Windows 7 readyboost compatible sd cards

[davidpc]

Hello,
Why does Windows 7 say my 32gb sandisk SDHC 4 is not suitable or does not have the caracteristics for readyboost. Is there anything I can do to change the cards caracteristics so that it will work with readyboost?

 

[Jonmor68]

Devices vary and Windows decides which are suitable, the same thing can happen with regular usb flash drives. It will use some and not others.
There is an explenation of sorts at the link provided, but not very helpfull in making a choice.
Some devices specify on the packaging that they are readyboost compatible, if not it's a crap shoot.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Using-memory-in-your-storage-device-to-speed-up-your-computer

 

[ulysses35]

I tried ready boost with Vista 64 and more recently with Windows 7 / 64 - no big performance gain - would be better off upgrading the RAM in your PC

 

[geofelt]

Hello,
Why does Windows 7 say my 32gb sandisk SDHC 4 is not suitable or does not have the caracteristics for readyboost. Is there anything I can do to change the cards caracteristics so that it will work with readyboost?

Windows tests the short block read/write speed of the readyboost drive. If it is not fast enough(faster than a hard drive), it will not use it. You would be much better off using the $100 or so spent on the SD card for a 32gb SSD; It will hold the OS(about 13gb) and then some. Readyboost is not a substitute for ram. It is only for small blocks that can be read faster than on a hard drive. You are also limited to a maximum of 4gb.

 

[jadchjayasinghe]

4Gb limitation only come with 32bit is it? I think readyboost performs good in Laptops which has slower HDD. I'm using Lenovo G460 with 4Gb RAM but it still give good advantage. at least it will extend HDD life and battery. at the beginning it won't show speed but it take about 10minutes to load files i think. I think this is an enhancement of pagefile of windows.

 

[seanseebran]

Windows tests the short block read/write speed of the readyboost drive. If it is not fast enough(faster than a hard drive), it will not use it. You would be much better off using the $100 or so spent on the SD card for a 32gb SSD; It will hold the OS(about 13gb) and then some. Readyboost is not a substitute for ram. It is only for small blocks that can be read faster than on a hard drive. You are also limited to a maximum of 4gb.

You are limited to 4gb with Vista, not Windows 7. with Windows 7 you can use a max of 32gb per Sd card or Flash drive and up to 8 at a time for a total of 256gb, all for Readyboost. It is said that to be able to use all 32gb for ReadyBoost you have to format the flash drive or SD card in exFat format. I tried it and it did work using the entire 32 gb.

For more information: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Using-memory-in-your-storage-device-to-speed-up-your-computer

P.S. I got a laptop running Windows 7, i5 Processor with 6 gigs ram and I used a 32gb Sandisk Cruzer flash drive formatted in exFat and dedicated the entire drive to ReadyBoost and I noticed a definite gain in performance. Even with 6gb ram I still saw an improvement.

 

[goolash]

Just a quick add-on, since despite this thread's age, it was one of the first search results I got looking for this info:

It may be better to use NTFS rather than exFAT, since NTFS supports encryption and compression, which exFAT does not. ReadyBoost uses 128-bit AES encryption to keep your files confidential should your ReadyBoost drive fall in the wrong hands, and also uses 2x compression, thus a 8 GB thumbdrive yields approx. 16 GB of ReadyBoost capacity. Not that anything in Windows really tells you that.

 

[seanseebran]

This is very true, it's better to spend your money on memory than a SD card or flash drive for readyboost.[