Windows 7 will not release memory on USB drive used for Readyboost

Hi,

Thank you for posting your query in Microsoft Community and thanks for giving us an opportunity to assist you.

Based on the issue description, it looks like you are unable to use Readyboost on 16GB Datastick Pro flash drive.

Let’s follow these methods to fix the issue:

Method 1: I would suggest you to perform these steps and check:

a.       Type services.msc into the start menu search and launch the tool.

b.      Search the Superfetch entry and make a double click on it.

c.       Now change the start type to "Automatic" and click on Start.

d.      The service now starts and you should be able to use ReadyBoost.

Method 2: To use ReadyBoost Windows 7 checks to see if its performance is fast enough to work with Windows ReadyBoost. If so, you are asked if you want to use this device to speed up system performance. You can choose to allocate part of a USB drive's memory to speed up performance and use the remainder to store files.

If you used this flash drive earlier for Ready Boost, then please check if Ready Boost is not turned off. I suggest you to check the flash drive’s Properties to see if there is a ReadyBoost option available, and if yes, make sure under speed up your system by utilizing the available space on this device, Use this device is enabled.

Visit the links below for more information about Readyboost on Windows 7.

Readyboost

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/products/features/readyboost

Turn on or off for a storage device

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Turn-ReadyBoost-on-or-off-for-a-storage-device

 Hope this information helps. For any further Windows related assistance, feel free to contact us and we will be happy to help.

Hi,

Thank you for the prompt reply.

If you do not have any data on the external drive, you may format the drive and check.

Note: Make sure you backup that data before formatting the external drive.

Try deleting the readyboost.sf cache file from thumb drive and check if it helps.

Follow the steps to delete readyboost.sf cache:

a. Click on the Start button.
b. In the search field on the Start button type services.msc and press the enter key.
c. When User Access Control asks if you would like to continue, do so or provide administrative account credentials to do so.
d. Scroll down to and double-click on the ReadyBoost service.
· Change the Startup Type drop down menu to to Automatic.
· Then press the Start button to start the service.
· Press the OK button.
e. Now close the Services console.

The ReadyBoost service should now be started and if you reinsert the flash drive it will prompt you to use the drive for ReadyBoost.

Please revert for any clarification on this or any Windows issue. We will be glad to help you.

Hi,

Thank you for keeping us posted.

I'm sure this information would definitely answer your doubts about ReadyBoost.

ReadyBoost caches hard drive reads at the sector level. It doesn't care about file systems because it only knows where on the disk data was. SuperFetch may determine a file is used frequently, so it will store that data in a ReadyBoost cache. There is a ReadyBoost cache on the hard drive which I assume is there (rather than reading it from disk elsewhere) is because hard drives have good sequential read performance (meaning reading sector after sector after sector, rather than needing to change tracks and dealing with seek times and rotational latency). The goal of using a ReadyBoost flash device is to beat the disk in performance. This way those hard drive sectors cached using ReadyBoost can be retrieved faster, increasing the computer's performance. For removable ReadyBoost drives, the contents of the drive can't be trusted through a standby, hibernate or shutdown event because the hard drive's or ReadyBoost's cache contents could have been changed since Windows had made that cache. To prevent bad data from being used, Windows will dump the old ReadyBoost cache and begin a new cache. During this time, performance would be less because the cache hasn't warmed up with the current sector's data.

Please revert for any clarification on this or any Windows issue. We will be glad to help you.