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Currently, I have Windows 7 32 bit installed on my Dell Studio 15 laptop. I originally had Windows Vista, but upgraded to Windows 7 Professional 32 bit for free during an event on my college campus. My laptop is however, 64 bit capable, so I'd like to upgrade to 64 bit. I am trying to use a SanDisk Cruzer Micro drive 256MB and ready boost. The flash drive is capable of 13MB/s Write and 15MB/s Read speed, and as far as I knew Windows Vista required the following: The device must be at least 64 MB The device must be USB 2.0 It has to be able to read at 3.5 MB/s It h. In 64-bit Windows, up to 32 GB of the cache can be created on a single NTFS-formatted removable drive, even if the drive itself is larger. Windows 7, 8/8.1, and 10 also support the exFAT file system (cache up to 32 GB in size, too) for ReadyBoost. On FAT16 and FAT32 drives, file size limits of 2 and 4 gigabytes still apply.
Windows 7 / Getting StartedThe data stored in the ReadyBoost cache is protected using 128-bit AES encryption by default. A hardware manufacturer putting a ReadyBoost supplement in the machine itself can disable the.
Windows 7 supports Windows ReadyBoost, originally introduced with Windows Vista. Ready-Boost uses external USB flash drives as a hard disk cache, thus improving disk read performancein some circumstances. Supported external storage types include USB thumb drives asshown in Figure below, SD cards, and CF cards.
Unlike Windows Vista, Windows 7 recognizes that ReadyBoost will not provide a performancegain when the primary disk is an SSD. Windows 7 disables ReadyBoost when readingfrom an SSD drive.
External storage must meet the following requirements:
- Capacity of at least 256 MB, with at least 64 kilobytes (KB) of free space. The 4-GB limitof Windows Vista has been removed.
- At least a 2.5 MB/sec throughput for 4-KB random reads
- At least a 1.75 MB/sec throughput for 1-MB random writes
Unfortunately, most flash storage provides only raw throughput performance statisticsmeasured under ideal conditions, not the very specific 4-KB random reads required byReadyBoost. Therefore, the most effective way to determine whether a specific flash drivemeets ReadyBoost requirements is simply to test it. Windows Vista and Windows 7 automaticallytest removable storage when attached. If a storage device fails the test, Windows willautomatically retest the storage on a regular basis.
Some devices will show the phrase 'Enhanced for Windows ReadyBoost' on the packaging,which means that Microsoft has tested the device specifically for this feature. If you connect aflash drive that meets these requirements, AutoPlay will provide ReadyBoost as an option.
AutoPlay will prompt the user to use a compatible device with ReadyBoost.
Alternatively, you can configure ReadyBoost by right-clicking the device in WindowsExplorer, clicking Properties, and then clicking the ReadyBoost tab. The only configurationoption is to configure the space reserved for the cache. You must reserve at least 256 MB.Larger caches can improve performance, but the ReadyBoost cache cannot be greater than4 GB on a FAT32 file system or greater than 32 GB on an NTFS file system.
Windows Vista and Windows 7 use the Windows SuperFetch algorithm (the successorto Windows Prefetcher) to determine which files should be stored in the cache. SuperFetchmonitors files that users access (including system files, application files, and documents) and preloadsthose files into the ReadyBoost cache. All files in the cache are encrypted using 128-bit AESif the flash storage device is removable, but hardware manufacturers can choose to disableencryption on internal, nonremovable ReadyBoost devices. Because the ReadyBoost cachestores a copy of the files, the flash drive can be removed at any point without affecting thecomputer-Windows will simply read the original files from the disk.
ReadyBoost provides the most significant performance improvement under the followingcircumstances:
- The computer has a slow hard disk drive. Computers with a primary hard disk WindowsExperience Index (WEI) subscore lower than 4.0 will see the most significantimprovements.
- The flash storage provides fast, random, nonsequential reads. Sequential read speed isless important.
- The flash storage is connected by a fast bus. Typically, USB memory card readers arenot sufficiently fast. However, connecting flash memory to an internal memory cardreader might provide sufficient performance.
Computers with fast hard disks (such as 7,200- or 10,000-RPM disks) might realize minimalperformance gains because of the already high disk I/O. ReadyBoost will read files from thecache only when doing so will improve performance. Hard disks outperform flash drivesduring sequential reads, but flash drives are faster during nonsequential reads (because ofthe latency caused when the drive head must move to a different disk sector). Therefore,ReadyBoost reads from the cache only for nonsequential reads.
Note In the author's informal experiments, enabling ReadyBoost on a 1-GB flash drive ona laptop computer with a WEI disk rating of 3.7 decreased Windows startup times by morethan 30 percent. Gains on computers with a WEI disk rating of more than 5 were minimal.
ReadyBoost creates a disk cache file named ReadyBoost.sfcache in the root of the flashdrive. The file is immediately created for the full size of the specified cache; however,Windows will gradually fill the space with cached content.
To monitor ReadyBoost performance, use the System ToolsPerformanceMonitoring ToolsPerformance Monitor tool in the Computer Management console and add the ReadyBoostCache counters. These counters enable you to monitor how much of the cache is currentlybeing used and when the cache is read from or written to. It does not tell you exactly whatperformance benefit you are achieving by using ReadyBoost, however.
