB to 1 GB sizes). Can this be done with an
updated Windows XP Pro. SP3 too?

Thank you in advance.

If you are referring to Vista's Readyboost, no.

 

[Ant]

If you are referring to Vista's Readyboost, no.

Yeah, that and thanks. Aww, someone should make one for XP.
--
"Busy as ants hurrying orcs were digging, digging lines of deep trenches
in a huge ring, just out of bowshot from the walls;" --The Return of the
King (book)
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Phil/Ant @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site)
| |o o| | Ant's Quality Foraged Links (AQFL): http://aqfl.net
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Ant is currently not listening to any songs on his home computer.

 

[JS]

No, "Ready Boost" is not part of Windows XP.

However if you want to see a significant performance
boost you can and a second hard drive. Partition the
new (2nd) drive so that the first partition (Logical drive)
is no more than 10% to 20% of the total drive size.

Now use the first partition to relocated your pagefile
and also as a location for temporary files.

 

[Bennett Marco]

Yeah, that and thanks. Aww, someone should make one for XP.

How much RAM does your system have?

 

[Ant]

How much RAM does your system have?

2 GB of RAM. Having some minor speed improvements with those USB Flash
drives would be nice.
--
"The ants are my friends, they're blowin' in the wind. The ant, sir, is
blowin' in the wind." --the misheard lyrics to Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in
the Wind"
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Phil/Ant @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site)
| |o o| | Ant's Quality Foraged Links (AQFL): http://aqfl.net
\ _ / Nuke ANT from e-mail address: (e-mail address removed)
( ) or (e-mail address removed)
Ant is currently not listening to any songs on his home computer.

 

[Ant]

No, "Ready Boost" is not part of Windows XP.

Darn. I was hoping someone made a software addon to be something like
this for XP.

However if you want to see a significant performance
boost you can and a second hard drive. Partition the
new (2nd) drive so that the first partition (Logical drive)
is no more than 10% to 20% of the total drive size.

Now use the first partition to relocated your pagefile
and also as a location for temporary files.

I have something like that already. Just curious if USB Flash
drives/sticks could be used for a little more speed up since I have
unused ones.
--
"It's kind of an insane case ... 6,000 ants dressed up as rice and
robbed a Chinese restaurant." --Steven Wright
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Phil/Ant @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site)
| |o o| | Ant's Quality Foraged Links (AQFL): http://aqfl.net
\ _ / Nuke ANT from e-mail address: (e-mail address removed)
( ) or (e-mail address removed)
Ant is currently not listening to any songs on his home computer.

 

[Bennett Marco]

2 GB of RAM. Having some minor speed improvements with those USB Flash
drives would be nice.

With that much RAM, even Vista wouldn't benefit from Readyboost.

You either need faster hard drives, or an upgrade of your mobo and
CPU.

 

[Ant]

With that much RAM, even Vista wouldn't benefit from Readyboost.

You either need faster hard drives, or an upgrade of your mobo and
CPU.

Oh OK. My quad-core PC is fast enough. Just looking for more speed ups
(always room for them!). I was hoping using USB Flash sticks/drives
would even make it faster. I guess not then! Thanks.
--
"This isn't a war. It never was a war, any more than there's war between
man and ants." --artilleryman from H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Phil/Ant @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site)
| |o o| | Ant's Quality Foraged Links (AQFL): http://aqfl.net
\ _ / Nuke ANT from e-mail address: (e-mail address removed)
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Ant is/was listening to a song on his home computer: Freemasons feat.
Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Heartbreak Make Me A Dancer (Freemasons & DJ's
P.A.D Re-Edit Extended Remix 2009) [5.14]

 

[Jose]

2 GB of RAM. Having some minor speed improvements with those USB Flash
drives would be nice.
--
"The ants are my friends, they're blowin' in the wind. The ant, sir, is
blowin' in the wind." --the misheard lyrics to Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in
the Wind"
    /\___/\
   / /\ /\ \         Phil/Ant @http://antfarm.ma.cx(Personal Web Site)
  | |o   o| |        Ant's Quality Foraged Links (AQFL):http://aqfl.net
     \ _ /         Nuke ANT from e-mail address: (e-mail address removed)
      ( )                                           or (e-mail address removed)
Ant is currently not listening to any songs on his home computer.

I found some 3rd party "solutions" to give at least a ReadyBoost
appearance to XP and a flash drive. Free to download and try.

Some people seem to be perturbed with even the real ReadyBoost -
perhaps their expectations are too high.

"ReadyBoost is a great technology when you’re low on RAM."

I think for XP, I would just add more RAM.

I wonder which would be faster and more reliable - a flash drive or on
board RAM?

Anybody multi OS people have experience with this in the real world?

 

[Bennett Marco]

I wonder which would be faster and more reliable - a flash drive or on
board RAM?

More RAM... but in this case, the OP has enough.

 

[db]

there is a third party
maker that makes
a ready boost version
for xp.

it's about 50 bucks.

