How to get readyboost on XP: Using your Flash Drive as a Page File
Posted by: wizardcreations on: November 16, 2007
I’m sure lots of people want to know this as those without vista feel left-out. Well you can get the performance gain that Ready-boost gives you on XP its just a bit more hidden away. lets face it Ready-Boost is a fancy word for making your USB Flash drive hold the computers page file.
Ready-Boost does not give you extra memory as such but having the page file on a USB flash drive makes it much faster than writing to your hard disk so applications will run faster. I have covered the Page File before if you want to know more about it in one of my previous posts http://wizardcreations.wordpress.com/2007/11/07/speed-up-your-computer-part-24/.
How to do it
OK here’s how to make your USB Flash Drive as a page file. I have made a video to show you how. as usual there is a download and a youtube video. right-click the link below and select save as to download.
www.wizardcreations.co.uk/PageFileFinal.wmv
Thanks for reading this post and check back soon for more how-to’s and computer advice!
18 Responses to "How to get readyboost on XP: Using your Flash Drive as a Page File"
[...] under XP Many-many Guides can be found online: Just Google "ReadyBoost on XP" First 1 found etc. etc.. etc… Cheers __________________ [Guide] Internal USB -ReadyBoost-Mod Mootsfox: [...]
February 15, 2008 at 4:37 pm
Using a flash drive as a page file will most likely DECREASE performance, unless you have an extremely fast flash drive that’s capable of fast sequential reads/writes (over 30 MB/s). Most flash drives are SLOWER than hard drives in sequential performance, but faster in small random reads/writes.
Vista’s Readyboost only uses the flash drive for random reads, because the latency of a flash drive is much lower than that of a hard drive, but a hard drive can easily outperform a flash drive in large sequential transfers. Readyboost does it the way it is supposed to be done. Putting your entire swap file on a flash drive is retarded.
March 18, 2008 at 9:55 am
The total size of the page file won’t increase after setting the page file into an external drive.
Maybe because Windows is creating the page file before initializing USB drive.
April 6, 2008 at 9:57 am
it does work a bit, if you have a large flash drive memory. i usually have low performance when adobe photoshop and yahoo messenger go together. now, i use my 2GB flash according to what he instructed then it increased the performance. thanks for the help, though it’s better if you have a larger RAM. But it’s a cheap alternative anyway. Keep it up!
April 9, 2008 at 1:32 pm
This doesn’t work dude. You can’t just try something on Vista and then say “Ok, this will work on XP” without even seeing if it works.
Unfortunately XP won’t create pagefiles on removable devices. It’s just not supported.
Oh sure, the control panel will let you set the pagefile up and won’t generate any errors, but when you reboot you’ll find that the pagefile is right back where you started.
the only way to do something like this at the moment is to use “eBoostr”
September 22, 2008 at 7:37 pm
Guys, XP may not work with removable USB drives.
But any modern system comes with PCCard (or Express card as it is called now), which does support memory cards that are seen as fixed drive.
8GB costs around 30$
November 24, 2008 at 12:14 pm
i appreciate your effort pal.. but sadly, it doesn’t seem to work with XP. it just doesn’t set any pagefile on a removable drive..
November 25, 2008 at 1:03 am
XP will not put a page file on a removable hard drive. Please give the correct tutorial or remove this as it is incorrect. If you are missing additional steps for this to work, please complete it with the correct tutorial. Thank you.
Steve.
January 6, 2009 at 1:14 am
Now this sounds crazy enough. I tried putting a portion of pagefile on my Sandisk Cruzer and on a typical mp3 player. I noticed that both have pagefile.sys on both but the pagefile size only adds up from the Cruzer’s pagefile and the system’s pagefile, hence, the mp3 player does not support paging.
On the otherhand, the Cruzer blinks as if it is being written upon or read. I know because when the Cruzer is on standby (no operations accessing it) the blinking is a fade-in and fade out. When read or written on, it blinks fast – which is what is happening.
I was currently running Photoshop, a Openoffice Writer and Firefox 3 at that time. To further test it, I loaded all 3 applications together (consuming a lot of memory) and still did the blinking. I have a P4 with 256 RAM.
Does this mean it is possible?
January 6, 2009 at 12:01 pm
I could not download or even connect to this website : wizardcreations.co.uk/PageFileFinal.wmv
Is it still available or been renamed?
Thank you .
January 6, 2009 at 2:17 pm
It can be done actually. Just take note of the total page file size. If the USB pagefile adds up, it means it has been used. If it doesn’t add up to the system pagefile, your usb can’t be used as a page file.
So basically, you insert the usb, go to the virtual memory settings, look for your usb drive, allocate a pagefile and check to see if it adds up.
Some require restart which is not a good thing. My PC does not require restart after allocation of the pagefile in the usb – it just uses it instantly! I can check because i use the “unlocker” program and check if what programs are holding a file, a folder or even a drive from being deleted or ejected. Unlocker says the pagefile file of the usb is currently being used that’s why it cant be ejected.
It does seem to work to only several usb drives. If restart is required after allocation, it may indicate the usb is not allowed to b used as pagefile.
January 7, 2009 at 6:14 am
This is incorrect. A flash disk as a page file just dont work.
January 13, 2009 at 4:12 pm
Hi David.
Unfortunately, due to a recent merge between Schedule Data and Wizard Creations, the website http://www.wizardcreations.co.uk is no longer available.
A new website will be launched next week, and a post will be added informing all visitors of this change.
Try looking on YouTube for videos by Wizard Creations, you may find the correct video there.
Sorry for any inconvenience.
Alex Mulchinock
Captive8 Media
February 4, 2009 at 11:26 pm
I am pretty good – and I can’t get this to work. I add my USB drive and windows will not create a pagefile on a removable drive.
I use the Hitachi Drive filter to trick windows, set up the pagefile again and it looks like it is going to work, but when I reboot the computer hangs.
Reboot a second time, and the drive has disappeared – I have to unplug it and then plug it in again. Windows then shows it is using a temporary pagefile on the C drive again, even though I have supposedly disabled it.
Can’t see it working, and just because the file is there doesn’t mean windows is actually using it.
February 14, 2009 at 1:12 am
Some great ideas guys.
Here is one better.
Instead of doing a page file move…………upgrade your hard drive to solid state.
In doing so……….IT ALL SPEEDS UP !
SO THE ARGUEMENT OF MOVING VIRTUAL MEMORY AWAY FROM THE HARD DRIVE ENDS…..AS A SOLID STATE DRIVE WILL RUN CIRCLES AROUND A STANDARD HARD DRIVE……VIRTUAL MEMORY INCREASE…..THROUGH SOLID STATE WILL WORK WELL.
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Or if you are really feeeling a bit flush go out and get yourself a Samsung SSD Flash drive – The 32 Gb version is coming down in price now the 64 Gb is onthe way WHOOO HOOO