How to enable Readyboost that is disabled in error

Anonymous
2014-01-01T15:02:17+00:00

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.]

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Performance and system failures

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Anonymous
2015-05-06T22:06:26+00:00

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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  1. Anonymous
    2014-12-11T21:39:49+00:00

    To all the people who continue to ask: "why do u need ready boost,YOU DON'T NEED IT ; if u have SSD or 4GB RAM you dont need ReadyBoot"

     WAKE UP PEOPLE!! Programs like 3Ds Max use ReadyBoost as actual RAM, ie if you render a large 3D model with 4GB RAM the program will definitely crash, but if you have another 8GB ReadyBoost it will run smoothly. The SSD does not solve the problem, Paging also doesnt solve it, and to all the people who are saying well why dont you just buy some extra RAMs, the new ultrabooks come with a fixed ammount of RAMs on the motherboard, YOU CANNOT ADD RAMs, and they come with SSDs... So technically its a dead end to people who want to use their i7 ultra books for something productive and not just Facebook...

     I ask you please people to keep your answer simply to the question and help us find a solution to re-enable this feature even if we have SSD; without thinking that we are dumb or that you know more than we do!!

    Thank you

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-03-07T19:37:05+00:00

    The first link is dumbed down and inaccurate. The second, from MS, states:

    ReadyBoost provides the most significant performance improvement under the following circumstances:

    • The computer has a slow hard disk drive. Computers with a primary hard disk Windows Experience Index (WEI) subscore lower than 4.0 will see the most significant improvements.
    • The flash storage provides fast, random, non-sequential reads. Sequential read speed is less important.

    Nowhere does it state anything like "Readyboost will NOT give you any improvement in performance. At ALL."

    More RAM is better, but regardless of how much RAM you have, if you have a mechanical HD, Readyboost can help. RAM + Readyboost > RAM

    In addition to the scenarios often listed, Readyboost helps when there is a lot of disk activity. If your disk is bogged down with IO, Readyboost can help keep Windows interactive. An SSD master is better, but I use Readyboost regularly on machines where I can't justify an SSD, or don't have access to the internals but need to use the machine anyway.

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-03-07T19:13:01+00:00

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-03-07T17:02:40+00:00

    I continue to look for an answer to this bug:

    Why?

    You have 4GB RAM - Readyboost will NOT give you any improvement in performance. At ALL.

    Do you have any evidence to support that? Readyboost is useful whenever disk IO is limiting, and if you have a mechanical drive then IO is limiting, regardless of how much RAM you have.

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