SSD alignment

[Datman]

I have set up 2 computers with SSD as the C drive. I used diskpart to align both of them. Both had different issues. The 1st I could not install the image backup so I did a fresh install of W7.

The 2nd the image restore when smooth and all seemed to work but I had a new hardware conflict the was giving me BSOD and I didn’t figure that out until I hosed the 500g backup drive on the machine (another thread):banghead:. So I did a fresh install of Vista.

As always when I install a fresh copy I format the drive to install windows on and it looks to me like I must have deleted the partition for the bitlocker set up in the diskpart procedure. As you can see from the screenshots nether of them shows a partition.

So at this point both seem to work fine. Can they be aligned after the OS has been installed? Or do I make an image then remove each and align and restore the image?

 

[indianacarnie]

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/113967-ssd-alignment.html

Does this help?

 

[essenbe]

Datman, do they both boot? Are you sure you are out of alignment? The link indianacarnie provided will tell you how to check alignment. Any time a partition is created and formatted before install, Windows will not create the bootmanager as a separate partition, it is created in the "C" partition. If they both boot and are in alignment, there is no problem. Many people, myself included, do it that way intentionally.

 

[Datman]

Thanks guys it looks like I'm ok I have an offset of 1024KB. Sometimes I worry to much

 

[essenbe]

That's great, Datman. It never hurts to make sure you are set up right. Well done.

 

[Datman]

Hey guys,

On my wife’s computer I was having so much trouble with; you may have seen my other thread. I was still having some issues. I checked the offset and its 32 so I guess that is ok. When I changed the bios to ACHI the computer will not boot and the drive is no longer present. I did a bios update and Asus said the older mobo may not work with a SSD. With it set to sata the drive seems to work but I did get one BSOD.

Giving that I had so much trouble with this install I’m wondering if I should just give up on the SSD and do what I set out to do a couple weeks ago when I was trying to copy an image of the Cdrive on to a partition. That’s when I deleted the partition wiping all my wife’s stuff out.:banghead: I recovered 40,000 of the photos hopefully none of the other stuff was important.

So my point is if I can’t set the bios to ACHI how much better is the SSD over a sata 3.0 drive?

I will partition the 500gb storage drive just incase I have more issues.

I’m not sure if Macrium reflect will copy on to a partition without wiping out the entire drive. I may have screwed it up somehow when I did it before. I know Acronis would I did it several times over the years.

 

[VistaKing]

Try updating the firmware of the SSD

 

[essenbe]

I assume you installed in IDE mode. Go back to bios and change it back to whatever mode it was in when you installed. It should boot then. Then follow this tutorial to change to AHCI Mode. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/61869-ahci-enable-windows-7-vista.html

I've never done it, but I do believe Macrium will clone a partition.

 

[indianacarnie]

I believe you're right Essenbe, looking at Macrium now and theres a section to "choose your partition" waaaaayyyy down the tree. Haven't used that particular function but it sure looks like it. Came up with a graphic of all my drives/partitions and said choose.

 

[Datman]

I believe you're right Essenbe, looking at Macrium now and theres a section to "choose your partition" waaaaayyyy down the tree. Haven't used that particular function but it sure looks like it. Came up with a graphic of all my drives/partitions and said choose.

Its possible I left something checked and that's why it wiped the drive. If I go that route I will try it again. The damage is done.

essenbe I followed the tutorial and it was already set to the correct value of "0" I changed the bios back to ACHI and it definitely makes the bios not see the drive.

 

[essenbe]

So, I assume you're in IDE mode in bios? Click the start button, type device manager in the search box and open device manager. Go to IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers, click the arrow next to it to expand it, and at the bottom see if you see MSAHCI or something else with AHCI in it. There is no reason your SSD should not appear by putting the sata mode to AHCI. AHCI is simply another SATA mode. The only reason to make the registry change is to force windows to install AHCI drivers to the OS, so the OS can boot. What happens in bios has nothing to do with the OS. You are not in the OS yet. The BIOS is the board recognizing the hardware and setting values for the hardware.

 

[Datman]

Yes I also assume its IDE, the choices are SATA, RAID or AHCI. It may be the older mobo. I didn't see anything like MSAHCI.

 

[essenbe]

I'm at a loss as to what to tell you to do. In IDE mode, the drive will still out perform a mechanical hard drive, by far. But, you will not get maximum performance from the SSD. But, whether the board is old or not, if it has AHCI as an option, it should run in AHCI mode. That's why that option is there. If the board wouldn't run in AHCI mode, they wouldn't have listed it as an option. Under no circumstances should the SSD disappear, that I am aware of. I'm no expert by a long shot, but I would think you have a bad board, corrupted bios or a bad SSD. Those are the only reasons I can think of that an SSD would disappear from bios when put in AHCI mode. I would echo what Indianacarney suggested and see if there is updated firmware for the SSD.

 

[whs]

I would make 2 suggestions:

1. Stop worrying about AHCI for the moment. Try to make it work in IDE. The performance impact is minimal anyhow.

2. The image you have with your wife's stuff - mount this image on your system (Macrium must be installed on your system) by double clicking on the image file. Then it will show up as a VHD in Computer. From there copy all importand files of your wife to a safe place. That way you have an additional backup of her stuff.

You could also just make a copy of the image to a safe place (normal copy operation). But that will require a lot more space.

Report back how you are doing in IDE mode.