Vista - Ready Boost Not Working

I have a maxtor one touch III USB device and I am un able to run ready boost
on the device. It says that ready boost does not have the required
performance characteristics for use in speeding up your system. It has 200 GB
and I have only used but a couple GB. And it asks me to retest and I click
that bytton and nothing changes. I need help and I was told this device would
help speed up my PC. I am running windows vista home premium.

The error message means what it says - Windows has tested the device and it
is either too small or too slow to be used as a ReadyBoost device.
Apparently whoever told you this would be usable as a ReadyBoost device was
wrong, it's too slow given its size.

--
Richard G. Harper [MVP Shell/User] rgharper@gmail.com
* NEW! Catch my blog ... http://msmvps.com/blogs/rgharper/
* PLEASE post all messages and replies in the newsgroups
* The Website - http://rgharper.mvps.org/
* HELP us help YOU ... http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm


"Lyndz Clark" <Lyndz Clark@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:B24B8928-3869-4F22-95DA-F9C65731FEFD@microsoft.com...
>I have a maxtor one touch III USB device and I am un able to run ready
>boost
> on the device. It says that ready boost does not have the required
> performance characteristics for use in speeding up your system. It has 200
> GB
> and I have only used but a couple GB. And it asks me to retest and I click
> that bytton and nothing changes. I need help and I was told this device
> would
> help speed up my PC. I am running windows vista home premium.

On Jul 20, 9:00 pm, Lyndz Clark <Lyndz
Cl...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
> I have a maxtor one touch III USB device and I am un able to run ready boost
> on the device. It says that ready boost does not have the required
> performance characteristics for use in speeding up your system. It has 200 GB
> and I have only used but a couple GB. And it asks me to retest and I click
> that bytton and nothing changes. I need help and I was told this device would
> help speed up my PC. I am running windows vista home premium.


It sounds like your possibly using an external hard drive judging by
the size you stated. I believe the one-touch Maxtor hard drives are
primarily designed to do fairly quick and easy backups. Anyways,
Windows Vista, XP, 98, ME and even 95 have all had a feature called a
'Swap' file. Its been used for a long long time in the world of
computers. What a Swap file is, it its a file your operating system
creates on your hard drive which it uses for 'ram' when the computer
runs out of actual physical ram. So theoritically, with a system-
managed swap file on a say 500gb hd, you could have 500gb of 'useable'
memory.

The downside is that hard drive speed is considerably slower than
actual ram. So 2GB of ram will always vastly out perform a 2 GB swap
file. Windows Vista came up an interesting idea based of Flash memory.
Some flash memory such as those found in USB Thumbsticks and those
found in high-end digital cameras can write/read at very fast speeds
with no access times. In some cases, the access times and read/write
speeds are faster than your hard drive. As a result, Windows Vista
came up with the 'ReadyBoost' system which basically puts a swap file
on your USB Thumbstick and/or high speed card rather than your hard
drive because its faster. Faster resulting in better performance.

In your case, ReadyBoost won't really help with a USB Hard Drive as it
won't be any faster than the swap file running internally on your hard
drive. As they are both hard drives and where the swap file is located
probably won't change the performance too much unless its being stored
in a faster medium. In your case, one hard drive swap file likely
won't be much more power than another unless it is a newer type like
sata2 versus ata. Note that most external hard drives are still
ata(the slower variety) so likely the internal hard drive which is
probably already being used to manage your swap file is quickest.

Some Flash Memory or USB Thumbsticks will be slower than hard drives
in which case the ReadyBoost feature won't be available as moving your
swap file to that device would actually hinder performance. In this
case, you'll notice the option is not available indicating the later.
Its a slower medium then where your swap file is currently being
stored. Window Vista's ReadyBoost doesn't really bring anything new
to the operating system game. It just tries to take an old concept and
make it faster.

the box said it was ready boost able. And it doesnt run slow.

