Use Flash Drive to Speed Up Windows Vista
By Madhur Kapoor on Apr 6, 2007 in My Choice, Vista, Windows
If you want your PC to run faster with Windows Vista , connect your flash drive to the PC with a USB 2.0 socket and when the autoplay interface comes up select “Speed up my system using ReadyBoost” .
Then you will be taken to a “properties page ” for the device where you can reserve a certain amount of space for ReadyBoost . You will need at least 230 MB of space in your Flash Drive and it should be fast enough to support ReadyBoost else you will get a message .
Now lets see what ReadyBoost actually does . No it is not increasing your RAM . Instead ReadyBoost uses the flash drive to store information that is being used by memory manager . It creates a a virtual copy of memory on the flash drive and since the Flash Drive is much faster than your hard disk , your computer will run faster . No whatever is stored in the Flash Drive is also in the Hard Disk so if you remove the Flash Drive , the memory manager will see the change and will begin to use hard disk . Some people might consider it as RAM replacement but it is not the case , RAM is much more faster than this but it does the job well .
I tried it on my system and the performance was worth noting . I actuallt tested it while playing games and experianced a higher Frame Rate , so do give it a try .
Wow..that was a very useful tip, btw does this work with XP, any idea? I think there are no options like this for XP.
Thanks for sharing this.
Nirmal | Apr 7, 2007 | Reply
this doesnt work in XP
Madhur Kapoor | Apr 7, 2007 | Reply
Yeah you can experience this when playing games, esp when your RAM is less
Mr.Byte | Apr 7, 2007 | Reply
Interesting tip. I had heard about this in passing but hadn’t tried it yet. I guess I’m off to give it a whirl. Thanks!
Robert Irizarry | Apr 8, 2007 | Reply
This is possible now becuse vista is having native support for flash drives. Flash drive based hard disk can make vista perform much faster
Ashish Mohta | Apr 8, 2007 | Reply
I am not too happy with Vista. I would say it runs 25% slower than XP, and it doesn’t seem to fair that we need to invest in additional hardware in order to boost performance. My hope is that in subsequent versions, Microsoft Vista development teams will do better.
Web 2.0 | Apr 11, 2007 | Reply
to those wanting to do this in XP. : -
put in the flash drive -
note what drive letter it is -
right click on my computer, -
go to properties, -
go to ‘advanced’ -
click ‘modify’ under the heading ‘performance’, -
go to advanced tab -
click on the drive letter of your flash drive -
set space to use. -
Dr. Anonymous | Apr 15, 2007 | Reply
Thanks for the info Dr .
Madhur Kapoor | Apr 15, 2007 | Reply
That is awesome… I have already heard small talk here and there about this… but didn’t realize it was actually this simple to do. Thanks!
Garry Conn | Apr 15, 2007 | Reply
Its really a bummer that it doesn’t work in XP. Looks like you guys have already upgraded to Vista…
Somu | Apr 15, 2007 | Reply
@Somu
Dr . Anonymous has written in comments how to run it in XP . Give it a try , if it works , do inform me .
Madhur Kapoor | Apr 15, 2007 | Reply
What Dr. Anonymous’s said here is to change the swap/paging file to be located on ur flash drive. There’s an element of risk involved here.. make sure u dont pull out the drive when operational or ur comp’ll crash at worst or u’ll lose data at the very minimum..
Sriram Sridharan | Apr 28, 2007 | Reply
Hey Dude Its Working
Thanks Let See It Works Properly Or Not
Thanksssssss
Vishal | Jun 8, 2007 | Reply
This works - but not for long. Flash drives have a “certain number of writes” on their usage before they start to fail. It’s a finite number. It’s in the millions, but you get there fast using it as a swap drive.
Dont’ believe me? Read about flash/key drives.
Russ | Jun 19, 2007 | Reply
so will this help me in playing high end games on Geforce 6200 using vista???I’m dying to try out Halo 2 but Madhur has recently informed me that it runs only on VIsta…
Praneet | Jun 25, 2007 | Reply
Thanks for the tip. Ive been using the Ironkey lately (see https://www.ironkey.com/) it’s really neat.
Ionia | Jul 23, 2007 | Reply
how can you store memory in windows vista Using a flash drive. I need to know what to do. When i put my flash drive in to the monitor, nothing pops up. I am trying to save my work in microcoft 2007
Mark Tran | Oct 4, 2007 | Reply