Vista and Flash Drive Page file

[Zaskar44]

I know its possible in Vista to attack a USB2 Flash drive and have it use it for some of the page file (the most recent) and it then also mirrors that on the HD and usses the rest of the HD page file for the slightly older files.

Is it possible to use a 3-4gig Flash drive (their only like 60-70 bucks now) and use it as the main Page File without relying on the HD at all for the page file? (maby by setting no page file, then connecting a flash disk and making it be used as the page?)

And if so, would that be better in any way then having it mirror itself to the HD at all?

[Skyfrog]

Not all flash drives are supported, make sure you get one that's Readyboost compatible. I'm not sure if you can put your page file on a flash drive or not, but that would have nothing to do with Readyboost. Here is a nice FAQ about it:

http://blogs.msdn.com/tomarcher/archive/20.../02/615199.aspx

Edited September 18, 2006 by Skyfrog

[LLXX]

Bad idea, flash RAM has a limited number of write cycles (much less than magnetic media). Several million writes (which I believe is the current standard of reliability) to the same location seems much, but for an application like a pagefile that number will be reached very easily.

[Spooky]

Actually, I don't think ReadyBoost puts the page file on the USB flash, the page file still remains on a hard drive type device. Ready boost is mostly for applications that you use frequently and in a way sort of functions like extra ram for those, to allow you to start those items more quickly because you don't worry about hard drive seek and read times 'cause its already in memory which is a lot faster. So several million writes to the flash drive will not take place as a result of the page file.

I can see why you'd want to put the page file on the flash drive, but its not such a good idea for a few different reasons. Vista doesn't see the flash drive during boot most likely, this leads to Vista wanting to re-create the page file on a hard drive. Vista (and all MS OS's) first place to look for the page file is a hard drive. Even if the page file was on the flash drive, Vista is always going to look at the hard drive first then the flash drive even tho it knows the page file is on the flash drive to begin with. The page file in Vista doesn't have anything to do with the applications, it only has to do with adding virtual memory to the OS in the form of the page file. Vista doesn't 'mirror' the page file - the page file goes where it goes and it stays there, I think your thinking about the shadow copy which does what you mentioned in your post with files and the shadow copy is always on the hard drive but doesn't do anything with the page file.

Edited September 26, 2006 by Spooky