Hi,
Is it possible to have Ready Boost and File History on the same drive for Windows 10? For example if there is a USB Flash drive or a SD Card or MicroSD Card having capacity of 64 GB or higher then can we put Ready Boost and File History on the same drive? Has anybody managed to achieve this? If yes can you please give your inputs
------------------
Thanks in Advance
FYI - comments on relevance of Readyboost today: i.e. is it genuinely something you need?
There isn't even a tutorial on it on eightforums or tenforums- the last was on sevenforums (Win 7).
Note the discussion in this as to the value (or not) of Readyboost:
ReadyBoost - Setup and Use - Windows 7 Help Forums
Also note the option to restrict space used which might be relevant to your question, partitioning being another possible approach.
readyboost?
ReadyBoost / eBoostr
Curiosity- any reason you're still on 1511? Old PC that can't be updated?
Given the probability that few today actually use it, you may not find anyone who's tried the combination you're asking about.
I have never used ReadyBoost, never having had a system on which it was both supported and appropriate.
I don't use File History, preferring to do my own backups.
While what you are proposing may be technically possible it is not recommended. Among other things devices used with ReadyBoost have relatively low reliability and are thus inappropriate for use as a backup media. Do not skimp on backups. They are too important for that.
I would question the usefulness of ReadyBoost in 2020. This feature was first introduced in Vista when, in an endeavor to keep costs down, many systems were sold that barely met system requirements. It was intended for use on systems with low memory and slow hard drives, and that by the standards of 2007, not 2020. At the time tests were done to test the effectiveness of ReadyBoost. The biggest gains were with 500 MB RAM, which did meet the minimum requirements for Vista home. With 1 GB RAM gains were more modest and with 2 GB RAM were minimal. That was of course with a conventional drive, not an SSD. With more than 2 GB RAM or an SSD ReadyBoost is a feature whose time has past.
The need for Ready Boost and File History arose as some of the people I know and myself included are on hardware which is about 4-5 year or more old. They have old magnetic hard disks which are not as fast SSD drives. So to speed up the laptops and desktops Ready Boost is being considered.
The need to File History arose because some of the people I know have lost a few changes that they have made. Basically they would want to go back to a previous versions of their files. Now ideally I would have directed them towards Google Drive or towards Microsoft One Drive. But that is not an option due to privacy issues and complexity involved in working. The versions have to be maintained on the local machine. They have external backups, but the backups are done on a monthly or bi-weekly basis.
A network drive connected to the Home network was not considered for File History because of cost. This would entail addition of a new hardware, which ideally would have to be running 24X7 or atleast 18X7 to have a meaningful impact. In these times of COVID-19 related economic hardships I would like to keep the expenditures to a bare minimum. Considering that a 128 GB USB Flash Drive or Micro SD Card or SD Card is available for Rs 1600 - Rs 2200 (about 21 - 28 USD), I considered this to be a more cost effective solution then a network drive. A network drive would have to additionally consider the cost of electricity and network costs. If someone is somewhere outside of home network range then File History backs up the data onto the Local HDD. This defeats the purpose of having File History on a separate piece of hardware.
Now both of these products, i.e. Ready Boost and File History require either a USB Flash Drive or Micro SD Card or SD Card. If they can be combined into a single external disk, that has some obvious benefits, like not having too many devices connected to the laptop or deskop, occupying too many USB ports. Putting both of them, i.e. Ready Boost and File History, in their own partition does seem to be a clean option, however since we are talking about USB Flash Drive or Micro SD Card or SD Card whether it is feasible or not is also to be considered. I have not see a Micro SD Card or SD Card partitioned into two partitions. I have also not seen USB Flash Drives partitioned into two or more drives.
Fundamental question- with your not-so-old hardware, if you use Readyboost, do you actually experience any gain in performance? Comments you've received suggest you won't.
If not, the question is moot.
Fwiw I really really wanted ReadyBoost to work on Vista, W7, W8 and W10 and often had a play around with it. I found it consistently seemed to cause problems such as slow boot times or even occasionally (on a Vista laptop) not booting at all.
It never worked as it should and believe me, I wanted it to and really tried with it.
Quote