BigDogBigFeet BigDogBigFeet

Flash Drives - Ready Boost

▼

Flash Drives - Ready Boost

from WinCustomize Forums

Okay so I saw an 8GB Kingston memory stick USB 2.0 for sale and picked one up.  I also discovered Ready Boost so I reformatted the thumb drive to NTFS and got the 7.4 or so GBs useable and plugged it in.

Then I began looking at what else is available especially as this would make decent storage for music files and the like. 

So now I've come across faster thumb drives for USB 3.0.  Mushkin has some nice offerings but they cost more.

So, my question is does it make any sense to plug in a 16GB or 32GB USB 3.0 thumb drive and use it for Ready Boost?

I currently have Win 7 Home 64bit with 8GB of ram.  Will the larger faster thumb drive make the system faster or is it overkill?

149,804 views 31 replies
Reply #26 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting Starblaze, reply 23
So I popped the thumb drive in, formatted it to NTFS (anything else and the RB file is limited to 4GB).

 

Quoting BigDogBigFeet, reply 22
Mushkin tech support says I should use exFAT.

 

exFAT allows me to have a 32GB Readyboost drive.

 

Reference: http://www.wikivs.com/wiki/ExFAT_vs_NTFS

From the article:

FAT32 has a file size limit of 4GB, while NTFS and exFAT are designed to support 16 EB (16.000.000 Terabyte).

NTFS is faster than exFAT, especially on Hard Drives. exFAT is an incremental improvement over the old FAT32 filesystem, and has a simple file storage algorithm which performs well on Solid State Drives, but not Hard Drives. 

Reply #27 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting Jafo, reply 24
If it costs you thousands you're still living in the wrong decade....

 

A 32 GB USB 3.0 Thumb Drive isn't that expensive.  About $30 or less for a high quality thumb drive.

SoundPackager - Customize the Windows sound scheme
Reply #28 from JoeUser Forums Top

Methinks he was talking about RAM, BDBF.

Reply #29 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting Daiwa, reply 28
Methinks he was talking about RAM, BDBF.

Yep...;)

Reply #30 from WinCustomize Forums Top

And here I thought he was talking about RND's SHEEP ..... again.

Reply #31 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Oh and without an SSD I went from 2 minute startup times to about 10 - 15 second start up times.  An SSD $200 vs 32 GB $30 USB 3.0 thumb drive is much cheaper.