Would a 32gb thumb drive work as well as a 32gb SSD?

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I'm interested in speeding up my computer through means of Solid State Memory. But I'm frugal so I'm wondering if I could install my OS to a 32gb thumb drive that would always be plugged in the back of my computer to boot from instead of spending more money and doing the same with an internal SSD.

Is this possible? Can't I just buy a thumb drive, and speed up my computer in the same way a SSD does?
 
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No. A thumb drive is going to be limited to USB speeds vs SATA 6 speeds for one. I think Win8 allows installation on removalable media but OS's before that didn't. Thumbdrives die a lot, especially cheap ones and use cheap chips that are slow sometimes.
No. A thumb drive is going to be limited to USB speeds vs SATA 6 speeds for one. I think Win8 allows installation on removalable media but OS's before that didn't. Thumbdrives die a lot, especially cheap ones and use cheap chips that are slow sometimes.
 
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Ahh I figured. Well what purpose does this Windows ReadyBoost utility serve?

It's an option that comes up whenever I plug in any flash drive. Would that give me a faster boot speed similar to a SSD?
 
Ready boost was for systems with low memory.

The cache drive would take your most often used programs and keep a copy on the SSD to allow faster loads.

None of this can ever take the place of a full OS + programs on the SSD.

Flash drives are getting faster all the time(technology moves fast), but it will be some time before they get to the speed of SSD's.
 

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But say I were to get a full fledged SSD. Would it be riskier having my full OS and most of my programs on the SSD and nothing else? Because I kind of like the idea of Ready Cache, even though it kind of seems like it's just a rectangle of RAM. Isn't that what it is essentially?

How does a SSD run along side an existing HDD?

I mean, does the SSD contain the OS, all the programs and executables while the HDD contains all the saved program data such as projects, game saves, cookies and etc?

 
The ready cache is just a normal SSD with special software to allow the caching(similar to Intel SRT).

You can organize your multi drive system however you want.

In my case(on my media center), I have all my files and most games on my SSD. My hard drive has a few games as well as ALL my files(desktop/documents/videos/media center recordings/ect).

User libraries are easy to move with the built in location tab.
customlocations.png


Use of Junctions or Symbolic Links can be used to move programs from SSD to HDD after installing without reinstalling as well, but please take care with the use of such things.
Guide : Move software/games to another drive without reinstalling.
 

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OKay, that's good to know. Thank you.
 

Jim_L9

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There are some high speed USB 3.0 thumb drives, but they are expensive and you would need a computer with a free USB 3.0 port. The high speed USB 3.0 thumb drive would cost more than a similar size SSD.