readyboost problems

[Consultant]

has anyone else got this, i tried a new 2gb sd card and a 1gb usb drive and
attempted to use them under readyboost, but both said does not have the
required performance characteristics for use in speeding up my system. any
thoughts?

 

[Byron Hinson]

What stick are they, they have to have a certain speed to make the cut. I
did a test of some here:

http://www.activewin.com/reviews/hardware/memory/vista/readyboost.shtml

 

[MICHAEL]

has anyone else got this, i tried a new 2gb sd card and a 1gb usb drive and attempted to use
them under readyboost, but both said does not have the required performance characteristics
for use in speeding up my system. any thoughts?

ReadyBoost can be a tricky thing to get working
on some flash drives, and a lot of flash drives
just aren't fast enough for ReadyBoost.

Try this first;
Go into Device Manager>Disk Drives
Find your flash drive. Double click it.
Policies tab.
Make sure "Optimize for performance" is checked.

Test again.

Sometimes even formatting the drive can do the trick.
Either FAT or FAT32.

Make sure it's not plugged into a USB hub.
Or, try plugging it into another slot.


ReadyBoost - Using Your USB Key to Speed Up Windows Vista
http://blogs.msdn.com/tomarcher/archive/2006/04/14/576548.aspx

The USB Key must be at least USB 2.0
The device must be able to do 3.5 MB/s for 4 KB random reads uniformly
across the entire device and 2.5 MB/s for 512 KB random writes uniformly
across the device.



-Michael

 

[Tom Porterfield]

has anyone else got this, i tried a new 2gb sd card and a 1gb usb drive
and attempted to use them under readyboost, but both said does not have
the required performance characteristics for use in speeding up my
system. any thoughts?

The basic performance requirements for ReadyBoost are as follows:

a.. The USB Key must be at least USB 2.0
a.. The device must be able to do 3.5 MB/s for 4 KB random reads uniformly
across the entire device and 2.5 MB/s for 512 KB random writes uniformly
across the device.
a.. The USB Key has to have at least 64mb of free space

See http://blogs.msdn.com/tomarcher/archive/2006/06/02/615199.aspx for more
info on ReadyBoost.

 

[Bob Huntley]

When I messed around with the Beta version of Vista my memory stick worked
for Readyboost in the 32 bit version, but not in the 64 bit version. After
some discussion in the newsgroups, general opinion was the sub-optimal
motherboard drivers in the 64 bit version were enough to take it below the
speed threshold.

In short, you need fast memory to make this work.

 

[Bobby]

Thanks Michael. I followed your advice but everything I tried failed until I
did a complete re-format and hey-presto! the device was able to function!
Thanks.

 

[MICHAEL]

You're welcome, Bobby. There are times, for whatever reason,
formatting the flash drive makes it work. Even if it's brand new.

-Michael

 

[Guest]

Hi Michael:
I'm currently using Valgear GXT 2GB 133x, and it works fine. But I have
one question. i tried to formmat it from fat to fat32 but it couldn't be
done. I'm wondering if switching it to fat32 would make it perform better? if
so, how can I do this? thanks very much for your time

 

[Richard Urban]

Changing the format will not likely change the performance.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[Guest]

thanks Richard. One more thing, how do I know if the readyboost is working
the way it should be. At what part(what kind) of processing will I notice the
difference? Cause I don't notice any difference though. Thanks very much for
your time

 

[Richard Urban]

The best test I have found is timing the first time you open an application,
like Windows Mail. After a few minutes, close it down. In 5 minutes open it
again and see how much faster it responds.

Very scientific. Called usability test.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!