How To Use USB As Virtual RAM On Windows 7 And Vista

ReadyBoost allowed you to increase the main memory of our computer system by converting your USB flash memory as virtual primary memory. This feature is available in Windows Vista and Windows 7.

With the help of this additional virtual primary memory we can speed up our operating system. Not all USB supported ReadyBoot but with the bellow requirements you can enable ReadyBoost on your USB, and don’t be surprised if you don’t find this in your USB properties after reading this article.

Requirements Before You Can Use USB Memory As Virtual System Memory

1. USB memory should be at least 256 MB
2. USB memory should have access time of 1ms or less.
3. It should have atleast 2.5 MB/s read speeds and 1.75 MB/s write speeds

How To Convert USB Memory To Virtual Ram Memory

1. Connect USB memory to the computer (Vista or Windows 7)
2. Right click on USB drive and click properties
3. Click on ReadyBoost
4. Enable the feature by selecting the option and allocate the amount of space you want
to use as memory then 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.

What To Remember When Using ReadyBoost

1. If your device is not giving the option of ReadyBoost then it means that it doesn’t clear up the minimum data trasfer rate required by ReadBoost technology.

In Windows Vista it is limited to 4GB while in Windows 7 it is upto 256GB of additional memory by connecting maximum 8 different USB memories.

Windows OS older than Vista don’t support ReadyBoost. Windows Server 2008 is also not supporting ReadyBoost.

Note: If the ReadyBoost Tab is not visible in your system. Make sure the service “Readyboost” is turned on in services.msc. Also check the service properties\dependancies and make sure everything needed is on.