In this tutorial:
From a PowerPoint presented at the Windows 7 SIG on September 11, 2010.
What is ReadyBoost?
- ReadyBoost can speed up your computer by using storage space on most USB Flash Drives and Flash Memory Cards.
- The PC can get to data in RAM (memory) hundreds of times faster than it can fetch it from the hard disk.
- That’s why your PC uses a cache, defined as a portion of memory that holds bits of software code you’ve used recently.
- The more memory your machine has, the more that’s available for the cache, the faster things should feel to you.
Does ReadyBoost Really Work?
In theory, Yes, but not for every setup.
The Technical Part
- An average 4K read from a flash device is about 10 times faster than reading from a 7200 RPM hard disk.
- Thumb drives can be read very quickly (USB 3.0 thumb drives will even be faster).
- Speed is because there is little to no seek time to read a thumb drive.
- Hard drive seek time depends on how contiguous the data is and the amount of data being read.
- All flash drives are not made equal.
Flash Drive Requirements
To work with ReadyBoost, the flash drive must be capable of:
- 2.5 MB/sec throughput for 4K random reads and
- 1.75 MB/sec for random writes
Will My Flash Drive Work?
- Plug the flash drive in a 2.0 USB slot.
- Did Windows offer the use of ReadyBoost in the dialog that pops up when you plugged the drive in? (Do you want to speed up your PC?)
- If you get the offer, the flash drive or memory card is compatible and you're good to go.
Requirements for Using ReadyBoost
- A PC
- free USB 2.0 Port
- Windows Vista or Windows 7
- A Flash Drive
- capable of 2.5MB/sec throughput for 4K random reads and 1.75 MB/sec for random writes
- Between 250MB and 4GB in size (Vista 32-bit)
- Between 250MB and 16GB in size (Vista 64-bit)
- Between 250MB and 4GB in size (Windows 7 32-bit)
- Between 250MB and 32GB in size and up to eight devices for a total of 256GB (Windows 7 64-bit
Enabling & Configuring ReadyBoost
Insert a USB flash device into a USB 2.0 or higher port.
- The AutoPlay dialog box should be displayed automatically (unless you’ve changed the defaults in Control Panel).
- Click “Speed Up My System using ReadyBoost.”
- The device’s Properties dialog box opens to the ReadyBoost Tab.
Do one of the following:
- If you want the device to automatically reserve the maximum amount of space for ReadyBoost, select “Dedicate this device to ReadyBoost”, then click OK.
- If you want to use less space than the maximum possible, select “Use this Device” and then use the “Space to Reserve For System Speed' Slider or the combo box to set the amount of space to use for ReadyBoost, then click OK.
NOTE 1: If Windows decides that your drive is fast enough without ReadyBoost, it disables ReadyBoost entirely.
NOTE 2: You can use 1 flash drive per PC, and one PC per flash drive.
Security risks using ReadyBoost
- Pretty small
- Microsoft uses AES-128 to encrypt all data written to the ReadyBoost cache.
Windows 7 64 Bit Free Download
Alternatives to ReadyBoost
- Use a Solid State Drive (SSD) for your operating system drive. $$$$$
- Add additional memory (RAM) to your computer. $$
Readyboost Windows 7 64 Bit Download
ReadyBoost Tips from Microsoft
Purchase Windows 7 64 Bit
- The minimum amount of available space recommended for ReadyBoost to effectively speed up your computer is 1GB.
- For best results, use a flash drive or flash memory card with available space of at least double the amount of memory (RAM) in your computer, and preferably four times as much memory.
- For example, if your computer has 1 GB of RAM and you plug in a 4 GB USB flash drive, set aside at least 2 GB on the flash drive to get the best performance gain from ReadyBoost, and preferably the entire 4 GB. How much memory you need depends on how you use your computer. Keeping a lot of programs open at once uses more memory.
- Give ReadyBoost 2 GB to 4 GB of space for best results on most computers. You can reserve more than 4 GB of space for ReadyBoost on most flash drives and flash memory cards. (Storage devices formatted with the older FAT32 file system can’t store more than 4 GB.) You can use a maximum of 32 GB of available space on any single removable storage device with ReadyBoost and up to 256 GB total per computer (by inserting up to eight USB flash drives or flash memory cards into the same computer).
- To work with ReadyBoost, a USB flash drive must support USB 2.0 or higher. Your computer must have at least one free USB 2.0 port where you can plug in the flash drive.
- ReadyBoost works best if you plug the flash drive into a USB port directly on the computer, rather than into an external USB hub shared with other USB devices.
- If you want to be sure a USB flash drive works with ReadyBoost, look for a note from the manufacturer that the flash drive is “Enhanced for ReadyBoost.” Not all manufacturers list this on their packaging.
- If there is no mention of ReadyBoost compatibility, the flash drive still may work with ReadyBoost.
- There are many different kinds of flash memory cards, such as CompactFlash and Secure Digital (SD) memory cards. Most memory cards work with ReadyBoost. Some SD memory cards don’t work well with ReadyBoost due to issues with the SD card interface. ReadyBoost will display an error message if you attempt to use one of these cards.