I have a bit of a quandry. I have a Toshiba Satellite x200 dual core, 3G
ram 250 G HD with Windows Vista Ultimate SP1

I wish to utilize the ready boost function. When I plug in an 2 g sd
card or a flash drive and try to use them as ready boost the system
detects the 512 NV cache that is available and in use as part of my hard
drive and instructs me to disable this cache in order to utilize ready
boost.

I believe I am able to disable this cache either through the group
policy program (gpedit.msc) or by disabling it in the bios settings.

My question is: Is it a good idea to disable the 512 Meg nvcache in
order to add 2 Gigs of ready boost cache? It seems so but would like
some confirmation before I start fiddling.

Thank you for any replies.


--
ootsa

You have a hybrid drive - standard type with a solid state cache - Vista
uses two utilites 1. ReadyBoost and 2. ReadyDrive to "speed up" read/write
functions. ReadyDrive works in concert with the NV cache.

Vista determines if a device will support ReadyBoost by comparing the
read/write specs to a set of default values and those of the hard drive.
Performance is increased by sending non-sequential read/writes to
ReadyBoost or NV cache and sequential to the hard drive (reason why
performance depends on type of disk activity).

Generally ReadyBoost is very suitable for laptops because the HDs are not as
capable as those in desktops (speed, seek time, etc.).

Probably the specs of the NV cache, other than size, exceed those of a
ReadyBoost device. Most likely Vista would not confirm a ReadyBoost device
in comparison with the HD.

Please post results if you go further .




"ootsa" wrote in message
...

I have a bit of a quandry. I have a Toshiba Satellite x200 dual core, 3G
ram 250 G HD with Windows Vista Ultimate SP1

I wish to utilize the ready boost function. When I plug in an 2 g sd
card or a flash drive and try to use them as ready boost the system
detects the 512 NV cache that is available and in use as part of my hard
drive and instructs me to disable this cache in order to utilize ready
boost.

I believe I am able to disable this cache either through the group
policy program (gpedit.msc) or by disabling it in the bios settings.

My question is: Is it a good idea to disable the 512 Meg nvcache in
order to add 2 Gigs of ready boost cache? It seems so but would like
some confirmation before I start fiddling.

Thank you for any replies.


--
ootsa

Thanks for the reply. I understand how the hybrid drive works and am
willing to disable the cache on it if having a 2 gig sd card as a
readyboost will offer me more performance than the nv cache. From the
system message I receive when I try to use the sd card I must disable
the nv cache in order to use readyboost. I have no other cache to
disable. Has anyone else had this question? It seems like its one or the
other unless I am missing something which is likely the case. Not being
able to use both doesnt make much sense to me.


--
ootsa

Most folks will tell you to disregard Readyboost with anything beyond 2 gb
of ram. It is of little to no help and was primarily used to help those with
under 2 gb of ram. Try 'googling' readyboost or 'search' these or the Dell
forums for added information. FYI, Vista x86 can actually only use just over
3 gb of ram anyway. Hope this helps...

captfbgnet

"ootsa" wrote in message
...

Thanks for the reply. I understand how the hybrid drive works and am
willing to disable the cache on it if having a 2 gig sd card as a
readyboost will offer me more performance than the nv cache. From the
system message I receive when I try to use the sd card I must disable
the nv cache in order to use readyboost. I have no other cache to
disable. Has anyone else had this question? It seems like its one or the
other unless I am missing something which is likely the case. Not being
able to use both doesnt make much sense to me.


--
ootsa

My take on the situation is that you probably meet the conditions in the
write-up included below and when you try to setup your 2gb SD card as
readyboost, you're being told to turn the other one off first. (I believe
you can only have one ReadyBoost device as it would be similar to having two
pagefiles on the same drive.)

An interesting write-up buried in another thread long ago:

Windows ReadyDrive enables computers shipped with a hybrid hard drive
to access data from the nonvolatile cache, allowing the disk to remain
spun down for longer periods of time.
Windows ReadyBoost allows nonvolatile flash memory devices, such as
USB flash drives, to be used as an additional memory cache in order to
improve system performance without the addition of more system memory.

If the Intel® Turbo Memory module is 512MB, only Microsoft Windows
ReadyDrive is supported; you will not be able to enable Microsoft
Windows ReadyBoost.
If the system has an Intel® 82801IR I/O Controller Hub (ICH9R),
Microsoft Windows ReadyDrive is not supported.

This is general knowledge and as a deduction comes the answer.

512MB are used by ReadyBoost and 512MB are used by ReadyDrive. One of
the two is visible as a physical drive (NVCACHE) and the other isn't
but if enabled by its utility (Intel® Turbo Memory Console) it will be
used.

A note on performance increase.
If the system you are running has low amount of RAM (ie. 1GB) then
using an IntelTurboCache module of 1GB will yield a noticable
performance increase, but if the system already has a fair amount of
RAM (ie. =2GB) then the increase will not be noticed as much and
going over 2GB IntelTurboCache will be just a waste of money. Beware
when using non-internal Cache (ie. a USB2 StickDrive or similar), the
Cache should perform better than 10MB/s reads.


"ootsa" wrote in message
...

I have a bit of a quandry. I have a Toshiba Satellite x200 dual core, 3G
ram 250 G HD with Windows Vista Ultimate SP1

I wish to utilize the ready boost function. When I plug in an 2 g sd
card or a flash drive and try to use them as ready boost the system
detects the 512 NV cache that is available and in use as part of my hard
drive and instructs me to disable this cache in order to utilize ready
boost.

I believe I am able to disable this cache either through the group
policy program (gpedit.msc) or by disabling it in the bios settings.

My question is: Is it a good idea to disable the 512 Meg nvcache in
order to add 2 Gigs of ready boost cache? It seems so but would like
some confirmation before I start fiddling.

Thank you for any replies.


--
ootsa

Thanks so much for the great info. From your post I've decided to forego
disabling the hydrid nv cache and adding the sd 2gig as a readyboost
module.

I have 3 gigs of Ram and the 512 mgs of nv cache. I'm thinking that is
likely plenty of direct memory. I may try it one day but for now will
stick with...If it ain't broke.......

Thanks again


--
ootsa

On Thu, 15 Jan 2009 07:20:15 -0600, "captfbgnet"
wrote:

Most folks will tell you to disregard Readyboost with anything beyond 2 gb
of ram.


I'll be even stronger than that. My advice is not to use readyboost no
matter how much RAM you have.

If you have 2GB or more of RAM, the little it might do for you is so
slight as to be almost unnoticeable.

And if you have less than 2GB of RAM, you would do much better to
spend your money on upgrading your RAM to 2GB than on buying a device
for ReadyBoost use.

So, in general, I always recommend against using ReadyBoost.

--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
Please Reply to the Newsgroup