Question: are you sure your SSD needed to be "Aligned?"
If so, and you choose to add the 100MB "System Reserved" partition at the front of the hard drive, be sure not to use any of the space you setup to "align"?
The reason I ask is the link from the site where you followed instructions said: "Yeah really should be a disclaimer in bold red or something that you only need to do this for certain SSD's and only for XP not for Vista/Win 7"
Cheers!
Robert
Right. Turns out, for some wacko reason, mine was unaligned by Windows 7.I confirmed this by using AS SSD Benchmark which listed the alignment as:
31K - BAD
After aligning, it read;
64K - GOOD
See, I'm not sure exactly how do unavoid unaligning it by doing this. I may create this new 100MB and align it right there in GParted. And then boot into Windows and make it active, etc.
We'll see! Thanks again for your help.
~Ibrahim~
Well ... you could try reversing the very last steps of the instructions: right click on the empty space and create a partition. Then shrink your Windows 7 partition by 100MB (the exact amount will vary like 101.94 or something) to create the space for the reserved partition, then make the 100MB partition. Finally delete the "Aligned partition space" as instructed and your alignment should remain unaffected?Right. Turns out, for some wacko reason, mine was unaligned by Windows 7.
31K - BAD
After aligning, it read;
64K - GOOD
See, I'm not sure exactly how do unavoid unaligning it by doing this. I may create this new 100MB and align it right there in GParted. And then boot into Windows and make it active, etc.
We'll see! Thanks again for your help.
~Ibrahim~
Cheers!
Robert
That's a good one. If any, you have to do the alignment before you install an OS. But for win7 that is not neccessary. It will do the alignment during the installation. If you cannot fix it, you'll have to reinstall. But first, take the alignment out.
Well, this got confusing fast.
Does the Recovery Environment need to be aligned? Or just Windows 7?
How do you remove an alignment? Is that even possible? I mean, I doubt I could reset it back to what it was before. Why exactly would I want to remove it? Shouldn't Windows 7 see it's already aligned and not mess with it? Or just scratch all the aligning already done (which seems like the smartest idea) and start fresh?
@iseeuu
Oh. So start over with the guide? Don't take this the wrong way, but I'm already feeling skeptical messing with it now.
Quick question....can I reinstall Windows (ugh), make sure it aligns the drives, and then paste an image on? Will pasting the image on mess with the alignment? I made the image with the regular "system image" thing you get with Win7 Pro/Ultimate.
Thanks,
~Ibrahim~
Well ... I am a couple of years away from affording an SSD hard drive ... but if I had to choose between the alignment and the recovery partition, I would stay with the alignment. You can burn a recovery CD that contains the same recovery utilities as the recovery partition. As I said before, you can get along without the recovery partition.Well, this got confusing fast.
Does the Recovery Environment need to be aligned? Or just Windows 7?
How do you remove an alignment? Is that even possible? I mean, I doubt I could reset it back to what it was before. Why exactly would I want to remove it? Shouldn't Windows 7 see it's already aligned and not mess with it? Or just scratch all the aligning already done (which seems like the smartest idea) and start fresh?
@iseeuu
Quick question....can I reinstall Windows (ugh), make sure it aligns the drives, and then paste an image on? Will pasting the image on mess with the alignment? I made the image with the regular "system image" thing you get with Win7 Pro/Ultimate.
Thanks,
~Ibrahim~
Once the hard drive has been partitioned, restoring an image will not change the partition table so it should not affect the alignment. The only thing, as far as I can understand, that will affect the alignment is to change the partition parameters or drive table. Whether the recovery partition is comaptible with the need for the alignment is not known by me.
Cheers!
Robert
Right. The only reason I want the recovery environment is to restore image backups on DVDs. The recovery environment doesn't include drivers for my media keys (obviously), but the media keys are the only way I can eject a disk. So scenario 1:
Windows dies. I put in Win7 DVD, go to Repair. I can't take out the Win7 disk (due to missing media key drivers) to put in the image DVD, so Windows can't find the image. And I don't even know if you take out the disk while in the recovery environment. Like is it in the RAM or is it still needing the Win7 disk?
Scenario 2:
Windows dies (hopefully with no disc inside!). I hit F8, go to the recovery environment, insert disk image, bam, I'm done.
But what if this happens again, where I can't get into the recovery environment of Windows? Then I'm SOL certainly! lol...
All right, I will attempt an install. I'm OCD about having everything working properly, no matter the real-world usage/benefits. A shame. :/ life would be so much easier.
Haha, no worries. I, out of sheer luck, got this one for free. I still can't afford to buy one now, lol.
Well ... based on the link to the instructions you followed, is there an issue with having two partitions on your hard drive? Doesn't the alignment represent the spot where the first partition must start? If there is a partition size requirement for the first partition, there no maximum limit to the Recovery Partition, just the 100MB minimum requirement. So if you align the recovery partition as you did the first time with your Windows 7 partition, and then locate the Windows 7 partition adjacent to the recovery partition, isn't the "Alignment" preserved? Maybe need some Googling?
Please post back a screenshot of your full Disk Management drive map, using Snipping Tool in Start Menu and attaching file using paper clip in reply box.
If you had the WinRe at F8 during bootup and it is gone now, it is likely Startup Repair recovered the MBR into Win7 partition and not the 100mb Sys Reserved partition which provides the WinRE. But we cannot know this for sure until we see the screenshot.
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