Win7 ReadyBoost
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Has anyone used it? Any comments about it? Does it have to format a USB or can a non-empty USB be used for that as well?
A non-empty USB can be used. However, memory allocated will be based on size of free memory available on the USB.
The funniest thing about this particular signature is that by the time you realise it doesn't say anything it's too late to stop reading it.
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You don't have 32GB of free space on your hard drive? FYI, some versions of 64-bit Windows 7 have limits on the amount of virtual memory they'll allow you to use. See here.
AspDotNetDev wrote:
ome versions of 64-bit Windows 7 have limits on the amount of virtual memory they'll allow you to use. See here.
Those limits apply for physical memory (more popularly known as RAM). But we're talking about virtual memory here. They both are not the same.
"Real men drive manual transmission" - Rajesh.
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Bassam Abdul-Baki wrote:
I need to add 16 or 32 GB of USB RAM to test something out.
There's no such thing as 'USB RAM'.
Bassam Abdul-Baki wrote:
Page file doesn't help here.
Page file *is* what can help you there. Readyboost is just a matter of caching some files in your USB stick instead of the hard disk drive, because data transfer speeds are higher in case of USB when compared to that of a hard disk drive. So, the idea is that even in cases of thrashing, the contents from the cache on your USB drive can be loaded back onto the RAM relatively quicker.
"Real men drive manual transmission" - Rajesh.
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A non-empty USB can be used. However, memory allocated will be based on size of free memory available on the USB.
The funniest thing about this particular signature is that by the time you realise it doesn't say anything it's too late to stop reading it.
Abhinav S wrote:
memory allocated will be based on size of free memory available on the USB.
Would would make perfect sense, no good allocating memory that wasn't available ;P
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Abhinav S wrote:
memory allocated will be based on size of free memory available on the USB.
Would would make perfect sense, no good allocating memory that wasn't available ;P
Norm .net wrote:
no good allocating memory that wasn't available
If only the banks in the United States knew about this before the recession... :)
"Real men drive manual transmission" - Rajesh.
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Norm .net wrote:
no good allocating memory that wasn't available
If only the banks in the United States knew about this before the recession... :)
"Real men drive manual transmission" - Rajesh.
:laugh: Good call!
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AspDotNetDev wrote:
ome versions of 64-bit Windows 7 have limits on the amount of virtual memory they'll allow you to use. See here.
Those limits apply for physical memory (more popularly known as RAM). But we're talking about virtual memory here. They both are not the same.
"Real men drive manual transmission" - Rajesh.
You are right. Do you know if Windows 7 imposes any virtual memory limits.
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You are right. Do you know if Windows 7 imposes any virtual memory limits.
AspDotNetDev wrote:
You are right. Do you know if Windows 7 imposes any virtual memory limits.
It would be pointless for any operating system to impose limits on its ability to work with virtual memory, because that could hinder the performance the operating system itself! The limits may come from the hardware architecture used. For example, if the architecture is 32 bit, then the maximum amount of pages that can be mapped is 2^32 (for the nitpicks: OK, that's theory. I've assumed that PAE is disabled). If you were to use an x64 operating system though, the case would be different (2^64 = 8TB would be the "limit"). However, the point remains that the OS will not impose any limits on its own ability to use virtual memory in any way.
"Real men drive manual transmission" - Rajesh.
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Bassam Abdul-Baki wrote:
I need to add 16 or 32 GB of USB RAM to test something out.
There's no such thing as 'USB RAM'.
Bassam Abdul-Baki wrote:
Page file doesn't help here.
Page file *is* what can help you there. Readyboost is just a matter of caching some files in your USB stick instead of the hard disk drive, because data transfer speeds are higher in case of USB when compared to that of a hard disk drive. So, the idea is that even in cases of thrashing, the contents from the cache on your USB drive can be loaded back onto the RAM relatively quicker.
"Real men drive manual transmission" - Rajesh.
Rajesh R Subramanian wrote:
There's no such thing as 'USB RAM'.
