Apr 11
7
It can if you are using Windows 7 or Windows Vista. Chances are that you have not heard much if anything about ReadyBoost. Windows 7/Vista ReadyBoost is a not-so-well known technology that uses free flash memory or external USB space in order to speed up the processor. ReadyBoost can improve your computer’s performance and efficiency by increasing the amount of RAM your computer can access. ReadyBoost essentially allows you to treat non-hard drive storage devices as internal memory. If your computer is running slowly, or you don’t have enough RAM to do the tasks you need to do, try ReadyBoost and see if it improves your computer’s performance. If it doesn’t make that much difference, you can just turn it off and be done with it.
Below are the steps you need to take to get ReadyBoost running on your computer. Not to worry. It is super easy!
Step 1: You need a flash drive or external hard drive
The drive should have at least 1 GB of free space. Microsoft recommends the amount of memory to use for Windows ReadyBoost acceleration is one to three times the amount of RAM installed on your computer. So as an example, if your computer has 1GB of built-in RAM, a flash/hard drive with 2-4 GB of free space is sufficient. Plug in the drive. The “AutoPlay” menu should appear when Windows recognizes the new hardware. The option you want to click on is the one at the bottom, “Speed up my system”. If AutoPlay doesn’t come up, go to Start/Computer, then find your flash drive. Right-click on the name of the drive (for our example, “Kingston”), then click “Open AutoPlay” That will bring up the AutoPlay menu; click the “Speed up my system” option.
Some USB storage devices contain both slow and fast flash memory. Windows can only use fast flash memory when it comes to using ReadyBoost. So if your device contains both slow and fast memory, keep in mind that only the fast memory portion of your device will be used.
Step 2: Select ReadyBoost options
When you click “Speed up my system”, it brings you to the Properties menu of the ReadyBoost hard drive. There are three options. The first option, “Do not use this device” will turn off ReadyBoost. The second radio button says, “Dedicate this device to ReadyBoost”, will use ALL of the available space on the drive for RAM.
It shows you the total amount allocated. (in this case, 1278 MB is available, which equals 1.27 GB.) The third option, “Use this device,” allows you to adjust the amount of space used. If you want to have free space left on the drive, set the amount lower than the total free space on your drive. After clicking “OK” or “Apply”, there will be a popup informing you that ReadyBoost is configuring your cache. After a few moments you can use your computer and should see an increase in your speed from using ReadyBoost.
Step 3: Turn Off ReadyBoost
Once you have set up a drive to use ReadyBoost, ReadyBoost won’t release the hard drive space until it is turned off. Even if you take that drive and plug it into another computer, the space that was set up for ReadyBoost will be inaccessible. To turn it off, get to the Properties menu like before. You won’t see the “Speed up my system” option like you did before. Now you will want to select the first of the three options, “Do not use this device”. Click “OK” or “Apply” and it is done. You now have your full drive back.
