Ready Boost Issue

[Maurice]

Working with laptop with 2GB memory, 2.66Ghz processor. Added a 1GB USB
flash drive for 'Ready Boost' which generates the message: 'This device does
not have the required performance characteristics for use in speeding up your
system'. Is there a specification that can be specified on a USB drive? I've
used other drives of different brands and of lesser capacity with the same
results. How should one proceed from here? Additionally, this feature would
be a valuable feature for MS server. Does this feature exist or being
considered? Guidance sought.

 

[Ken Blake]

Working with laptop with 2GB memory, 2.66Ghz processor. Added a 1GB USB
flash drive for 'Ready Boost' which generates the message: 'This device
does
not have the required performance characteristics for use in speeding up
your
system'. Is there a specification that can be specified on a USB drive?
I've
used other drives of different brands and of lesser capacity with the same
results. How should one proceed from here? Additionally, this feature
would
be a valuable feature for MS server. Does this feature exist or being
considered? Guidance sought.

If you have as much as 2GB of RAM, it's highly unlikely that ready boost
will do anything useful for you at all.

And if you had less than 2GB, your money would better be spent buying more
RAM. The combination of these two point is why I think very little of Ready
Boost.

 

[Snidley W.]

'This device does not have the required performance characteristics for
use in speeding up your system'. Is there a specification that can be
specified on a USB drive? I've used other drives of different brands
and of lesser capacity with the same results. How should one proceed
from here?

The previous reply told you that Readyboost would not likely be of any
value to you even if the drive worked.

As it stands, there is nothing you can do to the drive to change
things. Try to get a refund if it is labeled as "Readyboost capable",
otherwise add the device to your collection of gadgets.

 

[Maurice]

Much thanks for the timely reply. Actually, the drive was a freebie at a
recent MS Technet session. 2GB is the maximum memory for this machine [and I
am pleased with the present performance] but I might want to play with
virtualization products. Is there any memory capacity that would boost
performance say.. 10-20%? Just a theory question for now.

 

[Saucy]

Working with laptop with 2GB memory, 2.66Ghz processor. Added a 1GB USB
flash drive for 'Ready Boost' which generates the message: 'This device
does
not have the required performance characteristics for use in speeding up
your
system'. Is there a specification that can be specified on a USB drive?
I've
used other drives of different brands and of lesser capacity with the same
results. How should one proceed from here? Additionally, this feature
would
be a valuable feature for MS server. Does this feature exist or being
considered? Guidance sought.

Hi:

ReadyBoost was intended for computer desktops and laptops with less than 1GB
RAM. I got it working on a laptop with 1GB and found the ReadyBoost seemed
to slow rather than speed the system!

... So ..

The way I got my laptop running to my liking was to go out and buy more RAM.
With 2GB in it now it works very well.

Saucy

 

[LesleyO]

Working with laptop with 2GB memory, 2.66Ghz processor. Added a 1GB USB
flash drive for 'Ready Boost' which generates the message: 'This device
does
not have the required performance characteristics for use in speeding up
your
system'. Is there a specification that can be specified on a USB drive?
I've
used other drives of different brands and of lesser capacity with the same
results. How should one proceed from here? Additionally, this feature
would
be a valuable feature for MS server. Does this feature exist or being
considered? Guidance sought.

There are very inexpensive USB drives that may not work with ReadyBoost; if
you buy one that is current and rated as fast, it will likely work. And
while I already have the max amount of RAM installed, I do use ReadyBoost,
in fact I have a four GB installed.

It isn't necessarily true that having ReadyBoost won't do anything for you.

Check these two articles at PC Magazine: the first is regarding ReadyBoost,
and the second, having access to more RAM. Hope this helps!
Lesley

http://tinyurl.com/6glgsc


http://tinyurl.com/5m9qpc

 

[AJR]

Once again - ReadyBoost is not an adjunct to RAM- it is not an "addition" to
RAM. ReadyBoost performance depends primarily on read/write activities -
non-sequential read/writes are sent to the ReadyBoost device and sequential
to the HD. ReadyBoost is more usable in laptops due to the "lower" HD specs
compared to desktops.

In addition to working hand-in -hand with superfetch, ReadyBoost (with
Vista) monitors usage over a period of time - based upon the results,
ReadyBoost will use the info to increase boot time.


Following may be of value:

To be used as a ReadyBoost device, your flash drive has to pass several
tests, including available free space, write performance, and random read
performance. When you connect a supported flash device to your system and
choose the Speed Up My System option, Windows Vista runs a quick performance
test to see if the device meets minimum standards required for ReadyBoost.
Those standards are:

a.. 2.5 MB/sec throughout for 4 KB random reads
b.. 1.75 MB/sec throughout for 512 KB random writes
These results must be consistent across the entire device. In addition, the
device must be at least 235 MB in size (although you can designate less than
the full space on the drive for the ReadyBoost cache).

If any of these tests fail, the drive is rejected.

If you get a failure message when you first insert a flash device and try to
use it as a ReadyBoost drive, you can click Test Again to get a second
hearing. If the drive fails several tests, you can look up the specific
performance results for yourself. Open Event Viewer (Eventvwr.msc) and click
the Applications And Services Logs category in the console tree on the left.
Under this heading, click Microsoft, Windows, and ReadyBoost. Under this
latter heading, select Operational. The log entries in the center pane
include performance test results for both successful and unsuccessful
attempts.

 

[Big D]

Once again - ReadyBoost is not an adjunct to RAM- it is not an "addition" to
RAM. ReadyBoost performance depends primarily on read/write activities -
non-sequential read/writes are sent to the ReadyBoost device and sequential
to the HD. ReadyBoost is more usable in laptops due to the "lower" HD specs
compared to desktops.

In addition to working hand-in -hand with superfetch, ReadyBoost (with
Vista) monitors usage over a period of time - based upon the results,
ReadyBoost will use the info to increase boot time.


Following may be of value:

And it was 100% quoted - without attribution - from a blog by Ed Bott
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=186

To be used as a ReadyBoost device,

[snip of stolen material]

 

[Snidley W.]

Much thanks for the timely reply. Actually, the drive was a freebie at a
recent MS Technet session. 2GB is the maximum memory for this machine [and I
am pleased with the present performance] but I might want to play with
virtualization products. Is there any memory capacity that would boost
performance say.. 10-20%? Just a theory question for now.

I boosted my own system from 1G to 3G and I can't really say that I
saw much of a "boost" afterwards. But I don't push this system much.
The most RAM-intensive apps I run are Photoshop and maybe GoldWave

 

[Aaron]

Working with laptop with 2GB memory, 2.66Ghz processor. Added a 1GB USB
flash drive for 'Ready Boost' which generates the message: 'This device does
not have the required performance characteristics for use in speeding up your
system'. Is there a specification that can be specified on a USB drive? I've
used other drives of different brands and of lesser capacity with the same
results. How should one proceed from here? Additionally, this feature would
be a valuable feature for MS server. Does this feature exist or being
considered? Guidance sought.

Plenty of info here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ready_Boost
With lots of external links, including MS's.

My laptop has an overkill at 4GB of RAM, so I do not need Ready Boost.