This tutorial explains how to use the ReadyBoost feature in Windows 7 with an SD Card to speed up your PC.
One of the features in Windows 7 that can help improve performance is ReadyBoost. It helps boost system performance on computers with minimal amounts of RAM. We’ve previously shown you how to speed up Windows Vista with a USB drive and ReadyBoost, this time we look at using ReadyBoost with an SD Card with Windows 7.
1. If you have a Windows 7 machine with the minimum amount of RAM you can help boost performance with ReadyBoost. A lot of people use thumb drives, but you can also use an SD or Micro SD card for it as well. This is a good trick if you have a Netbook running Windows 7 as they usually come with small amounts of RAM.
Make sure you have at least 256MB available on the SD card as that is the minimum amount of space required. Also keep in mind that some older SD cards may not work because it requires minimum read/write speeds. If you have a newer card then it should work.
If your computer has an SD and/or Micro SD card slot simply insert the SD card into the appropriate slot. You’ll then see the following screen if you have AutoPlay enabled. Click on Speed up my system using Windows ReadyBoost.
![sshot-2011-01-10-[04-32-21]](https://www.simplehelp.net/wp-content/uploads/sshot-2011-01-10-04-32-21.png)
2. In the next window that comes up click check Use this device. In this example we put in a 2 GB Micro SD card and Windows recommend the amount of space to reserve for optimal performance. You can change the amount of space to reserve for ReadyBoost but you should be fine with what Windows picks for you. After you have it set click OK.
![sshot-2011-01-10-[04-44-30]](https://www.simplehelp.net/wp-content/uploads/sshot-2011-01-10-04-44-30.png)
3. Then Windows will configure your cache and it will automatically use ReadyBoost when you have the card in it’s slot.
![sshot-2011-01-10-[05-01-04]](https://www.simplehelp.net/wp-content/uploads/sshot-2011-01-10-05-01-04.png)
4. If you go into Computer you’ll see the SD card being read as a drive and most of the space is being utilized.
![sshot-2011-01-10-[05-03-05]](https://www.simplehelp.net/wp-content/uploads/sshot-2011-01-10-05-03-05.png)
5. Open the card you’ll see it’s being used to utilize the ReadyBoost feature.
![sshot-2011-01-10-[05-03-36]](https://www.simplehelp.net/wp-content/uploads/sshot-2011-01-10-05-03-36.png)
If you have a PC or Netbook that’s low on physical RAM, and you’d like it to run more snappy without adding extra sticks of memory, using an SD card for the ReadyBoost feature can definitely help.
