Vista Ready Boost

[nayov]

Anybody try this trick and does it work (using a flash drive to boost speed)?
I have 2G that came with my Dell. I don't do any gaming, so will this be a complete waste? Best Buy has a sale on them, $29 for a 4G drive; $19 for a 2G flash drive.

[giradman]

Well, I've not given 'ready boost' a try - have a Dell laptop w/ VISTA & 2 MB RAM (also, own a number of USB drives that are compatible w/ 'ready boost' - make sure your potential devices are going to work) - but to date I've not even tried the feature; from my reading, if you have at least 2 MB of RAM on your VISTA system, 'ready boost' does not make much difference; but, if you give it a try, please let us know of your experience -

[ups4]

Hi nayov.

I did the exact same thing you're thinking about doing.

Dell Inspiron with 2 GB RAM installed, running Vista Home Premium. I found a 4 GB SanDisk Cruzer on sale at Best Buy for around $30...I had a $25 gift card, so I thought what the heck .

Bought it, installed it....meh...didn't see much difference.
Your mileage may vary though.

Paul

[cHiNgY1788]

with large amounts of RAM superfetch takes over
if you have small amounts of RAM most of the programs cant be cached up in RAM so its put on FLASH which is slower than RAM but faster than the HDD
Ready boost takes advantage of the FLASH's fast seek speed

Thats what I make of it anyways

There is an XP version of ready boost called eboostr

[nayov]

Well, it doesn't do much of anything, but my computer is pretty much naked as it's so new. It's akin to using premium fuel in a car that requires regular. The premium will do nothing except to trick you into believe that you can "feel" an increase in power.

Also, it has to be unplugged before you shut down the computer b/c it won't boot up when you start it (black screen with flashing cursor upper left). What a pain in the neck.

[cHiNgY1788]

Also, it has to be unplugged before you shut down the computer b/c it won't boot up when you start it

that is quite weird
I suggest contacting the seller or manufacturer and asking about it

[nayov]

It has to be manually shut down via the taskbar ("safely remove hardware" icon), I found out. That way I won't have to pull it out of the USB port. Not worth it, so I'll be using it has a flash drive rather than any kind of boost aid. Maybe when my computer is cluttered with more programs and pics/vids the boost will help with the speed. Also, it has to be set to either boost or storage (varying amounts available), another annoyance.

[ups4]

Originally Posted by nayov

Also, it has to be unplugged before you shut down the computer b/c it won't boot up when you start it (black screen with flashing cursor upper left). What a pain in the neck.

That is unusual. I've never had to remove the flash drive for shut down or start up. I do have the "safely remove hardware" icon in the task bar, but I just ignore it.
Everything works as it did before I installed the drive. I just leave it in all the time in hopes that someday it will magically instill some kind of speed increase .

Paul

[cHiNgY1788]

i think you have to use It for a while, so super fetch can learn you're usage patterns and load up frequently used programs onto the flash drive, so they load faster