Partition Offset is different from what is listed in Gparted for SSD

swimnub · 30 Dec 2011

The SSD I am using is an Intel 320 series 160 gb, and my computer is a Dell Studio 1558 with Windows 7 Home 64 bit. First I cloned my original HDD to the SSD using the Intel Migration Software that came bundled with it, and after getting the SSD installed into the laptop and booting it up I brought up diskpart and found out that the partition offsets were off. Also according to AS-SSD benchmark it verified that they were off.

So I booted up Gparted and aligned the partitions with 1 MiB in front of my recovery partition and between the recovery and OS partition.

After checking diskpart again I found that the offsets satisfied the criteria for being divisible by 4, and AS-SSD verified that the offset was OK. However the offset for my OS partition is MUCH larger than what I've seen (in the gigs range) and I'm confused because in Gparted the space between the recovery and OS partition is shown as 1 MiB so my question is: where is that extra space coming from or why's it being shown differently? And is there any disadvantage of having a LARGE offset even if it is divisible by the correct amount?

Thanks for looking!

Night Hawk · 30 Dec 2011

Hello swimnub Welcome to the SevenForums!

Actually you are under the wrong impression about any larger gap between the recovery partition and C. When you have a 160gb drive but see a 7.06gb recovery and 141.99gb OS primary you wonder where the other 6gb went I assume.

What's missing? The conversion of units of measurement by how drives are sold to how they are measured by Windows or any other OS. Drives are sold by the decimal "units of measurement" while an OS sees a drive with binary "units of measurement". To avoid confusion a good article published back in 2007 also includes a calculator to see the difference when converting from decimal to binary. The Tomorrow Times: The Hard Drive Capacity Calculator

swimnub · 30 Dec 2011

Thanks for the quick reply!

I'm actually not wondering about that but that is interesting to know! However I was looking at the partition offset and that's what's confusing me. Listed in diskpart the offset is by a large factor 7234 mb. And then in AS-SSD the 7407616K is much larger than what I've seen around the forums (usually around 2048, although it says it is an OK size).

EDIT: Actually after thinking about it, is the offset INCLUDING the preceding partition (in this case the recovery which is ~7 gigs) and then ADDING that 1 MiB I included to make it that 7234 mb offset?

Night Hawk · 30 Dec 2011

That would be most likely. When migrating from what a sata drive to SSD that would account for a change to some extent as well. You have to remember you made a change in drive types as well as moving things from one drive to another.

swimnub · 30 Dec 2011

Alright so ultimately it comes down to the final question: is there anything wrong with what I've got set up? Is there any downfall to the large partition offset and whether my OS drive is in front of the recovery or not?

Night Hawk · 30 Dec 2011

Not from what I can see. I use GParted regularly if and when going to set up a new drive or split up one already installed.

With the Dell there the hidden recovery partition is placed before the OS primary while other manufacturers will place theirs at the end of the drive after C. If you have an option to create a recovery disk for Windows using one of their apps that would still be a good idea however. Otherwise you would need to order one from them.