USB drives as Vista Readyboost

[Pedro_The_Swift]

I seem to be chewing through them,,

just lost the second one in a little over two years.
both 8gb, both from Dick Smith, both touted as "vista ready"(its a speed thing ;))

would they just be wearing out?

[DeanoH]

Just bad luck I reckon Pedro. Either that or crappy re-badged cheapies. What brand were they ? I go for the brand name ones after having a 'no brand' one fail a couple of years ago. Gave out over 100 'Imation' USB keys for work several years ago and had no reported failures. I've been using them since with no problems.
As for 'Vista Ready', here's 'The Good Oil', it's meaningless drivel. Marketing parlance to attract your dollars. As relevant as the old 'high speed', 'full speed' USB terminology used to confuse buyers trying to distinguish between USB1 and USB2 several years ago. A good USB key will have it's speed shown on the packaging. I can remember reading an article about successful litigation against Microsoft/Intel for misleading advertising in using the term Vista Ready on laptops in the US. It was to do with the labeling of low power WinXP capable laptops which were unable to effectively run with the resource hungry and now disgraced Windows Vista. So the term Vista Ready is really nothing to be proud of, I'm suprised manafactures still use it.

Deano:)

[abaddonxi]

Two years, ten years, close enough.:D


Since flash drives wear out after a finite (though very large) number of writes, ReadyBoost could eventually wear out the drive it uses—though this may take a long time, depending on various factors. According to Microsoft, the drive should be able to operate for at least ten years.

ReadyBoost - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Pedro_The_Swift]

maybe Deano,, but Vista just wont use any old usb stick,,

disgraced huh,,
its not vista's fault, blame the programmers.
I use 7 at work and MUCH prefer my vista at home.;)


gotta get some of your drugs Simon,,:p

[DeanoH]

maybe Deano,, but Vista just wont use any old usb stick,,
.................................................. .........................
I use 7 at work and MUCH prefer my vista at home



True, it needs a quicky, but I would have thought most modern sticks would meet this criteria now ? Perhaps I'm too cynical in assuming that Vista Ready doesn't neccessarily mean Vista ReadyBoost Ready.
Interesting that you prefer Vista to 7. I upgraded from XP to Vista early in the piece and loved the Aero GUI. I had (and still have) a fairly quick PC for its day, an Opteron 175 with plenty of RAM and put up with the comparatively poor Vista performance just for the GUI. What really killed Vista for me in the end was its abysmal networking capabilitys. Trying to run a home network with mixed Vista/XP machines was an exercise in head banging futility. I upgraded back to XP and havn't looked back. 7 is an excellent system, what Vista should have been, but as you say can be pretty bland in its corporate livery.

Deano:)

[funkyfedaykin]

I use 7 at work and MUCH prefer my vista at home.;)

:eek: What is wrong with you?...:p

Sure, each Windows OS has it's ups & downs, but I can't see why one would prefer Vista over 7.

My laptops are always up to date (no more than 2 yrs old), and I have run XP, Vista & 7 in work & personal arenas. My work & personal computer is the same thing, so there's twice as much demanded of the OS, and 7 has pretty much out performed them all. More stable, usually faster, prettier, smoother. I hate the oversimplification of many features but I overlook that for the benefits. I also look after the PCs at work, and I hardly ever have issues with the 7 machines.

But back to the topic, I think you're just wearing the lower quality flash drive out, as there is constant reading/writing going on when in use (that's my understanding anyway...), though a quick look at Wikipedia says: " According to Microsoft, the drive should be able to operate for at least ten years.".

Just remember, USB Flash drives have a limited life span, & the more it's used the sooner it dies. Again from Wikipedia: "Most commercially available flash products are guaranteed to withstand around 100,000 P/E cycles, before the wear begins to deteriorate the integrity of the storage."
I'm sure you could easily attain 100,000 program/erase cycles after using a stick for ReadyBoost over a couple years.