Do you have a USB flash drive laying around? Speed up your Windows Vista with the ReadyBoost feature. It allows you to use that spare space on a USB stick reduce wait time when using Vista.
Basically Windows ReadyBoost allows Vista to use a compatible USB flash drive as cache instead of the hard drive. Microsoft suggests that you provide enough space on a flash drive for ReadyBoost so that you are in at least a 1:1 ratio with your installed physical RAM. So if you have 1Gig of Ram installed, would be best ot have a 1Gig USB drive, or at minimum 512Meg free of space on it.
Without getting too picky if you have a really old USB drive, see if you can find out the specs for it, it is recommended that the USB drive you have be at least:
5 MB/sec throughput for random 4k reads across the entire device 3 MB/sec throughput for random 512k writes across the entire deviceHere are some suggestions on compatible Readyboost Flash drives
Steps to enabling ReadyBoost
1. Insert the USB drive into one of your computer's USB ports. The AutoPlay dialog box opens a few seconds after plugging the drive in asking you what you want to do. Click "Speed up my system".
2. A new screen will appear showing the ReadyBoost properties. Select the "Use This Device" option. Then use the slider labeled
"Space to reserve for system speed" to reserve the amount of space you would like to assign to ReadyBoost. Use 100% of the USB sticks space if you can.
3. Click on the
Apply and then the
OK buttons to finalize the changes. The USB flash drive is now reserved as your ReadyBoost device and will be used as additional cache memory. Just remember to keep the USB stick plugged into the USB port on your PC when it boots up so Vista can detect and use it. You should notice a significant speed boost since accessing the flash drive is faster than accessing the hard drive.
Note: You can verify that ReadBoost was setup on the USB Stick by opening the drive. You will see a file called
ReadyBoost and it will have a file type description of
ReadyBoost Cache File. The size of the file will also be the same as what you allocated towards ReadyBoost.
Also keep in mind that you can only have one active ReadyBoost usb drive per system.
Other Tips Users have watched
Written by PCWizKid on April 11th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Contributors and Microsoft Windows Vista and ReadyBoost and pcwizkid.
If you have a spare U.S.B. flash drive with at least 256 megabytes of free space on it, you can use it to give your Windows Vista-operated PC an extra cache of memory to help increase speed, using the Windows ReadyBoost feature. Just plug the drive into a U.S.B. 2.0 port, and if it is fast enough to work with ReadyBoost, the system will prompt you to set it up. You do not have to erase any existing files on the drive and can indicate how much space you want to use for storage. The feature also works with Secure Digital cards.
Windows ReadyBoost can use storage space on some removable media devices, such as USB flash drives, to speed up your computer. When you insert a compatible device, the AutoPlay dialog box will offer you the option to speed up your system using Windows ReadyBoost. (more…)
Tags:
cache,
flash drive,
increase speed,
memory,
Prompt,
readyboost,
storage,
system speed,
Troubleshoot,
usb,
usb flash drive,
Vista-operated,
Windows,
windows vista
Related posts
Written by Jason on March 25th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Contributors and Prompt and ReadyBoost and Troubleshoot and USB and Windows Vista and cache and flash drive and memory and usb flash drive and windows.
Is Windows Vista Faster Than XP?
Our Windows Vista coverage began with a hands-on diary by MobilityGuru’s Barry Gerber, followed by an assessment of gameplay under Windows Vistaby graphics presidente Darren Polkowski, as well as a complete feature rundown of Vista. Barry took the new operating system and its look & feel with a grain of salt, while Darren was disappointed because OpenGL support was dropped along the way, meaning that Windows Vista currently offers horrible performance for graphics applications utilizing the Open Graphics Library.
We are sure that mainstream users will appreciate the improved usability of Windows Vista, and the average office/multimedia user will likely never notice the lack of OpenGL. However, a chapter on the overall performance of Windows Vista requires more dedication. In particular, two things require an in-depth analysis: (more…)
Tags:
Adobe,
aero,
analysis,
antivirus,
available memory,
balanced performance,
benchmark,
benchmarks,
Firefox,
flash memory device,
Microsoft,
microsoft office,
Mozilla,
open graphics library,
Operating system,
PC Suite,
PCMark,
performance enhancements,
physical ram,
RAM,
readyboost,
rundown,
Software,
speed,
test system,
usability,
user experience,
Windows,
windows vista,
windows xp,
WinRAR
Related posts
Written by Jason on March 4th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Adobe and Benchmark and Firefox and PC Suite and PCMark and Ram and ReadyBoost and Software and WinRAR and Windows Vista and Windows XP and aero and analysis and antivirus and available memory and balanced performance and benchmarks and flash memory device and microsoft and microsoft office and mozilla and open graphics library and operating system and performance enhancements and physical ram and rundown and speed and test system and usability and user experience and windows.
-
Apparently in some cases it even hurts performance.
-
Ballmer gets to defend Vista after a mother first installs, then uninstalls it for her daughter.
-
If you manage Vista machines with GPOs, the Group Policy Team Blog has packaged all of the .admx/.adml files that shipped with Vista and have them available for download.
Written by Joe on October 11th, 2007 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on GPO and News and PR and Policy and ReadyBoost and review.
I use ReadyBoost in Vista. One day, I went to power up my laptop and when Vista resumed from hibernation I noticed that the light on the USB Flash-memory Device (UFD) was not on. Finding this a bit odd, I jumped into Windows Explorer, double-clicked on the E drive (the letter assigned to the UFD), and was presented with an interesting dialog:
Title: Item Not Found
Text: Could not find this item
This is no longer located in <%3 NULL:OpText>.
Verify the item's location and try again.
Removable Disk
Try Again Cancel
So I looked at the back of my laptop to verify the item's location, and deciding that the item was still there I clicked "Try Again". (I know, I know - not really what the person who wrote the message for the dialog intended...) I don't recall if the dialog dismissed and another instance reappeared, or if it was just that nothing happened. Either way, I wasn't getting anywhere. I unplugged the UFD, and plugged it back in again and things were fine.
A few days later, the same thing happened. I suspect I'll be dealing with this for a while.
Procedurally, I hate to think that I'm going to have to eject the device prior to hibernating, and then plug the device in again when Vista resumes - that's too tedious for my tastes. ReadyBoost would have to have a significant impact on performance for me to go through that rigamarole, and at this point I'm just not convinced that's the case.
Anyone else coping with %3 NULL:OpText? How are you dealing with it?
»
Written by «/\/\Ø|ö±ò\/»®© on May 6th, 2007 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on ReadyBoost and error message and vista.
Do you have a USB flash drive laying around? Speed up your Windows Vista with the ReadyBoost feature. It allows you to use that spare space on a USB stick reduce wait time when using Vista.
3. Click on the Apply and then the OK buttons to finalize the changes. The USB flash drive is now reserved as your ReadyBoost device and will be used as additional cache memory. Just remember to keep the USB stick plugged into the USB port on your PC when it boots up so Vista can detect and use it. You should notice a significant speed boost since accessing the flash drive is faster than accessing the hard drive. 