Now that you’ll learned a lot about ReadyBoost, in the steps ahead, I’ll be telling you how to speed up Windows using ReadyBoost. So, repeated use, as in the case of ReadyBoost, would reduce their life expectancy. The USB drives have limited read/write cycles. However, it doesn’t affect your computer. There is one considerable disadvantage of using a USB drive to speed your Windows system. A hardware manufacturer putting a ReadyBoost supplement in the machine itself can disable the encryption. The data stored in the ReadyBoost cache is protected using 128-bit AES encryption by default. This also means you can pull off the USB stick anytime you want, as original files are present on the hard drive. So, ReadyBoost only comes into action when a performance improvement is possible. When it comes to sequential operations, SuperFetch uses the files on the hard drive instead.
Now, there is catch, the cache so created is used only in the case of non-sequential operations. It copies data to the cache file stored in the USB drive’s root folder.
Supertech works with ReadyBoost to speed up Windows and decides what things should go into ReadyBoost cache on your USB drive and eventually into the RAM. Also, the drive’s mechanical arm does contribute to degraded performance. Thus, using ReadyBoost can be an advantage if your system is low on RAM. If you have a very small amount of RAM (512 MB or so) and a very fast USB drive, you may see some increase in performance – but it isn’t even guaranteed in this situation.Mostly, SuperFetch creates a temporary cache on the main memory itself. In summary, ReadyBoost probably won’t improve your computer’s performance much. Windows won’t allow ReadyBoost to be used on particularly slow USB flash drives, but some drives are faster than others. If you have an old, slow USB stick, you may not see a noticeable increase in performance, even with a small amount of RAM. If you opt to use ReadyBoost, bear in mind that the speed of your USB drive also determines how much improved performance you’ll get. With that said, ReadyBoost may still be useful if your current computer has a small amount of RAM (512 MB, or perhaps even 1 GB) and you don’t want to add additional RAM for some reason – perhaps you just have a spare USB stick lying around. Image Credit: Glenn Batuyong on Shutterstock When ReadyBoost Is Worth Using If your computer is stressed for RAM, you’re better off adding more RAM instead of using ReadyBoost. However, adding additional RAM always improved performance much more than using ReadyBoost. In combination with 512 MB of RAM (a very small amount of RAM – new computers today generally contain several gigabytes), ReadyBoost offered some improved performance. When Windows Vista was released, Anandtech benchmarked ReadyBoost, and the results of their benchmark were informative. ReadyBoost is ideal for computers with a small amount of RAM. If you have more than enough RAM, ReadyBoost won’t really help. Therefore, ReadyBoost only helps if your computer doesn’t have enough RAM. It’s better to store SuperFetch data in your computer’s RAM than on a USB stick. So far, so good – but there’s a catch: USB storage is slower than RAM. Why ReadyBoost Probably Isn’t Useful For You It’s faster to read various small files from your USB stick than it is to read them from your hard drive, so this can theoretically improve your system’s performance. When you connect a USB drive to your computer and enable ReadyBoost, Windows will store SuperFetch data on your USB drive, freeing up system memory. However, SuperFetch can also work with a USB stick – that’s ReadyBoost in action. SuperFetch normally uses your computer’s memory – it caches these files in your RAM. Empty RAM doesn’t do any good, so using it as a cache for frequently accessed applications can increase your computer’s responsiveness.
When you launch the application, it will start faster - your computer reads its files from memory, which is faster, instead of from disk, which is slower. SuperFetch, also introduced in Windows Vista, monitors the programs you use on your computer and automatically loads their application files and libraries into your computer’s memory (RAM) ahead of time. ReadyBoost works in conjunction with SuperFetch.