Solved Installation for Advanced Format Hard Drives?

[Golden]

And for dual booting. Say, for example, Win 7 / ubuntu. Will you need to partition the drive in a certain way or can you go ahead and doing everything like you would with a normal HDD?

You can do it like this if you like:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/257048-dual-boot-windows-7-linux.html

 

[whs]

I see there are fans of the 100MB partition - and the advantages you pointed out are well understood. If you use Bitlocker in Ultimate or if you multi-boot, the 100MB partition serves a purpose.

But for e.g. imaging, it can complicate matters. If you transfer your OS from a HDD to a SSD with an image, the 100MB partition is in the way. And since I do that with every system, I always first copy the bootmgr to C and transfer only the C partition. I have done that since years and never noticed any shortcomings.

I have only Home Premiums, so no Bitlocker, and I never multi-boot. I prefer the virtual solutions. The 100MB partition could of course be dealt with in the imaging scenario. but why bother.

 

[gregrocker]

The 100mb SysReserved partition presents no extra problems in terms of repair, however imaging specialists complain about it (see Wolfgang's simultaneous post above), and indeed it can be a challenge to understand how an app like Acronis wants it handled.

WinRE isn't actually on that partition as it's too large (250mb or so) and is on C. If you don't have System Recovery Options on F8 Advanced Boot Options then you can try writing it's link there by running Startup Repair - Run up to 3 Separate Times with the intended boot partition marked Active.

 

[lehnerus2000]

The other way around

I never touched the hidden boot partitions, and Linux still booted fine. I don't see how they could possibly interfere with Linux boot process.

The other way around.

See Golden's link:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/257048-dual-boot-windows-7-linux.html

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I see there are fans of the 100MB partition - and the advantages you pointed out are well understood. If you use Bitlocker in Ultimate or if you multi-boot, the 100MB partition serves a purpose.

But for e.g. imaging, it can complicate matters. If you transfer your OS from a HDD to a SSD with an image, the 100MB partition is in the way. And since I do that with every system, I always first copy the bootmgr to C and transfer only the C partition. I have done that since years and never noticed any shortcomings.

I have only Home Premiums, so no Bitlocker, and I never multi-boot. I prefer the virtual solutions. The 100MB partition could of course be dealt with in the imaging scenario. but why bother.

Ok, I'm confused (doesn't take much). When transfering the OS from a HDD to another drive, such as an SSD, why can't you just image both the C:/ partition and the 100MB partition together and "restore" them to the new drive (or even clone them)?

 

[whs]

I see there are fans of the 100MB partition - and the advantages you pointed out are well understood. If you use Bitlocker in Ultimate or if you multi-boot, the 100MB partition serves a purpose.

But for e.g. imaging, it can complicate matters. If you transfer your OS from a HDD to a SSD with an image, the 100MB partition is in the way. And since I do that with every system, I always first copy the bootmgr to C and transfer only the C partition. I have done that since years and never noticed any shortcomings.

I have only Home Premiums, so no Bitlocker, and I never multi-boot. I prefer the virtual solutions. The 100MB partition could of course be dealt with in the imaging scenario. but why bother.

Ok, I'm confused (doesn't take much). When transfering the OS from a HDD to another drive, such as an SSD, why can't you just image both the C:/ partition and the 100MB partition together and "restore" them to the new drive (or even clone them)?

You can, but you have to create 2 seperate aligned partitions on the SSD with Diskpart. That is, of course, possible, but a bit finagle because of the alignment requirement. I prefer to do things the simple, straight forward way.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I see there are fans of the 100MB partition - and the advantages you pointed out are well understood. If you use Bitlocker in Ultimate or if you multi-boot, the 100MB partition serves a purpose.

But for e.g. imaging, it can complicate matters. If you transfer your OS from a HDD to a SSD with an image, the 100MB partition is in the way. And since I do that with every system, I always first copy the bootmgr to C and transfer only the C partition. I have done that since years and never noticed any shortcomings.

I have only Home Premiums, so no Bitlocker, and I never multi-boot. I prefer the virtual solutions. The 100MB partition could of course be dealt with in the imaging scenario. but why bother.

