How to use ReadyBoost to Run Windows 7 faster

Before you get started setting up ReadyBoost on your USB drive, you want to ensure that your drive has at least 2 GB of space available. This is the optimal USB drive configuration. Microsoft recommends the amount of flash memory for ReadyBoost acceleration be one to three times the amount of random access memory (RAM) in your computer.

Stick your USB drive into your computer and one of two things will happen. Either auto-play will pop-up asking you what to do next or nothing will occur.

If nothing occurs, open “My Computer.” If Auto-Play shows the option to use the flash drive for ReadyBoost, Click on it.

From there, locate your flash drive. Right click on it
.

Click “Properties” in the context menu.

This will open the Properties for your flash drive. You will see a tab called ReadyBoost. Click on it.

Now, one of two things will happen.

If ReadyBoost cannot be used on your computer, you will be alerted so in this tab. This has nothing to do with your USB drive and everything to do with the type of hard drive and mechanics it is using to run when turned on. If this is the case, ReadyBoost will not do anything to speed up your system’s performance and you may want to look into other options.

Depending on the brand, wear and tear from read-write cycles, and size of the flash memory, the ability to format as NTFS may not be available. Enabling write caching on the flash drive by selecting Optimize for performance in Device Manager allows formatting as NTFS.

If ReadyBoost can be used, you will see the following options available:

Click “Dedicate this device to ReadyBoost” to get started.

A pop-up will appear while your computer works on your USB drive to get it configured properly to handle the load of caching your hard drive disk.

A few seconds later, the process will be finished and the tab’s option will change to Use this device. Click “Apply”, then “OK” and ReadyBoost is now running on your computer.

If you head back to My Computer, you will see that the majority of space on your flash drive is in use. This is constant, because your computer is using the device to cache every single interaction you make with your system.

ReadyBoost can actually be used on several types of removable media, not just USB drives. Portable hard drives and other storage devices can be used to help increase the productivity of ReadyBoost.

You won’t need to use the Safely Remove Hardware feature to remove the key drive, but if you remove the drive, you lose the memory boost.