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I'd like to use SSD as ReadyBoost cache disk. However, ReadyBoost can work with pluggable USB drives only (AFAIK). Is there any way to avoid this limitation?

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If you look at the Wikipedia article it states "If the system drive is a solid state disk (SSD), ReadyBoost is disabled since it would have little or no effect.". So the current answers have said you can use and SSD for ReadyBoost, but apparently not if it's the system drive. – DMA57361 Aug 13 '10 at 14:49

5 Answers

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On Windows 7 you CAN use an internal SSD drive for ReadyBoost.

Example scenario where it makes "some" sense: You have an existing Windows 7 desktop that could use a performance boost, but you don't have time to reinstall/migrate the boot drive to an SSD.

  • Install a cheap SSD, and configure it for ReadyBoost (just right click on the drive the same as you would a USB Flash drive). NOTE: ReadyBoost will only use 4GB of the drive.

  • Move your virtual memory paging file from the boot drive to the SSD.

  • Move any data files you are working with actively to the SSD (such as source code if you are developer).

Total time invested: About 10 minutes Performance improvement: Noticeable/useful but not magic

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ReadyBoost can use more than 4Gb of a drive - the limit is only present on Vista and certain filesystems (NTFS & exFAT allow more). I've got a spare 16Gb SD Card that I leave plugged in my machine that's providing a 16Gb ReadyBoost cache... – DMA57361 Aug 13 '10 at 14:42
Yeah, Win7 can do it. Unfortunately, I've found that ReadyBoost is useless for my system, coz it was designed to aid systems with poor RAM. – skevar7 Aug 15 '10 at 12:11
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Note that doing this will put extreme wear on the SSD very quickly, which may decrease its lifetime significantly. – nhinkle♦ Jun 1 '11 at 17:18
You can get a 16GB SSD for ~$55 so wearing it out quickly might be a cheap tradeoff for a nice performance boost for an aging machine... – Scrappydog Jun 3 '11 at 11:51
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@skevar7: Uhm no, ReadyBoost is to aid systems with slow HDDs, not RAM. – Tom Wijsman Sep 26 '11 at 13:27
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up vote 7 down vote

use the SSD as system drive, not only will virtual memory be much faster (than anything ReadyBoost has to offer via the USB 2.0 bottleneck) but also the overall system performance.

P.S.: ReadyBoost is a relic from the days when RAM was still a precious commodity. today, memory is dirtcheap, i wouldn't bother with ReadyBoost.

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Big SSD is too expensive. And Win7-64 eats 20 gigs for empty installation only... – skevar7 Jan 9 '10 at 16:13
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not true, use vLite and get a Windows 7 installation crammed onto a 4 GB SSD if necessary, no problem. – Molly7244 Jan 9 '10 at 16:15
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Not exactly correct, it can't shrink 64bit Win7 to 4gb. But vLite is nice tool, thanks. Maybe I'd better go for SSD as system drive. But that damned ever-growing WinSXS folder makes me crazy :-/ – skevar7 Jan 9 '10 at 18:08
WinSXS is some showstopper alright :) – Molly7244 Jan 9 '10 at 23:03
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I need to improve disk system performance. Increasing RAM anymore won't do the trick. – skevar7 Jan 13 '10 at 7:06
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up vote 5 down vote

I managed to set up a full 120 GB SSD disk to use ReadyBoost by creating four partitions and enabling ReadyBoost on them all. ReadyBoost for Windows 7 allows only max 32 GB per partition but one disk can still be partitioned more times. Total maximum will be 256 GB with 8 partitions (32 GB each).

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up vote 4 down vote

Readyboost and SSD is a match made in heaven! Having the O/S on the SSD is a waste of potential, why does windows paint and all the desktop backgrounds and windows help files need that speed? By booting from a HDD and readyboosting a SSD windows will cache all the stuff that is used frequently (the stuff that actually benefits from being on an SSD) enabling optimum usage of your SSD space :)

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up vote -1 down vote

ReadyBoost essentially allows you to treat non-hard drive storage devices as memory.

If you want to do this on a regular internal hard drive, you should just allocate swap file space on that drive.

To do this:

  • Go to system properties (Winkey+Pause, or right click My Computer->Properties)
  • Advanced
  • Under "Performance" frame click Settings
  • Advanced
  • Change

You should see this dialogue:

Windows 7 Swap file settings

Here you can add a custom or system managed size page file for the drive letter of your SSD.

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That's not ReadyBoost, that's virtual memory. ReadyBoost caches files, virtual memory doesn't. – OS2Waarp Jan 10 '10 at 0:18
Yes, but it's as close as you can get to readyboost for an internal drive though, afaik. – RJFalconer Jan 10 '10 at 10:33

protected by Tom Wijsman Jan 30 '12 at 18:13

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