ReadyBoost : Computer Hardware Buyers’ Glossary

In drive properties, you can turn on write caching as well as read caching. This speeds up disks even further, but it means it becomes unsafe to remove the flash drive at any time. ReadyBoost uses a maximum of 4 GB. The rest of you drive is for files.

Many models describe themselves as optimised for ReadyBoost without giving specific figures. The main reason flash drives are faster than hard disks is not a higher transfer rate, but that they don’t require time for seeking to the correct spot.

When you use ReadyBoost, your drive is a lot quieter. It makes fewer seeks, and hence runs cooler and should last longer, though some say use and heat are not what make modern drives fail. Since the flash drive has no moving parts, faster, but more reliable than the mechanical disk.

The alternative would be adding RAM to your motherboard for disk caching. 16 GB of regular RAM would cost about $560.00 USD , if your motherboard had room for it.

Tips

• Get one of the fastest USB flash drive models for ReadyBoost. If you get just any one, chances are your computer will run more slowly with ReadyBoost.
• USB ports come in three speeds, 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0. Ideally your flash drive would support USB 3.0 and you would plug it into a USB 3.0 port on your computer. It is a waste to plug an 2.0 USB flash drive into a USB 1.0 port on your computer, since it will drag your flash drive down to USB 1.0 level performance.
• A good ReadyBoost flash drive will have high capacity and fast transfer rate. It should not use compression or encryption which would needlessly slow it down on the cache. Those features apply just to the file storage part of the drive.

Onions

• Published read/write speeds are all over the map for the same drive. Vendors make preposterous claims. The problem is there is no official way to measure speed. What can you do? Benchmark them yourself with the same benchmark software, or file copy test. Or look for models that ranked highly in benchmarks.
• Cheap flash memory for caching is a great idea, but the memory should be permanently installed inside the computer, where it can’t accidentally be disconnected while it is in use. Further, I think it should be buried even deeper in an even safer place — inside the hard drive where even the OS (Operating System) can’t accidentally screw it up. The use of a flash drive for both removable data storage and disk caching reminds me of Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus of the Pink Panther movies, played by Herbert Lom, who kept a cigarette lighter that looked identical to his gun in his top left desk drawer.

Products

	recommend Amazon⇒OCZ ATV 8 GB USB Flash Drive
	asin: B000XFRTI8
One of the faster drives. A smaller 4 GB model would be suitable for ReadyBoost-only use, though there are negligible cost savings. Get an even bigger model to hold as many files as you need to transport.
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