"Richard G. Harper" wrote:

> The error message means what it says - Windows has tested the device and it
> is either too small or too slow to be used as a ReadyBoost device.
> Apparently whoever told you this would be usable as a ReadyBoost device was
> wrong, it's too slow given its size.
>
> --
> Richard G. Harper [MVP Shell/User] rgharper@gmail.com
> * NEW! Catch my blog ... http://msmvps.com/blogs/rgharper/
> * PLEASE post all messages and replies in the newsgroups
> * The Website - http://rgharper.mvps.org/
> * HELP us help YOU ... http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
>
>
> "Lyndz Clark" <Lyndz Clark@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:B24B8928-3869-4F22-95DA-F9C65731FEFD@microsoft.com...
> >I have a maxtor one touch III USB device and I am un able to run ready
> >boost
> > on the device. It says that ready boost does not have the required
> > performance characteristics for use in speeding up your system. It has 200
> > GB
> > and I have only used but a couple GB. And it asks me to retest and I click
> > that bytton and nothing changes. I need help and I was told this device
> > would
> > help speed up my PC. I am running windows vista home premium.
>

Then you need to return it as not performing as advertised. If Windows says
it's too slow to use then that's it - there's no workaround or fix for it
except to get a faster external device.

--
Richard G. Harper [MVP Shell/User] rgharper@gmail.com
* NEW! Catch my blog ... http://msmvps.com/blogs/rgharper/
* PLEASE post all messages and replies in the newsgroups
* The Website - http://rgharper.mvps.org/
* HELP us help YOU ... http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm


"Lyndz Clark" <LyndzClark@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:3BB3E598-1430-481C-92C0-B81818DA1535@microsoft.com...
> the box said it was ready boost able. And it doesnt run slow.
>
> "Richard G. Harper" wrote:
>
>> The error message means what it says - Windows has tested the device and
>> it
>> is either too small or too slow to be used as a ReadyBoost device.
>> Apparently whoever told you this would be usable as a ReadyBoost device
>> was
>> wrong, it's too slow given its size.
>>
>> --
>> Richard G. Harper [MVP Shell/User] rgharper@gmail.com
>> * NEW! Catch my blog ... http://msmvps.com/blogs/rgharper/
>> * PLEASE post all messages and replies in the newsgroups
>> * The Website - http://rgharper.mvps.org/
>> * HELP us help YOU ... http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
>>
>>
>> "Lyndz Clark" <Lyndz Clark@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:B24B8928-3869-4F22-95DA-F9C65731FEFD@microsoft.com...
>> >I have a maxtor one touch III USB device and I am un able to run ready
>> >boost
>> > on the device. It says that ready boost does not have the required
>> > performance characteristics for use in speeding up your system. It has
>> > 200
>> > GB
>> > and I have only used but a couple GB. And it asks me to retest and I
>> > click
>> > that bytton and nothing changes. I need help and I was told this device
>> > would
>> > help speed up my PC. I am running windows vista home premium.
>>

its runnin on a usb 2 and i even called the company and it says its running
right and at the speed windows should be able to use for ready boost.

"Richard G. Harper" wrote:

> Then you need to return it as not performing as advertised. If Windows says
> it's too slow to use then that's it - there's no workaround or fix for it
> except to get a faster external device.
>
> --
> Richard G. Harper [MVP Shell/User] rgharper@gmail.com
> * NEW! Catch my blog ... http://msmvps.com/blogs/rgharper/
> * PLEASE post all messages and replies in the newsgroups
> * The Website - http://rgharper.mvps.org/
> * HELP us help YOU ... http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
>
>
> "Lyndz Clark" <LyndzClark@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:3BB3E598-1430-481C-92C0-B81818DA1535@microsoft.com...
> > the box said it was ready boost able. And it doesnt run slow.
> >
> > "Richard G. Harper" wrote:
> >
> >> The error message means what it says - Windows has tested the device and
> >> it
> >> is either too small or too slow to be used as a ReadyBoost device.
> >> Apparently whoever told you this would be usable as a ReadyBoost device
> >> was
> >> wrong, it's too slow given its size.
> >>
> >> --
> >> Richard G. Harper [MVP Shell/User] rgharper@gmail.com
> >> * NEW! Catch my blog ... http://msmvps.com/blogs/rgharper/
> >> * PLEASE post all messages and replies in the newsgroups
> >> * The Website - http://rgharper.mvps.org/
> >> * HELP us help YOU ... http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
> >>
> >>
> >> "Lyndz Clark" <Lyndz Clark@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> >> news:B24B8928-3869-4F22-95DA-F9C65731FEFD@microsoft.com...
> >> >I have a maxtor one touch III USB device and I am un able to run ready
> >> >boost
> >> > on the device. It says that ready boost does not have the required
> >> > performance characteristics for use in speeding up your system. It has
> >> > 200
> >> > GB
> >> > and I have only used but a couple GB. And it asks me to retest and I
> >> > click
> >> > that bytton and nothing changes. I need help and I was told this device
> >> > would
> >> > help speed up my PC. I am running windows vista home premium.
> >>
>

