ReadyBoost

[guitardude]

I have a western digital 320 gig external hard drive. I was surprised to
find out that I couldn't use some of that space with ReadyBoost, or at least
the ReadyBoost tab in the device properties says I cant. Its USB 2.0 and it
definitely has enough space to support it, so why doesn't it? Thanks in
advance for any help,
guitardude

 

[Dustin Harper]

Because it is just a standard hard drive, albiet external. Even if you could
get it to work, it wouldn't be any faster as the main purpose of Readyboost
is to take advantage of the faster flash memory. Your external drive is no
faster than any other hard drive...

 

[guitardude]

Thanks to Thiassi and Dustin for your help. I had a feeling it was because
the drive wasn't flash based. the FAQ was a lot of help too. it answered
many of my other questions about ReadyBoost. I also saw something about
Windows SuperFetch. I looked this up and all I could make out was that it
might be a part of ReadyBoost (I got a little confused). is this right? If
not, how you use it? Thanks again for your help,
guitardude

 

[Dustin Harper]

Superfetch 'learns' how you use your computer, and loads commonly used files
into RAM to speed load time for certain programs. It should be enabled by
default.

 

[guitardude]

Thanks, you have been a great help.
guitardude

Superfetch 'learns' how you use your computer, and loads commonly used
files into RAM to speed load time for certain programs. It should be
enabled by default.

 

[dennis@home]

I have a western digital 320 gig external hard drive. I was surprised to
find out that I couldn't use some of that space with ReadyBoost, or at
least the ReadyBoost tab in the device properties says I cant. Its USB 2.0
and it definitely has enough space to support it, so why doesn't it?
Thanks in advance for any help,
guitardude

It is *far* too slow.
It would be better to just use a bigger swap file on an internal drive.

 

[guitardude]

how do I change my swap file's size. what is the recommended size for best
performance when matched with 2 gigs of physical ram?
thanks,
guitardude

 

[dennis@home]

how do I change my swap file's size. what is the recommended size for best
performance when matched with 2 gigs of physical ram?
thanks,
guitardude

Assuming you have not changed the defaults and your programs run then there
is no reason to change.
You will not make the system faster just able to run more programs without
running out of memory.
If performance is an issue and it is caused by use of the swap file the only
cure is more RAM.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

how do I change my swap file's size. what is the recommended size for best
performance when matched with 2 gigs of physical ram?

How much swap file you need depends on what apps you run and which of
them run simultaneously. It's not as simple as some factor of how much
RAM you have. The more RAM you have, the less you need swap file
(except for dumps) and the more you run at once, the more you need
swap file.

You can usually save some disk space by reducing the swap file minimum
below the Windows default, but in these days of cheap hard drives, the
value of what you can save is tiny. So it's usually best for most
people to leave the Windows defaults in place.

 

[guitardude]

Thanks everybody. Great info,
guitardude

How much swap file you need depends on what apps you run and which of
them run simultaneously. It's not as simple as some factor of how much
RAM you have. The more RAM you have, the less you need swap file
(except for dumps) and the more you run at once, the more you need
swap file.

You can usually save some disk space by reducing the swap file minimum
below the Windows default, but in these days of cheap hard drives, the
value of what you can save is tiny. So it's usually best for most
people to leave the Windows defaults in place.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Thanks everybody. Great info,

You're welcome. Glad to help.