Readyboost Trick For Windows XP

[mstpblog]

View : [ Microsoft Technology Playground ]

Many XP users are desperate to use a feature like Vista Readyboost on XP. It seems in some cases that people hate to wait for a program to be released; which is a shame considering how the best things in life comes with patience. However, for those of you who can’t wait for programmers to release a simple application, you can use Windows XP unspoken Readyboost Feature. NOTE: Before reading the info below, be aware that even though it may appear simple, most people don’t know how to activate this feature properly. As a result to the aforementioned, many don’t achieve the expected results -> [For these users, I advice you to be patient and to wait for programmers to do their jobs]-> ALSO, BE SURE YOU HAVE A READYBOOST COMPATIBLE FLASK DRIVE, otherwise, you won’t see any difference in Window performance (even though you can use this feature on any flask drive).

XP Readyboost Configuration: Keep Reading

Right click on My Computer, go to Properties, and then navigate to the Advanced or Performance tab.

After you have reached this point, follow the images below.


Once you have reached the screen above, select your flask drive, and add it to your virtual memory (paging size is up to you).
*It is recommend making a partition just for file swaping (if using a hard drive instead of a flask drive), so that system fragmentation won’t force the swap file to fragment as well.

*As investigated by Morara*: The max amount of swap per drive is 4GB, but you can put more by spreading it out across multiple drives. As far as size, a general rule of thumb is to use twice your RAM until you break 2GB on a desktop (CAD workstations and servers might require more), then use an amount equal to your RAM.

[Ankur Gupta]

^^Pen Drive will die out very fast if used that way....
Readyboost minimizes the read/write cycles so that pen drives dont die out...

[infra_red_dude]

i don't understand why was readybost developed in first place!!! a hard disk faster and more reliable now a dayz. why not simply increase the swap usage and do away wid readyboost? guess all marketting gimmick! i'm yet to see or hear abt a case where readyboost has actually worked! my personal exp. has been on the negative side.

btw, don't follow this method of setting the swap file on usb drive. you'll soon end up wid a keychain otherwise!

[Pathik]

^^ absolutely right... but flash memory is faster than hdd memory..

[Gigacore]

flash is faster than HDD, but not reliable! consistency matters!

you can get a good external HDD like seagate's 5 gb one and could use this feature. my friend is doing the same on vista, it works great

[Ankur Gupta]

^^Wont it be better to get a RAM instead!
BTW how much did the Hard Disk cost him ??

[infra_red_dude]

compare the speed of usb2.0 and sata2. flash memory is faster but only if its given a proper channel for communication. by using usb2.0 you are limiting its speed to 480mbps. flash is faster when it comes to transfereing small files coz of low overhead. however, in case of harddisk the overhead is substaintially higher.

[Gigacore]

@ a.gupta.me, it costs around 5 to 6k in Bangalore,

so can you get a 5 GB RAM for this price? so i think its a good solution

[casanova]

^^
U can't but if a HDD is bought specially for this thingy, it would have been better to buy a GB of RAM