Vista uses the readyboost memory instead of hard drive space to store part of your cache. The smaller files are placed in readyboost since it would be much faster than a typical hard drive. Larger files still use the hard drive cache. Vista decides what is larger and what is smaller. Vista will automatically check any memory card, thumb drive or other USB drive to see if it is suitable to use for readyboost. If it is, cool. If not, it will tell you so. Obviously, you don't want to use a typical run of the mill memory card or drive as they are very slow. Buy a high speed card or an "Enhanced for ReadyBoost" USB drive. Get the one with the fastest read/write speeds. Note: most packaging for these devices do NOT list read/write speeds. Do your homework before buying. Note: SD cards at 4GB or higher capacity are actually SDHC cards. SDHC cards will work properly only in SDHC capable devices. I do not know how an SD card reader or SD camera would react to an SDHC card. SD cards work fine in SDHC devices. Don -----Original Message----- From: pctechtalk-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:pctechtalk-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of David TW Chun Sent: Tuesday, September 29, 2009 10:09 AM To: pctechtalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: -=PCTechTalk=- Re: Flash Drive Hi Mike, I just tried inserting a 8 GB SD card into the computer and ran ReadyBoost. The maximum I was allocate to extra ram was 4 GB so I'm guessing that this is the maximum allowed? If so, I'm going to pull the 8 GB card and use a 4 GB card the next time I reboot. Wow! If this gives me an extra 4 GB to my 3 GB computer under Vista, I will be pleased. Thanks, David Mike the mod wrote: >Hi Sandi, >it is a feature found in Vista/Windows7 that allows you to use a >USB flash drive/ smart card as extra ram. --------------------------------------------------------------- Please remember to trim your replies (including this sentence and everything below it) and adjust the subject line as necessary. To subscribe, unsubscribe or modify your email settings: //www.freelists.org/webpage/pctechtalk OR To subscribe to the mailing list, send an email to pctechtalk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "subscribe" in the Subject. To unsubscribe send email to pctechtalk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "unsubscribe" in the Subject. To access our Archives: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PCTechTalk/messages/ //www.freelists.org/archives/pctechtalk/ To contact only the PCTT Mod Squad, write to: pctechtalk-moderators@xxxxxxxxxxxxx To join our separate PCTableTalk off-topic group, send a blank email to: pctabletalk+subscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---------------------------------------------------------------