VISTA's Ready-boost (new feature)

[mumakil]

Now that the new Win Vista OS has the Ready-boost feature, is it possible to D-Tools developers to create a tool that emulates a virtual USB Flash drive enabling Vista users to utilize it as RAM Memory? Will DT-Pro do this?

I have plugged in my 1GB USB flash drive and it seems to work well, however, as I have no games or 'heavy' software installed so far under Vista I could not note if it really improved performance; anyway, if we could emulate a drive directly on a high speed SATA HD and use 4GB (I believe it is the maximum allowed by Vista) it would be great!

What do you guys think? Please excuse me if I am saying something wrong, as my knowledge in computers is still limited...

[evlncrn8]

erm...

emulation of a usb flash drive will require using your ram to hold data etc.. so its totally pointless...
and for memory transfer speeds, usb wont be as fast as the actual ram...

[mumakil]

For additional information, please note the following (Microsoft's official explanation on Readyboost at Vista's webpage):

"Windows ReadyBoost improves system memory and boosts performance.

Windows Vista introduces Windows ReadyBoost, a new concept in adding memory to a system. You can use non-volatile flash memory, such as that on a universal serial bus (USB) flash drive, to improve performance without having to add additional memory "under the hood."

The flash memory device serves as an additional memory cache—that is, memory that the computer can access much more quickly than it can access data on the hard drive. Windows ReadyBoost relies on the intelligent memory management of Windows SuperFetch and can significantly improve system responsiveness.

It's easy to use Windows ReadyBoost. When a removable memory device such as a USB flash drive or a secure digital (SD) memory card is first inserted into a port, Windows Vista checks to see if its performance is fast enough to work with Windows ReadyBoost. If so, you are asked if you want to use this device to speed up system performance. You can choose to allocate part of a USB drive's memory to speed up performance and use the remainder to store files."

"SuperFetch

Windows SuperFetch enables programs and files to load much faster than they would on Windows XP–based PCs.

When you're not actively using your computer, background tasks—including automatic backup programs and antivirus scans—run when they will least disturb you. These background tasks can take up system memory space that your programs had been using. On Windows XP–based PCs, this can slow progress to a crawl when you attempt to resume work.

SuperFetch monitors which applications you use the most and preloads these into your system memory so they'll be ready when you need them. Windows Vista also runs background programs, like disk defragmenting and Windows Defender, at low priority so that they can do their job but your work always comes first."

Finally, I may have said it wrong on my initial post that the Readyboost creates additional RAM memory; searching on the net, I note that some people (there is still a confusion about it) say that it creates Virtual Memory instead of RAM; and the advantage is that it uses flash memory (so not all USB drives are compatible, only the flash ones) which is faster than the virtual memory from the hd.

[evlncrn8]

erm yes... re-read wherever you pasted that from...
ready boost utilises flash memory drives (typically connected via usb) to give the system a little bit more ram for caching and so on...

usb is NOT faster than physical ram in the motherboard

so lets see..

you asked for the team to make a tool that utilizes this flash memory and makes a virtual drive allowing users to use it for flash memory...

so lets see...

whats the virtual drive going to use.... yep, u guessed it RAM
wheres the ram coming from, ok either from a usb stick (which is a virtual drive i guess heh) or either from system ram)

so.. use ram to make a virtual drive, which has virtual ram running from the real ram (be it system ram or ram from a flash drive)... can you see the contradiction?

[Jito463]

In essence, what the Vista ReadyBoost does is give the system another alternative to reading from the hard drive (HDD). Since the HDD is the slowest point in the whole computer for accessing information, anything that can be done to avoid having to access it will improve performance. This is a "poor man's" method of speeding up the system without adding RAM to the computer by providing a buffer before the system has to access the HDD.

So by using system RAM, it totally negates the purpose of ReadyBoost, which is to speed up the system without adding RAM. I like your thinking, but your understanding is flawed. Sorry.

[Sabrehawk]

btw cheap 2 GB Toshiba TransMemory works fine with Ready Boost although its not labeled "Vista ready" or "Ready Boost"

Nevertheless i cant really say it does something cause i have 2 GB
Ram --- probably on <1gb Ram systems u might notice improvement.

[mumakil]

Thanks for the feedback, Sabrehawk, evlncrn8 and Jito463, now I understand it better. Probably Readyboost is just another feature MS is introducing in order to sell their new OS. We'd better buy more RAM..

[jhuk]

Readyboost helps because it helps add to the Memory (Cache) on your HDD, today thats anywhere from 2MB to 32MB on new 1TB HDD's, it is no where near as fast as System Ram.

[RedLink]

Readyboost helps because it helps add to the Memory (Cache) on your HDD, today thats anywhere from 2MB to 32MB on new 1TB HDD's, it is no where near as fast as System Ram.

I think we got the message the first 5 posts about ram being faster then a usb stick. I'm guessing that's not the point behind the idea. It's rather the fact that you can get 4gb ram, but after start a game Vista will probably write parts of the informationed stored on the RAM to the HDD to save space just to make sure it has enough ram to run the game. Instead of having to save the information on a slow harddriver with high access times it will be saved on a usb flash drive with very low access times.

[Nodens]

I think we got the message the first 5 posts about ram being faster then a usb stick. I'm guessing that's not the point behind the idea. It's rather the fact that you can get 4gb ram, but after start a game Vista will probably write parts of the informationed stored on the RAM to the HDD to save space just to make sure it has enough ram to run the game. Instead of having to save the information on a slow harddriver with high access times it will be saved on a usb flash drive with very low access times.

No they are actually saved to both. It works as Jito463 said. It's a buffer. Everything in the flash drive is also backed on the pagefile but instead of being read from the pagefile it's being read from the flash drive. If something goes wrong or the flash drive is removed, it resumes normal operation by reading from the pagefile again.

[librabasu]

No they are actually saved to both. It works as Jito463 said. It's a buffer. Everything in the flash drive is also backed on the pagefile but instead of being read from the pagefile it's being read from the flash drive. If something goes wrong or the flash drive is removed, it resumes normal operation by reading from the pagefile again.

hi friends,
I am not a pro in windows system, I rarely use windows, but what I feel RAM has become very very low priced in the market. So why not go for that only ? Why break our head for using the most un reliable USB ? Can some one tell me that any USB stick is reliably working for him constatnly for more than one year? If so, u r very lucky. For me till now it has not happened!!! My bad luck ?
Let us improve and add function for DTPro ... lucas is not ready to give Writable drive let us request him for that
thanx

[obi1kenobi]

All my USB sticks (and I have three of them) work flawlessly and they are all more than a year old. You just need to be careful about what you buy.

[johngalt]

And how well you take care of them. I have a 3+ year old 32 MB Sony key drive that *still* works.

[Jito463]

32MB? Ack. I can't even imagine having one that small anymore. I just bought a 16GB Corsair since the electronics on my 4GB MicroDrive failed, and I wanted something bigger.