Saturday, April 9, 2011

Use USB (Flash Memory) as Virtual RAM in Windows 7 and Vista

ReadyBoost technology from Microsoft we are allowed to increase the main memory of our computer by converting flash memory(USB memory) as virtual primary memory. This feature is available in Windows Vista and Windows 7. Using this feature we can speedup our computer with the help of this additional virtual primary memory. We cannot use ReadyBoost in our computer with all kinds of USB memories. It should meet some minimum requirements to enable ReadyBoost technology.


System requirements to use USB memory as virtual system memory

* USB memory should be at least 256 MB

* USB memory should have access time of 1 ms or less.

* It should have atleast 2.5 MB/s read speeds and 1.75 MB/s write speeds

Steps to convert USB memory to virtual RAM memory

Steps to convert USB memory in to virual RAM memory follow the steps below.

1. Connect USB memory to the computer (Vista or Windows 7)

2. Right click on USB drive and take properties



3. Click on tab ReadyBoost and apply


Now if your USB memory meet all the requirements of ReadyBoost , it will be converted to virtual RAM and you can see a considerable performance increase for your computer.


Points to Remember while using ReadyBoost

In Windows Vista it is limited to 4 GB while in Windows 7 it is upto 256 GB of additional memory by connecting maximum 8 different USB memories. Windows OS older than Vista don't support ReadyBoost technology. Currently Windows Server 2008 is also not supporting ReadyBoost technology.

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