Ok, I'm confused (doesn't take much). When transfering the OS from a HDD to another drive, such as an SSD, why can't you just image both the C:/ partition and the 100MB partition together and "restore" them to the new drive (or even clone them)?

You can, but you have to create 2 seperate aligned partitions on the SSD with Diskpart. That is, of course, possible, but a bit finagle because of the alignment requirement. I prefer to do things the simple, straight forward way.

Now I'm even more confused.

 

[gregrocker]

I'm not aware of how you reimage to partitions, as most imaging apps like Acronis require unallocated space or want to delete any partitions first.

The advice I've seen given here is to reimage as per normal and then if performance requires it take the steps for SSD Alignment - Windows 7 Forums

Since you wrote the tutorial, Wolfgang, perhaps you can clarify.

 

[whs]

You can, of course, align a SSD in 20/20 hindsight. But that may not be easy for a layman to do. The method I describe in my tutorial is only one way to do it. There is also a quick and dirty way using Partition Wizard. The best, however, is to start with an aligned partition.

When you make a fresh install with e.g. a Windows 7 installation disc, the installer will do the alignment for you.

If, however, you move the OS (and the 100MB partition) from a HDD to a SSD, you have to take care of the SSD alignment first. The recovery disc of the imaging program will not do the alignment for you. With Macrium, there is a way to keep the original alignment of the source. But if the source was a HDD, you never know what that was (unless you checked that beforehand - and then it may still not be right).

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Sorry to seem difficult but I'm still confused. so confused, I don't know what questions to ask.

 

[whs]

Sorry to seem difficult but I'm still confused. so confused, I don't know what questions to ask.

I guess then you have to stay confused, LOL.

Maybe if you try to align a disk with 2 partitions using command prompt, then the questions will occur to you.

 

[AddRAM]

What exactly are you confused about ?

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

What exactly are you confused about ?

Starting here:

"You can, but you have to create 2 seperate aligned partitions on the SSD with Diskpart. That is, of course, possible, but a bit finagle because of the alignment requirement. I prefer to do things the simple, straight forward way."

Something just isn't clicking and from there on it is jibberish to me.

 

[gregrocker]

I've not found an imaging app myself that allows one to reimage to defined partitions, but instead it wants empty space or to delete the existing partitions for you. What am I missing here?

 

[whs]

I've not found an imaging app myself that allows one to reimage to defined partitions, but instead it wants empty space or to delete the existing partitions for you. What am I missing here?

Hmm, That's strange. With free Macrium you can make as many images of a partition as you like and it does not touch the older images. You just get an additional file.

Here is an example of just one of my image folders. I weed it out from time to time but I have more images of that same system on 2 other disks.

 

[gregrocker]

I don't use Macrium, but the issue is will an imaging app allow you to reimage to a predefined (aligned) partition or does it require unallocated or free space?

 

[whs]

I don't use Macrium, but the issue is will an imaging app allow you to reimage to a predefined (aligned) partition or does it require unallocated or free space?

Of course it will let you restore the image to a predefined partition. In the case of an SSD, it is even a must unless the image is coming from an aligned SSD.

If you dump the image into an unallocated space, you (can) get the alignment of the source. If that source was a HDD, the alignment is probably not right for the SSD. It could be even worse if you force the alignment in the freespace. If the C partition was e.g. only the second partition on the HDD, the space of the first partition will be kept free and you lose a lot of space on the SSD. Then you are aligned but have a bum deal.

 

[AddRAM]

Pretty easy to understand.

 

[lehnerus2000]

Agreed

Something just isn't clicking and from there on it is jibberish to me.

I'm with Lady Fitzgerald on this one.

The articles I've read about "Advanced Format" have just been useless "technobabble".
All I need/want to know about it, is how do I install ANY OS (XP, Vista, W7, Linux distros) so that the format is maintained?

I would have assumed that a HDD image will retain its format (Old or Advanced) just like it retains the UUID.

How can you tell what your alignment currently is?
How do you know if you have successfully transferred an image (or installed an OS) to the new system (Advanced Format)?

Presumably if you are dual booting XP, you are screwed.

 

[whs]

How can you tell what your alignment currently is?

That is relatively easy (same for HDDs). See here: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/113967-ssd-alignment.html?ltr=S