I know, but I had a brain freeze and that was the easiest way to describe it.
Rajesh R Subramanian wrote:
Page file *is* what can help you there.
My bad. I meant the hard-drive page file without ReadyBoost. I'm certainly maxing out everything and I need to start using ReadyBoost to see if that can allow my application to run longer. Unfortunately, even my USB stick has stuff in it. Although I do have an external USB hard-drive that I can probably use.
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Rajesh R Subramanian wrote:
There's no such thing as 'USB RAM'.
I know, but I had a brain freeze and that was the easiest way to describe it.
Rajesh R Subramanian wrote:
Page file *is* what can help you there.
My bad. I meant the hard-drive page file without ReadyBoost. I'm certainly maxing out everything and I need to start using ReadyBoost to see if that can allow my application to run longer. Unfortunately, even my USB stick has stuff in it. Although I do have an external USB hard-drive that I can probably use.
Bassam Abdul-Baki wrote:
I do have an external USB hard-drive that I can probably use.
Which will worsen things up. The whole idea of Readyboost is to make use of some solid state memory, which provides high speed access to stored data. Your external hard disk drive is going to be a much slower pig (slower than even your internal hard disk drive in fact), so it becomes completely pointless to enable readyboost. If you don't have a high speed USB thumb drive with lots of space in it plugged into a high speed USB port, AND applications running that are memory intensive to an extent where thrashing starts to occur on the physical memory, then readyboost is not for you.
"Real men drive manual transmission" - Rajesh.
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Bassam Abdul-Baki wrote:
I do have an external USB hard-drive that I can probably use.
Which will worsen things up. The whole idea of Readyboost is to make use of some solid state memory, which provides high speed access to stored data. Your external hard disk drive is going to be a much slower pig (slower than even your internal hard disk drive in fact), so it becomes completely pointless to enable readyboost. If you don't have a high speed USB thumb drive with lots of space in it plugged into a high speed USB port, AND applications running that are memory intensive to an extent where thrashing starts to occur on the physical memory, then readyboost is not for you.
"Real men drive manual transmission" - Rajesh.
I really don't care about the speed. All I need is memory for my application to run. However, I was able to move the files from my HD to the external HD and increase the page file. This should give me a little breathing room until it runs out of memory again. :)
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I really don't care about the speed. All I need is memory for my application to run. However, I was able to move the files from my HD to the external HD and increase the page file. This should give me a little breathing room until it runs out of memory again. :)
Bassam Abdul-Baki wrote:
I really don't care about the speed.
But the OS apparently does. If the access time for your external drive is greater than 1 millisecond, that is not readyboost compliant. There are also numbers that dictate the minimum read and write speeds. So, if you're just planning on moving out your data files from the internal disk drive to this external drive, and thereby increasing free space in the internal drive for page file to grow, then that sounds right.
"Real men drive manual transmission" - Rajesh.
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in the properties there is a slider and you can allocate accordingly. or dedicate the device completely. i have not noticed a difference. but it is better than the flash drive sitting in my desk getting old.
modified on Wednesday, March 9, 2011 7:02 PM
jgasm wrote:
it is better than the flash drive sitting in my desk getting old.
Not really. You can only write to a flash drive so many times before it craps out -- it's a big number, but finite.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Bassam Abdul-Baki wrote:
I really don't care about the speed.
But the OS apparently does. If the access time for your external drive is greater than 1 millisecond, that is not readyboost compliant. There are also numbers that dictate the minimum read and write speeds. So, if you're just planning on moving out your data files from the internal disk drive to this external drive, and thereby increasing free space in the internal drive for page file to grow, then that sounds right.
"Real men drive manual transmission" - Rajesh.
Rajesh R Subramanian wrote:
If the access time for your external drive is greater than 1 millisecond, that is not readyboost compliant.
Does that mean it won't work, or it won't work well?
Rajesh R Subramanian wrote:
So, if you're just planning on moving out your data files from the internal disk drive to this external drive, and thereby increasing free space in the internal drive for page file to grow, then that sounds right.