wburchnall@hotmail.com wrote:
> On Jul 20, 9:00 pm, Lyndz Clark <Lyndz
> Cl...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>> I have a maxtor one touch III USB device and I am un able to run ready boost
>> on the device. It says that ready boost does not have the required
>> performance characteristics for use in speeding up your system. It has 200 GB
>> and I have only used but a couple GB. And it asks me to retest and I click
>> that bytton and nothing changes. I need help and I was told this device would
>> help speed up my PC. I am running windows vista home premium.
>
>
> It sounds like your possibly using an external hard drive judging by
> the size you stated. I believe the one-touch Maxtor hard drives are
> primarily designed to do fairly quick and easy backups. Anyways,
> Windows Vista, XP, 98, ME and even 95 have all had a feature called a
> 'Swap' file. Its been used for a long long time in the world of
> computers. What a Swap file is, it its a file your operating system
> creates on your hard drive which it uses for 'ram' when the computer
> runs out of actual physical ram. So theoritically, with a system-
> managed swap file on a say 500gb hd, you could have 500gb of 'useable'
> memory.
>
> The downside is that hard drive speed is considerably slower than
> actual ram. So 2GB of ram will always vastly out perform a 2 GB swap
> file. Windows Vista came up an interesting idea based of Flash memory.
> Some flash memory such as those found in USB Thumbsticks and those
> found in high-end digital cameras can write/read at very fast speeds
> with no access times. In some cases, the access times and read/write
> speeds are faster than your hard drive. As a result, Windows Vista
> came up with the 'ReadyBoost' system which basically puts a swap file
> on your USB Thumbstick and/or high speed card rather than your hard
> drive because its faster. Faster resulting in better performance.
>
> In your case, ReadyBoost won't really help with a USB Hard Drive as it
> won't be any faster than the swap file running internally on your hard
> drive. As they are both hard drives and where the swap file is located
> probably won't change the performance too much unless its being stored
> in a faster medium. In your case, one hard drive swap file likely
> won't be much more power than another unless it is a newer type like
> sata2 versus ata. Note that most external hard drives are still
> ata(the slower variety) so likely the internal hard drive which is
> probably already being used to manage your swap file is quickest.
>
> Some Flash Memory or USB Thumbsticks will be slower than hard drives
> in which case the ReadyBoost feature won't be available as moving your
> swap file to that device would actually hinder performance. In this
> case, you'll notice the option is not available indicating the later.
> Its a slower medium then where your swap file is currently being
> stored. Window Vista's ReadyBoost doesn't really bring anything new
> to the operating system game. It just tries to take an old concept and
> make it faster.
>
Additionally --

Readyboost is basically intended to allow your standard hard drive to
perform more like the new hybrid drives that contain flash memory as
built-in cache. I believe that the maximum cache size for Readyboost is
2 GB, so attempting to use a large external USB hard drive is both
wasteful and defeating the original purpose of Readyboost...

Good article about readyboost glitches, specially in laptops:

Vista 'resume' bug plagues laptop users - WindowsSecrets.com