Windows Vista Using a USB readyboost thumbdrive to "add" ram

skaler2k · 2007/07/29

I posted this question under HARDWARE also. I hope it is ok to post it here as well. I wonder if anyone has any experience with using this USB plug in drive to add ram to their Vista machine. If so, has it helped? Has it degraded performance? They are selling a 2gig Memorex ReadyBoost traveldrive for around $20 after rebates, and I'm tempted to get one.
What does one do under Vista to enable this ram increase, or is it done automatically?
Thanks.

charlesvar · 2007/07/29

Hello skaler2k,

I don't use it, can't help that way.

Ran across this article in Brian Livingston's newsletter on a mysterious Vista bug on Laptops: Vista 'resume' bug plagues laptop users that a MS engineer initially blamed on the use of Ready Boost. It would be interesting to hear from anyone using Ready Boost about this.

Vista 'resume' bug plagues laptop users

By Scott Dunn

A Microsoft engineer slammed Vista's ReadyBoost feature as the source of a maddening bug, only to withdraw his charge the next day.

Whether or not ReadyBoost is to blame for the bug — which brings laptops to a crawl when resuming from sleep or hibernation mode — the problem remains a mystery for many who use Vista.

Microsoft engineer reports 'Vista suckage'

In a July 7 post entitled "Vista ReadyBoost Suckage & Vista resume sluggishness," Microsoft security software engineer Robert Hensing identified an apparent bug in which Vista can take several minutes to resume after a portable computer is put into sleep or hibernation mode.

"The disk just freaking thrashes and the HDD [hard disk drive] light stays on pretty much solid and the whole machine is pretty much unusable for about 5–8 minutes until the disk 'settles down,' " he wrote.

Nearly identical symptoms had been reported previously in blogs such as jkOnTheRun and Kevtris.

During the sluggish resume, Hensing noticed that Vista was writing several hundred megabyes per minute to the Flash drive he used for his ReadyBoost cache. ReadyBoost is a new Vista feature that uses a USB Flash drive as additional memory, as described by Microsoft. Hensing discovered that his notebook computer resumed Vista in just a few seconds if he removed the Flash drive during sleep mode.

Hensing theorizes that ReadyBoost needed to regenerate the AES128 encryption key on the Flash drive at the same time that it was restoring data from the hard disk. He went on to state that the problem was expected to be fixed in SP1, Vista's much-anticipated first service pack. His post was quickly picked up by Long Zheng, another victim of the bug, who covered the emerging story on his IStartedSomething blog.

Initial post disappears as confusion mounts

Within a few days, however, the Hensing post disappeared from the Internet. Long Zheng and other bloggers took note, and a short time after that, the Hensing post reappeared — minus the original negative headline and with the original text formatted with strikeover lines.

The new post reports that the problem seemed to disappear after letting Windows Update install some patches. Hensing recanted his original theory blaming ReadyBoost and promised an update when more information was available. Unfortunately for his readers, Hensing failed to identify a particular patch that solved the problem.

There's no shortage of proposed solutions in the blogosphere, though. For example, James Kendrick reported in his blog that he was able to solve the problem by implementing some Registry tweaks designed to turn off Vista's SuperFetch feature and use of virtual memory. Such changes are counterintuitive at best, since these features are specifically designed to improve Windows' performance. Nevertheless, "My disk thrashing has practically stopped," he reports. "It now only takes five seconds to go into standby and about the same to resume. Overall I'm finding the disk activity to be similar to Windows XP and I am very happy with the outcome. "

Windows Secrets columnist Susan Bradley posted on her blog a collection of links to Microsoft hotfixes relating to Vista hibernation problems. These patches are expected to be rolled into Vista SP1, yet none of them precisely describes the symptoms reported here.

To date, Microsoft has not offered a clear, consistent explanation of the problem(s) behind the troubling laptop behavior. When asked about the situation, Microsoft representatives told me that they had no information to share at this time. Until they do, users are left to experiment with one of the word-of-mouth solutions proposed in various blog postings.

Problems such as this may explain why neither businesses nor consumers are in a hurry to upgrade to Vista, according to a report by Associated Press business writer Jessica Mintz. As she notes, "Gripes over what doesn't work with Vista continue, eclipsing positive buzz over the program's improved desktop search, graphics, and security. "

Readers, any details you can contribute would be welcome. We'll send a gift certificate for a book, CD, or DVD of your choice to anyone whose comment we print. Send us your tips using the Windows Secrets contact page.
Click to expand...

PeteC · 2007/07/29

From the horse's mouth ....

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/features/details/readyboost.mspx

I posted this question under HARDWARE also. I hope it is ok to post it here as well.
Click to expand...

No - Double Posting - this forum will be fine as it is Vista specific.

skaler2k · 2007/07/29

My apologies for the double post, PeteC.
Thank you, and Charlesvar, for the response and the information.

Steve R Jones · 2007/07/30

I've used Ready Boost. It helped the performance of the machine BUT it isn't the same as adding ram.

I had more improvement when I only had one gig of ram then I did when the machine has two gigs.

When you plug in the flash drive, Vista will prompt you and ask if and how much of the flash drive to use for Ready Boost....Note that not all flash drives will work.

skaler2k · 2007/07/30

Thanks Steve. I went to Office Depot and they were sold out of the drives.
I have two gigs of low CAS latency ram, so I too am a little skeptical about how much a flash drive would help.

Steve R Jones · 2007/07/30

It will help a bit if your using Large/resource hungry apps.

sparrow · 2007/08/01

From: Bleeping Computer

ReadyBoost allows Vista to use compatible USB flash drives as cache instead of the hard drive. This is faster because it has been shown that small random reads and writes on flash RAM can be 8-10 times faster than caching...
Click to expand...

SuperSparks · 2007/08/02

My experience of using ReadyBoost with 2GB of RAM was that it made no noticeable difference at all. I've since added another 2GB of RAM (I'm running Vista x64), and that has had a much more beneficial effect.

I think there may be a bug with ReadyBoost too, when I was trying it out I found that Vista would only recognise the flash drive after a cold start was if it was physically unplugged and replugged. Which defeats any benefits of the faster startup with ReadyBoost if that happens.

N8399 · 2007/08/04

Link to USB readyboost test results
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/01/31/windows-vista-superfetch-and-readyboostanalyzed/page5.html

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Windows Vista Using a USB readyboost thumbdrive to "add" ram

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