Yeah, I was able to do just that. It did buy me some time and the program will run until it runs out of memory again, which it will.
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Norm .net wrote:
no good allocating memory that wasn't available
If only the banks in the United States knew about this before the recession... :)
"Real men drive manual transmission" - Rajesh.
Rajesh R Subramanian wrote:
If only the banks in the United States knew about this before the recession
Oh, they knew, all right -- they just made sure that the bulk of it was allocated to programs that were good for their buddies.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Rajesh R Subramanian wrote:
If the access time for your external drive is greater than 1 millisecond, that is not readyboost compliant.
Does that mean it won't work, or it won't work well?
Rajesh R Subramanian wrote:
So, if you're just planning on moving out your data files from the internal disk drive to this external drive, and thereby increasing free space in the internal drive for page file to grow, then that sounds right.
Yeah, I was able to do just that. It did buy me some time and the program will run until it runs out of memory again, which it will.
Bassam Abdul-Baki wrote:
Does that mean it won't work, or it won't work well?
If a device doesn't comply with readyboost requirements, it won't work (I'd assume that Windows won't accept it for readyboost).
"Real men drive manual transmission" - Rajesh.
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Bassam Abdul-Baki wrote:
Does that mean it won't work, or it won't work well?
If a device doesn't comply with readyboost requirements, it won't work (I'd assume that Windows won't accept it for readyboost).
"Real men drive manual transmission" - Rajesh.
Good to know, thanks. But can you add ReadyBoost just before the OS runs out of memory or does it require a reboot?
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Good to know, thanks. But can you add ReadyBoost just before the OS runs out of memory or does it require a reboot?
I'm not sure. But I'd expect it to be like this: the readyboost device should have been setup before the OS could use it later.
"Real men drive manual transmission" - Rajesh.
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AspDotNetDev wrote:
You are right. Do you know if Windows 7 imposes any virtual memory limits.
It would be pointless for any operating system to impose limits on its ability to work with virtual memory, because that could hinder the performance the operating system itself! The limits may come from the hardware architecture used. For example, if the architecture is 32 bit, then the maximum amount of pages that can be mapped is 2^32 (for the nitpicks: OK, that's theory. I've assumed that PAE is disabled). If you were to use an x64 operating system though, the case would be different (2^64 = 8TB would be the "limit"). However, the point remains that the OS will not impose any limits on its own ability to use virtual memory in any way.
"Real men drive manual transmission" - Rajesh.
Rajesh R Subramanian wrote:
The limits may come from the hardware architecture used.
Not the case for Windows 7, at least with regard to physical memory. Different versions of Windows 7 64-bit have different memory limits. They are arbitrary, to get you to pay for a more expensive Windows 7 version. This is exactly why they would limit virtual memory as well, though I don't know if they do that (they may be thinking "virtual memory is so slow, we'll let customers use however much of it they like").
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Rajesh R Subramanian wrote:
The limits may come from the hardware architecture used.
Not the case for Windows 7, at least with regard to physical memory. Different versions of Windows 7 64-bit have different memory limits. They are arbitrary, to get you to pay for a more expensive Windows 7 version. This is exactly why they would limit virtual memory as well, though I don't know if they do that (they may be thinking "virtual memory is so slow, we'll let customers use however much of it they like").
AspDotNetDev wrote:
, at least with regard to physical memory
Again, we were talking about virtual memory. They impose limits on the physical memory supported, because they can then charge you accordingly in an appropriate license band. But limiting the virtual memory would be foolish, because that will impact the performance of the operating system. In some cases, it could bring it down to a grinding halt. This is entirely different from limiting the users on supported physical memory, and nobody will ever do such a thing. Limiting the physical memory is like an F1 driver telling their team that if they don't pay him X amount, he will not race in the world grand prix, but will participate in the National F1 race. But limiting the virtual memory is like the same F1 driver telling their team that unless they pay him more, he will drive with wheels that are square shaped.
"Real men drive manual transmission" - Rajesh.