CompuClever Blog

A Quick Start Guide for Digital Care ReadyBoost USB Disc

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Thanks for choosing Digital Care ReadyBoost Disc, featuring Microsoft ReadyBoost technology. Before you start, please save all your documents and exit all running applications. Follow the steps below to install your Digital Care ReadyBoost Disc and optimize your PC.

Step 1. Insert the Digital Care ReadyBoost Disc to a USB slot of your choice.

Step 2. If AutoPlay/AutoRun is enabled, you can click the Speed up my system using Windows ReadyBoost option.

Alternatively, you can open Windows | File Explorer (or use keyboard shortcut: Windows Key + E), right-click the newly discovered removable drive and select Properties from the menu. Select the ReadyBoost tab from the Properties dialog box that appears.

If Windows states that “This device cannot be used for ReadyBoost – The device does not have the required performance characteristics for use in speeding up your system“, follow the instructions of Reformatting Your Digital Care ReadyBoost Disc below. And then come back to this step.

If Windows states that “ReadyBoost is not enabled because this computer is fast enough that ReadyBoost is unlikely to provide additional benefit“, this probably means that Windows is installed on an SSD and no performance gain is possible. Continue reading...

FAQ – Digital Care ReadyBoost USB Disc

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Q: What is ReadyBoost and how does it help my PC speed?

A: ReadyBoost is a Microsoft Windows technology that allows you to use ReadyBoost compatible USB flash drive, such as Digital Care ReadyBoost USB Disc, as an additional memory. Doing so, ReadyBoost improves your system’s performance by providing quicker access to data compared to accessing the information from the hard drive. To learn more about the ReadyBoost technology, please read this blog post.

 

Q: What’s the System Requirement for Digital Care ReadyBoost USB Disc?

A: Digital Care ReadyBoost USB Disc supports Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1, and Windows 10

 

Q: Do all USB flash drives support the ReadyBoost technology?

A: No. A USB flash drive must meet the minimum random ready and write speeds requirements to support the ReadyBoost feature.  In order for ReadyBoost to work, it requires a USB storage device to have at least: 64MB, USB 2.0, read at 3.5 MB/s, and write at 2.5 MB/s. Our Digital Care ReadyBoost USB Disc well exceeds this requirements.

 

Q: Aren’t Hard Disks faster than flash? My HDD has 80MB/sec throughput.
A: Hard drives are great for large sequential I/O. For those situations, ReadyBoost gets out of the way. Continue reading...

Speed up Your PC with ReadyBoost

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All PC users have likely experienced the frustration related to slow performance.  There’s something just not right about having to wait for your PC to switch from one application to another.  We want to multi-task and we want a PC system that does not suffer any delays.  And, we ask, why not?  It’s an extension of what we are capable of.  So what are the choices in dealing with slow performing systems?  We can keep our original PC just as it is with very few applications (not taking full advantage of its capabilities and not much fun).  We can live with frustration and wait for the PC to respond when it is slow.  We can look at the costs associated with adding more RAM or increasing other hardware.  Instead of these options, we suggest a fast, easy, free alternative offered by Microsoft called ReadyBoost.

In our previous article we provided information about USB technology including USB flash drives.  With that information in hand you are ready to speed up your PC with ReadyBoost.  Let’s start with an overview of the technology.

Who Will Benefit?

Using this technology is best for users with 8 GB of RAM or lower, using a traditional spinning platter hard drive (HDD), and an operating system of Windows Vista or higher. Continue reading...

Refresh Your PC with Device Driver Update

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As stated in my recently updated book – “5 Tips for a Fast PC”, I am often the “go-to” guy for solving computer problems amongst my families and friends. One of our primary intentions in writing the book was to inform ordinary PC users how to master the basics of computer optimization and maintenance. I have to admit that I purposely left one specific trick out of the book – updating Windows device drivers – for a reason. This is because updating device drivers can be tricky if you don’t have the proper software tool. Although, we want to emphasize here that keeping your PC’s device drivers updated will enhance your PC’s stability and performance.

Today, I am going to explain what device drivers are, why you should update your PC’s device drivers, and how to do it safely and effectively.

What device drivers are

Your Windows PC is made of the following “building blocks”: the hardware, the Operating System (also known as Windows OS), and application software. But have you ever wondered how your OS and application software interact with hardware?

The four layers of Operating System

This is where a device driver comes into play. A device driver, commonly known as a driver, is a computer program that controls or drives a particular set of hardware.  Continue reading...

Why You Should Always Backup Locally—Even if You Use Cloud Storage

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Thanks to smartphones, video cameras and other gadgets we all create a massive amount of files. Often our computer hard drives are too small to store all of this information. Luckily, there are free remote backup services such as Dropbox and Google Drive that can automatically upload our files remotely.

The biggest problem with saving remotely on cloud services such as Google Drive and Dropbox is you could be hacked. Even Apple’s iCloud service, with some of the toughest security in the world, has been hacked.

So, it’s always a good idea to backup locally first before relying on remote backup. USB or “thumb” drives are handy devices that in many ways can be the perfect solution for local backups.

Reliable and cheap, USB drives can store anything from 1GB (the size of a feature-length HD movie) to 1TB (1000 feature-length movies) of data. Unlike a powered HDD backup drive, USB drives are also portable and easier to keep safe.

How Many Files Can Be Stored on a USB Drive?

If you’re backing up images from your camera and want to know how many will fit on a USB thumb drive all you really need is to know is the size of the image, which is measured in megapixels. Continue reading...