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Cache Your Page File to Your... iPod Shuffle?

Not too long ago I was reading up on some of the cool new features Inside the Windows Kernel (part 2) and I got pretty excited about one new feature in particular - ReadyBoost. So when I upgraded to Vista (about a month ago now) one of the first things I tried was plugging an extra 1GB Flash drive into various USB ports - so I could use the drive to Speed up my system.

Speed up my system?

AutoPlay WindowApparently when you plug a new USB device into a PC running Vista there is a new option at the bottom of the Auto Play popup window. By selecting the new option you are telling Windows to benchmark the USB device and determine if it's fast enough to be used as a cache for your paging file.

Unfortunately flash drive that I was using wasn't quite up to par and I was unable to use it to make my machine faster. Boo!

I tried doing a little research to see if there was anything I could to to force Vista to use the drive, or somehow speed up the drive. While I wasn't able to find any useful info on either I did come across a great ReadyBoost Q&A by Tom Archer that answered a few questions I had. The info is a bit dated now (as Vista was still in beta when it was written) but there is some good info.

Fast forward a few weeks...

Tonight I went for a run and brought my trusty iPod Shuffle (1st gen) with me. Around the 1 mile mark my iPod suddenly turned off. Oh no! I'm outta' juice! Seems it had been awhile since I last hooked the Shuffle up to my PC for a good charging, doh!

When I got home I plugged it into an available USB port on the side of my monitor and up popped the Auto Play window - complete with the option to speed up my PC. I figured what the hell and I gave it shot.

To my surprise Windows said the drive was up to snuff and I was able to used my iPod Shuffle to cache my paging file. Sweet!

What's next?

I'm not sure... I'd like to find some time to take some measurements and see if the caching really does speed up my machine. But for now I think I'll run for a day or two with the iPod in there and see if I actually notice any changes in the speed of my machine - but I'm not holding my breath.

Also, are any of you using a flash drive for ReadyBoost? If so, have you noticed any difference in the speed/responsiveness of my machine? Taken any measurements? And what make/model is your drive(s)?

That last question is important because as I understand it there is a wide spectrum of drives available and a good amount of them don't meet the performance metrics required by Vista to use the device as a cache. So I'd hate to spend any hard-earned scratch on another flash drive that is just going to sit on my desk collecting dust.

Update: I just stumbled across a (growing) list of ReadyBoost Compatible drives (via Hanselman).

What others are saying.

# re: Cache Your Page File to Your... iPod Shuffle?
Gravatar Damien Guard
Mar 20, 2007
All the flash drives I've seen have much slower write times than the SATA hard drives I've been using.

Until these flash drives get faster I can't see how it will help unless the drive your pagefile currently sits on is heavily used at the same time as normal disk access is happening (thrashing).

[)amien
# re: Cache Your Page File to Your... iPod Shuffle?
Gravatar Steve Harman
Mar 20, 2007
The important thing to remember is we're talking about reading from the cache. And the reports I've read say that most flash memory is about 10x faster than disk for random reads.

So they aren't saying that the flash drives are a replacement for disks, and they certainly aren't a replacement for RAM...
# re: Cache Your Page File to Your... iPod Shuffle?
Gravatar Scott
Mar 21, 2007
Oh Apple, is there ANYTHING you can't do? You not only make my morning commute easier but you even manage to speed up Vista. ;)

The big worry is that flash drives have a limited number of writes and something like the pagefile might cause a lot of writes. Although the number gets ludicrously high with each new generation, it's still a finite number.
# re: Cache Your Page File to Your... iPod Shuffle?
Gravatar Steve Harman
Mar 23, 2007
@Scott: I agree that there is always the worry of wearing out the flash drive due to the high I/O requirements of the pagefile. However, Tom Archer (MSFT) posted a Q & A on ReadyBoost and he says:
We're aware of the lifecycle issues with flash drives and are smart about how and when we do our writes to the device. Our research shows that we will get at least 10+ years out of flash devices that we support.

I guess we'll just have to take his word on it for now - at least until the community at large has had enough time to produce some empirical evidence that says otherwise.
# 2GB ReadyBoost Compatible Drives, on the Cheap!
Gravatar StevenHarman.net
Mar 23, 2007
2GB ReadyBoost Compatible Drives, on the Cheap!
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