USB as Permanent Memory

Vista ReadyBoost and USB Thumb Drives

Tutorial on how to set up a USB flash drive as additional memory for a personal computer running MS Vista.
"You can use non-volatile flash memory, such as that on a universal serial bus (USB) flash drive, to improve performance without having to add additional memory "under the hood."" Microsoft.

Introduction
Procedure
USB Styles
Notes
Conclusions
What is a USB Drive
Technical USB
USB 2.0 Specification
USB 3.0 Specification
References

Introduction

With Microsoft [MS] Windows Vista it's possible to increase the amount of system memory available to the PC by adding an external USB [Universal Serial Bus] Thumb Drive. The only requirements are running MS Vista and a Thumb drive that supports ReadyBoost. The additional memory is applied as a external memory cache to the Hard Disk Drive [HDD].

USB Thumb Drive

Most new USB drives should support ReadyBoost, while older USB drives may not. In addition, during the setup process Vista checks to see if the thumb drive is fast enough to be usable. Obviously adding a slow device as cache memory would hurt the PC's operation more than it would help, but the PC would still end up with more memory.

When you plug in a USB stick a pop-up window will give you the option of adding it into system memory, but may not. I tried this with a 1GB Geek Squad drive but did not see the option to add it into system memory. Once I looked at the drive I figured that because it seemed to be configured as a CD drive it would not let me. Remember many USB sticks are setup to read and lock the data so you can pull it out at any time. With USB system memory, you want it to read/write as fast as possible. So you may need to reformat the USB drive to see the option to add the drive into system memory.

Procedure

Step 1. Insert the USB drive into any available USB port on the computer. Vista will automatically display the screen to the left. Click to view a larger image.

The default selection is highlighted in Blue, 'Open folder to view files. However you need to select the option below that.

Step 2. Select the 'Speed up my system' option to use the USB stick as system memory.

A new window will automatically pop-up once the option is selected, shown next.

Recall that the drive may need to be reformatted if the step two option is not displayed, or that the drive is two slow or is not ReadyBoost capable.

The next screen displayed is shown to the right. The default radio button is 'Do not use this device'.

Step 3. Select the 'Use this device' option button.

Step 4. Select the amount of available memory to use via the slide bar.

Step 5. Select 'OK'.

The USB drive is now being used as system memory. Note that the USB drive used in this example is a 2G Byte drive, but already contained some data. So the slider bar only indicates 1,460MB of free space. Had it been empty it would have indicated 2,000MB of free space. Of course because Vista provides the slider bar it's possible to select a lesser amount of memory to use, allowing space on the drive for additional personal files.

USB Styles

There are two different styles of USB Sticks; one styles is simply blank Flash memory and the other style comes with some preloaded software. The currently available sizes of flash drives are 2GB, 4GB, and 8GB.

The USB sticks with pre-installed software are more likely to require a reformat. Some examples of a few pre-installed programs include; U3, CruzerSync synchronization, SignupShield password protection, SKYPE, and AVAST.

Notes

1. Looking at the specifications of one USB drive, it appears that Windows XP will allow a USB drive to act as main memory too; however, I don't recall that.

2. The reports I've seen indicate that computers with little or no system memory benefit the most from adding USB memory. While systems with more memory see little improvement.

3. The USB stick can be any size, but the system will only use up to 4GB of memory. Installing a 8GB drive will only provide 4GB of memory to the system.

4. ReadyBoost also works with an SD card, and a CompactFlash device in addition to USB version 2.0 USB 2.0 is just revision 2.0 of the USB specification.

5. No data on how the next version of Windows will work with USB 3.0 yet [Windows 7].

Conclusions

Adding additional memory in the form of a USB stick is a great idea for a computer with every little installed memory. Many people have a spare USB drive, either an older small USB stick or a spare one from buying a three-pack of USB thumb drives. In either case, inserting an unused USB drive is a great 'free' unused source of storage for the computer.

From the data reviewed on-line, adding the thumb drive does little good unless the PC is a 'bare-bones' system with the absolute minimum amount of system memory to run Windows, or some other Operating System [OS]. Of course a consumer should only buy a system they can afford, but if you can afford to pay more, always buy more memory.

A 'bare-bones' system will normally only ship with the absolute minimum amount of memory required to run the OS. While a 'run-of-the-mill' PC system may ship with twice the minimum amount of memory that the OS may required. More expensive computers or 'Gamer' PCs ship with at least the optimum amount and sometimes much more.

Windows XP Professional;

128 megabytes (MB) of RAM or higher recommended (64 MB minimum supported; may limit performance and some features).

Windows Vista Recommended;

Home Basic; 512 MB of system memory

Home Premium / Business / Ultimate; 1 GB of system memory

What is a USB Drive

A USB drive is a small hand held memory device that retains its memory after its been removed from the computer. The USB drive is also called a USB Flash Drive because the device uses Flash Memory to store data. Flash Memory, also called Non-Volatile memory, will retain its stored contains even when no power is applied. Non-Volatile memory are primarily the ROM style of memory [Manufacturers of Flash Memory].

The USB standard is used as the interface between the computer and the thumb drive. USB or Universal Serial Bus is an interface specification that defines the mechanical, electrical and protocol layers of the interface. Refer to this link for USB Technical data .

There are many of types of Flash Memory Cards or Sticks.

Technical USB

The original USB standard was released in 1994

USB 2.0 Specification

The current revision of the USB standard is 2.0 which operates at 480Mbps [USB 2.0 description ]. Version 2.0 of USB was released in 2000. However by the end of 2008 revision 3.0 of the specification has been released. USB 2.0 is in wide spread usage with any new computer or USB thumb drive being revision 2.0

USB 3.0 Specification

Revision 3.0 of USB or SuperSpeed USB operates at 4.8Gbps [USB 3.0 description ]. As of the fourth quarter of 2009 there are just three USB 3.0 products released [no motherboards]. When more products do start to be released they will still operate with USB 2.0 devices but with out the speed enhancements seen with the latest revision. USB 3.0 operation will require a USB 3.0 drive and a 3.0 compatible computer, so it may be another year before people start seeing a speed increase related to USB devices.

When ever USB 3.0 devices start to be released there will be know way to indicate the version. A Thumb drive designed to USB 2.0 will appear identical to USB 3.0.