-------------

they really act like
the hibernation feature

and you require usb
flash drives that are
twice the size of your
ram to provide the
full benefit.

also, flash drives come
in two flavors:

those that are ready
boost ready

and those that are
not.

-------------

one day microsoft
will hire the smart guy
who develops a rom
level hibernation.

but it will be a long
time til then.
--

db·´¯`·...¸><)))º>
DatabaseBen, Retired Professional
- Systems Analyst
- Database Developer
- Accountancy
- Veteran of the Armed Forces
- Microsoft Partner
- @hotmail.com
~~~~~~~~~~"share the nirvana" - dbZen

 

[Ant]

More RAM... but in this case, the OP has enough.

Yeah, I thought I could speed up XP's boot up like Vista's ReadyBoast
with one of those USB Flash sticks/drives.
--
"Even an ant can hurt an elephant." --Proverb
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Phil/Ant @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site)
| |o o| | Ant's Quality Foraged Links (AQFL): http://aqfl.net
\ _ / Nuke ANT from e-mail address: (e-mail address removed)
( ) or (e-mail address removed)
Ant is currently not listening to any songs on his home computer.

 

[Ant]

Um, nice poem?

there is a third party
maker that makes
a ready boost version
for xp.

it's about 50 bucks.

-------------

they really act like
the hibernation feature

and you require usb
flash drives that are
twice the size of your
ram to provide the
full benefit.

also, flash drives come
in two flavors:

those that are ready
boost ready

and those that are
not.

-------------

one day microsoft
will hire the smart guy
who develops a rom
level hibernation.

but it will be a long
time til then.

--
"Though your enemy is the size of an ant, look upon him as an elephant."
--Danish
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Phil/Ant @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site)
| |o o| | Ant's Quality Foraged Links (AQFL): http://aqfl.net
\ _ / Nuke ANT from e-mail address: (e-mail address removed)
( ) or (e-mail address removed)
Ant is currently not listening to any songs on his home computer.

 

[Gerry]

JS

"and also as a location for temporary files". That's a variant I have
not seen suggested before!

--


Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Jon]

"use the first partition to relocated your pagefile"

Would the paging file get used much when you have 2Gbytes of RAM? I'm assuming that the user isn't
using lots of very big programmes.


No, "Ready Boost" is not part of Windows XP.

However if you want to see a significant performance
boost you can and a second hard drive. Partition the
new (2nd) drive so that the first partition (Logical drive)
is no more than 10% to 20% of the total drive size.

Now use the first partition to relocated your pagefile
and also as a location for temporary files.

 

[db]

you're welcome.

Um, nice poem?



--
"Though your enemy is the size of an ant, look upon him as an
elephant." --Danish
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Phil/Ant @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site)
| |o o| | Ant's Quality Foraged Links (AQFL): http://aqfl.net
\ _ / Nuke ANT from e-mail address: (e-mail address removed)
( ) or (e-mail address removed)
Ant is currently not listening to any songs on his home computer.

 

[Gerry]

Jon

The pagefile is always used regardless of the amount of RAM. However,
the more the RAM the less the use made of the pagefile.

You can get more accurate information on pagefile usage using
pagefilemon, a small freeware utility.

Use page file monitor to observe what is the peak usage. Start it to run
immediately after start-up and look at the log. Pagefilemon takes
snapshots. You need to run it at the beginning of the session at then
run it again at intervals throughout the sessions. The log is Pagefile
log.txt. If you right click on the file in Windows Explorer and select
Send to, Desktop (Create Shortcut). The same applies to
XP_PageFileMon.exe.

A small utility to monitor pagefile usage:
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_pagefilemon.htm

Note that programs using undo features, particularly those associated
with graphics and photo editing, require large amounts of memory so if
you use this type of programme check these first observing how the page
usage increases when they start and whether the usage decreases when you
close the programme.

You can get clues as to what is generating peak memory demands but this
is not a precise science, more a matter of judgement.


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[JS]

JS

"and also as a location for temporary files". That's a variant I have not
seen suggested before!

--


Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

< snipped>

Yes, but some applications and Windows are
constantly creating temp files, some are left behind
and other are automatically deleted.

Since these file create a lot of disk activity locating
them to the fastest part of a second hard drive can
speed things up.

On the PC I'm currently using I have the pagefile
on my third internal hard drive and temp files go
to the 2nd partition on my second drive.

I'm in the process of putting together an article on
this subject and more on my web site in the near
future. I think you will find it interesting and useful.

 

[JS]

"use the first partition to relocated your pagefile"

Would the paging file get used much when you have 2Gbytes of RAM? I'm
assuming that the user isn't
using lots of very big programmes.

<Snipped>

Windows is not like UNIX and the user has
no control over what gets paged/swapped
out to this file, so it is always in use.

Make matters worse is the fact that the
pagefile can end up being heavily fragmented
and stays that way unless you install a utility
like "PageDefrag" from SysInternals:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897426.aspx

However with the pagefile located on it's own partition
it never gets fragmented.