vista with a flashdrive?

[Mallarddrake44]

my friend was telling me there is a way to put a 2gb or minimum 1gb flashdrive into a usb slot and vista has a setting that will use this as memory? can anyone tell me to do this or how it works..thanks

 

[mechBgon]

That is called ReadyBoost. See the Vista thread stickied at the top of the list in this section of the Forum for more information about ReadyBoost.

 

[Noema]

It won't exactly be used as RAM, rather as a random-read cache too alleviate disk I/O, since a flash memory stick / card can have faster random read times than a HDD (which is faster for sequential reads). It's meant for Vista machines with less than the optimal amount of RAM (less than 1GB)

In order to do this, simply plug an USB stick and Vista will present the option to use ReadyBoost with the device, provided that the device is fast enough to serve this purpose. If so, you'll be able to select the 'Readyboost' option from the popup menu and allocate a % of the drive for it.

Here's Wikipedia's entry on the matter.

From MS's website

 

[Mallarddrake44]

thats pretty neat..preciate it

 

[Rottie]

Is Readyboost really very useful? I don't think so because I read somewhere it gives you 5 to 10% boost that is all.

 

[JWade]

5-10% is better than 0% in my book. An increase is still an increase. With the cost of usb drives, i think its a good $ to performance increase. I got a 1gb internal drive and put it in mine (connects directly to the usb header on the motherboard inside, so it doesnt stick out of the case on an external USB port, i dotn even see it, got it for like $16)

 

[nerp]

Read up a little and it will make sense. It works best with machines that have less than 2GB of memory. Systems with plenty of memory won't see a dramatic improvement but if you're low, say, with just 512mb, a 1GB readyboost stick will make quite a noticable difference. A 2GB machine with the same stick won't see a huge difference -- perhaps slightly faster boot times and a bit more room for superfetch.

To put readyboost into perspective, think of it as an extension of your superfetch cache. If you're hurtin' for more cache, Readyboost is a decent and arguably temporary solution to give a machine a shot in the arm.