USB-Stick-ReadyBoost
Got a USB stick that Windows Vista doesn't want to use for memory? Read how to use it anyway.
22 March 2007
Sooner or later, everyone's computer tends to slow down. Call it old age or simply doing too much, but even the most cutting edge PC's seem to lag after a year or so of use.
For those who aren't keen on opening up their PC to put in more memory, Windows Vista has a handy little feature called ReadyBoost that can use USB sticks for additional memory. Unfortunately, Windows Vista doesn't take kindly to the slower sticks on the market and refuses to use them. Proving once again that we control the computer and not the other way around, here's four simple steps to get around this limitation and use any USB stick you have to increase your computers memory.
First things first. Plug the device in. Ignore AutoPlay if you have the enabled, and go to Computer in the start menu. When it pops up, right-click the USB stick and select properties.
Click on the Readyboost tab on the properties menu and check Do not restest this device. Click okay and unplug the stick from your computer.
Woah! Don't panic, it's not as frightening as it sounds. Firstly, you need to open regedit, by opening the start menu and typing regedit, then enter. The registry window should load up.
Using the left-hand pane, work your way through the following folders: HKLM (Local Machine) -> SOFTWARE -> Microsoft -> Windows NT -> CurrentVersion -> EMDgmt. You'll have a list of USB devices the computer has encountered, one of which should be your USB stick. Click on it.
Here there's a few details you need to edit. Double click on Device Status and change the value to 2, then ok. Do the same for ReadSpeedKBs and WriteSpeedKBs, changing their values to both 1000. Exit the regedit and breathe a sigh of relief.
Now all that's left to do is put the stick back in and once again go to the device properties (Computer > Right-click on drive). If you look under the Readyboost Tab, you'll be able to now select Use this device. Success! Now enjoy your faster PC.
Nice tip. One problem....I use three flash drives (2*512MB and 1*1GB) with a whole list of entries, how can I tell which is the 1GB stick I want to use?
Simple Solution:
1. Disconnect all flash drives
2. Plug in the first flash stick/memory
3. In Windows Explorer right-click your memory card, rename and give it a meaningful name
4 Repeat the renaming process for each card
Brilliant! Thanks very much indeed.
I recently perused a load of readyboost posts, blogs, etc. and found a blog by a Microsoft heavyweight of some sort that "owns" RB. According to him the purpose of RB is not to add memory such as a dedicated RAM module but rather to be used as a scratch pad. Some users believe that if your PC has 1GB of RAM and if you use a 2GB flash stick you will end up with 3GB of RAM. I have a hard time believing this. There is much confusion with RB out there!
That may be so, but my 1GB RAM laptop runs way better now with the knock-off sony memory card than it did without it.
Nice one! Not as hard to do as you might think, 2 mins!!
I wasn't trashing RB. I use RB on my Dell XPS410 and it is an improvement. I was just adding my 2 cents worth. Anyway for everything you want to know about RB: Tom Archer's Blog ReadyBoost Q&A.
I voted up
Aloha from Hawaii
Thanks for referring to the excellent RB article. Let me put in my 2 cents worth here as well. Now I see why my laptop has seen improvements with ReadyBoost as it only had 1GB of RAM. On the other hand , I have not experienced any noticable performance improvements (albeit my RAM usage dropped down a few percent)on my 2GB RAM desktop.
Brill! Couldn't use my 2GB stick, wouldn't work..thought I would have to buy another that works.