How to enable Readyboost that is disabled in error

Anonymous

My laptop came pre-installed with Windows 8.1 on a 500GB 5400RPM HDD. It has 4GB memory.

Over the holidays someone gave me a 64GB m-SATA SSD, which I put into the laptop's m-SATA slot.

On the BIOS, the info shows that the SSD occupies the SATA 0 slot. I had to re-adjust the boot order to boot normally into my system disk, which is on the SATA 1 slot.

I wanted to use the m-SATA SSD as a Readyboost cache. When I carried out the steps to enable Readyboost on the SSD, it wouldn't let me. The error message is:

This device cannot be used for ReadyBoost.

ReadyBoost is not enabled because this computer is fast enough that ReadyBoost is unlikely to provide additional benefit.

There must be some mistake because the SSD is not the system disk. It only occupies SATA slot 0 (which I cannot change). The system disk is a typical HDD.

How do I go about enabling Readyboost on the SSD? Any tweaks or commands? I have tweaked the registry many times before so if need be I could do that.

[Note: Those who want to suggest other things like sell the SSD, leave it alone, or whatever, please just heckle some other thread.]

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Anonymous

Insert the flash drive or card, then right-click on it in This PC and select properties. Open the ReadyBoost tab.

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42 additional answers

Anonymous

2014-01-11T12:53:37+00:00

The bug is with the machine insisting that an external drive connects to the primary SATA adapter..

That apart, a 4gb system does NOT require ReadyBoost..

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

2014-01-13T11:49:42+00:00

To those who continue to clog this thread with YOU DON'T NEED IT, YOU'RE WASTING YOUR TIME kind of replies, despite my polite request to stay off in the First Thread:

I have other machines with Windows 7, running 4GB, and running Readyboost off a small, non-system SSD attached in an internal SATA port. I find that it helps with booting times and it feels faster.

Anyway, in this laptop, running Windows 8.1, the option to use Readyboost should be available. But it seems that Readyboost is detecting the non-system disk SSD connected on SATA Slot 0 as SYSTEM DISK and therefore not even making the ReadyBoost option available.

Gordon B-P and Mike Hall MVP, if you want to help me get Readyboost to work or work around the bug, I appreciate it. If you want to clog this thread with non-help and irrelevant observations, despite the fact that the issue is very clearly stated in the first post, please just stay away.
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Anonymous

2014-01-13T12:31:45+00:00

Your choice if you want to waste more time.

I suggest that the "improvement" in Windows 7 is probably a) subjective (i.e. you THINK there's an improvement when there really isn't one) or b) down to some other factor like updates etc which are purely co-incidental...
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Anonymous

2014-01-13T14:19:01+00:00

"This device cannot be used for ReadyBoost.

ReadyBoost is not enabled because this computer is fast enough that ReadyBoost is unlikely to provide additional benefit."

The above is NOT an error message, isn't a bug, and is quite clear in what it means.

As soon as you fit the mSATA drive, the system registers it's presence as an INTERNAL drive, whether it is being used as a boot drive or is hosting the greater part of the page file or applications and files.

mSATA drives are marketed as cache boosters, and that is what you should do with it. From the desktop, go into Control Panel > Large Icons > System > Advanced System Settings > Advanced Tab > Performance > Settings and adjust your page file to leave a fixed 500mb on the main boot drive and then a System Managed page file on the mSATA drive.

Any space on the mSATA not being used for the page file can be used for fast access to applications and/or files.

Re Readyboost.. Readyboost is for use with USB flashdrives which are fast enough to make a difference on a system which has minimum memory and a slow hard drive.

Note that ReadyBoost is not active when booting and can't speed up boot times. It only improves cache access when the system is up and running and Windows or the application in use needs cache access..
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