Suggestions for ReadyBoost stability?

[Guest]

I have a SanDisk Cruzer Titanium 2GB drive, running on a P4 extreme 3.2 w/ 2
GB system RAM. I'm running RC2, build 5744.

ReadyBoost worked smootly when I plugged the drive in, I used the default
1840 MB suggested cache drive size, the ReadyBoost.sfcache file gets created,
I see the file there, but then, anywhere from 1 minute to 6 hours, the file
disappears. I don't see anything in the ReadyBoost log file, I don't get any
messages, it just goes away seemingly randomly. I can recreate the file by
just adjusting the size and the same situation repeats itself. Restarting the
system or the ReadyBoost service doesn't change this behavior.

I know that ReadyBoost is designed to fail back to the HD this way when it
encounters errors, but this is a brand new USB drive, I've formatted it,
scandisked it, and it comes up clean every time.

Where should I look for more diagnostic information? Is there anything I
should try to increase the stability?

 

[MICHAEL]

First, your USB drive does *not* have to be formatted
in NTFS. On smaller drives- FAT and FAT32 are actually
a bit faster than NTFS.

Second, go into Device Manager>Disk Drives> find your
USB drive> Click Properties> Click the Policies tab>
Set it to "Optimize for Performance".

If the USB drive is plugged into a hub, take it out and plug
it directly into your computer. Also, moving it to another
USB slot on the computer may help.


-Michael

 

[Guest]

Thanks Michael. I switched back to FAT32 and turned on "Optimize for
Performance" but I'm back to where I started.

I actually double posted this by accident - the windowshelp web interface's
fault - and I documented a few more things I've done to try and fix this
under that one, but I'm not sure where to go from here.

I still cannot find any logs or events that give me any kind of error.
Everything according to the ReadyBoost logs seems fine. Is there a way to
turn on more diagnostics?

 

[MICHAEL]

Corey, I don't know. Some flash drives just don't work
with ReadyBoost. See if you can format it with FAT
and try again. Do the complete format and not the
"Quick" format. Test it a couple of times. Did you try
another USB slot?

-Michael

 

[Guest]

I've tried everything I can think of on this machine, my choices seem to be

a) take the Sandisk back to the store and try another brand of
b) do a clean install of Vista (really painful option)
c) wait for another build of Vista, try again later

Which would you suggest?
-Corey

 

[MICHAEL]

Other than the Sandisk not working for ReadyBoost-
is Vista stable and useable?

If it is, try taking the Sandisk back and getting another
USB flash drive.

Here is a good article on ReadyBoost and tested products:

http://www.extremetech.com/print_article2/0,1217,a=189051,00.asp