Just noticed this thread and signed up for the sole reason to let you guys know...

I've been a "hacker/cracker" for many years now and am pretty handy with reverse engineering Win32 based programs. To my dissappointment I only noticed today that my 8GB ReadyBoost-Optimized stick is useless in my Server 2008/Vista hybrid!

I'm working on transferring the EMD Driver/Service from Vista Ultimate right now, starting with research. Hopefully it will be ready within the next 24 hours as this is a top priority for me.

I will post here if I run into any problems in the hopes that somebody can help out. I think that porting the Service and Driver will be the easy part, but of course I have no idea if it will compatible. Alas, as i said, i've made this my #1 project and want to finish it ASAP. So where there's a will there's a way

I'll keep you guys posted. Starting work right now. Well, after a shower. Lol. Peace!

UPDATE

This is going to be tricky. So far i've managed to get 2008 to load the ecache driver at pre-boot and run the EMDMgmt service with the right credentials, at a seemingly functional level. I managed to trick the ReadyBoost "tab" to appear via a rundll32 command [i.e., not on the property page of a flash drive] and it is normal on the appearance side of things - but there is no visible way with this to actually have it 'assigned' to the proper drive letter or device. I think there is a missing dependency/class in regards to the ecache.sys/emdmgmt.dll talking to the USB Stack/Volume Mount component :S

I kinda wish that guy who was working on this was here so I could see where he got. It looks like i'm going to have to debug/spy/process monitor the entire process of EMD becoming active under Vista. That could take weeks, as I would have to have a logger enabled when I...
1.insert a USB drive
2. Open the property page and switch to ReadyBoost
3. Enable ReadyBoost
...and then cross check every single system file that is referenced to see how they are called, and there is no practical way to filter out the EMD-related activity from the normal crap that goes on in the background with Vista. Not to mention that i'm expecting i'll run into a dependant library that is probably different between Vista and 2008 - so my hopes of "100% exactly the same functionality as Vista" has now completely plumeted!

I guess it's only been a few hours though! I'll let you guys know when I have something that someone can test for me, to make sure it half-works on other systems and not just mine. Peace.

Don't let that stupid protection beat you! Sounds you have a lot of experience/knowledge about this stuff so Good Luck with it! I'd like to know how you did it if you got it working. I also think this interesting stuff: reverse engineering / patching the assembly code / intercepting system calls etc. Currently at school we are working with Minix, and so we are learning the internals of an operating system. It's nice/interesting to learn!

nice work JonusC

i'll be watching this thread with great interest. having readyboost will be awesome!

Thanks guys! Arris, I will be happy to show/describe everything I did to get it working.. WHEN I get to a stage where anything works! Thanks to you to bobbert, I need the motivation/fanfare right now pretty bad...

I found that there is infact a binary difference between a certain file the Volume Mount Manager relies on, between Vista and 2008. This is bad news. I've got a feeling this is going to be extremely difficult, I tried adding the ecache driver to the list of Volume Filters to load at bootup [so it would actually be applied to USB sticks and not just be the driver sitting there with nothing to do] and just got a BSOD so either i've done something wrong [i can only hope] or the physical code for ReadyBoost capability has ben stripped from some of the DLL's

If that's the case, hopefully its just a matter of time. Forget about that "ill have something within 24 hours" comment lol, coz it just got a hell of a lot more complex. I really despise the use of the "Manifest database" in the NT6 family.... well, i'm pretty damn keen to get this new flash stick working and there's no way im going to Vista so i'm going to work all day on this [its just after midday now] so hopefully I can deliver an update in a few hours.

Thanks again for your kind words! Peace!

Status


ReadyBoost Caching Driver (ecache.sys)
- OK!
ReadyBoost Base Service (EMDMgmt.dll)
- OK!
Legacy Device Enumeration of Driver and Service
- OK! [THIS WAS HARD, found out that NT6 is pretty intelligent and automates a lot of this when a specific registry flag is set and the PC is rebooted]
Permissions for SVCHOST.EXE to start the ReadyBoost Service under propper credentials
- OK!
Performance Database/Information
- Partial [ReadyBoost depends on parts of the 'Performance and Diagnostic Tools' from Vista to measure drive speed, which is missing in 2008. I think this might be overcome by using the well-known registry tweak to "force" slow USB devices to work, maybe... at least until this part is worked out]
Cache/Store for PCI/USB Devices detected via Hotplug Insertion
- No [I'm still working on this, the registry does not update with Device/Vendor ID's and such under the EMDMgmt software key, possibly related to previous issue]
Component and Handle Registration of ReadyBoost in the Volume Mount Manager
- OK! [THIS WAS GAVE ME A MASSIVE HEADACHE I spent hours on this!]
MUI/Language Information for ReadyBoost related components
- Partial [ReadyBoost will never be included in the Windows Online Help system as there is a file conflict]
Event Log reporting ReadyBoost status?
- No [This might be impossible, not sure yet]
Low-Level Filter for Volumes [crcdisk.sys]
- OK! [This was the milestone, this was the final step to get the ReadyBoost service started successfully]


What's Next?

The properties page needs to be done, and the options in the AutoPlay menu for creating a ReadyBoost drive. Basically, the UI hasn't been done at all haha! But believe me when I say that the hardest part is done - the driver and the service are now running! I think it's safe to say you can set your alarms for 24 hours from now

...Oh wait, I still need to make an installer too. And yes i NEED to do this, as I had to take ownership of various TrustedInstaller folders/registry keys to do this and this needs to be user friendly and SAFE with error checking!

Anyway, screenshot attatched so check it out and no, there is no graphic design trickery here! Stay tuned guys...

cewl
keep going

IM STUCK!!!

I don't know how the hell I even got this far to be honest, I have no idea how to get the ReadyBoost tab to appear - I'm pretty sure I found the right registry keys, but for all I know it could be some other DLL with the dialog data that Vista has but 2008 doesn't.... eh I think i've burnt myself out for the day maybe i'll call it a night. Damn.

EDIT: I just noticed that the vLite tool has matured quite a bit. I'm going to build an extremely cut-down copy of Vista [keeping ReadyBoost of course] stripping EVERYTHING else, then use Process Explorer to watch the ReadyBoost detecting/enabling process with NO FILTER AT ALL to find every damn DLL and Registry Key thats read or changed during ANYTHING to do with USB and/or ReadyBoost functions!

please, don't give up

Don't worry, I wont go down without a fight I want this pretty bad too! I havn't given up yet just got home from work, will spend a few more hours on it today now im fresh and rested and see how we go pray to your gods to bestow me with great intelligence! Nevermind, I'll do it lol.