Solved Wrong alignment on SSD?

[AirPower4ever]

Not sure if this should be posted in here so sorry if this is in the wrong location.

I have a friends Dell Studio 1555 laptop and their hard drive was failing badly. They have no money right now to get a new drive so I opted to help because I have 2 SSD's sitting around planned for nothing. So I had imaged the drive about 2-3 months ago and he has that. So I took the SSD and just imaged the system on to it; but I forgot about the alignment. I was able to boot in to Windows 7 and all that. It seems fine. But I said I need to wipe the SSD (Parted Magic process) and then create the alignment partition. Then I imaged the system, but this time at boot up all I can get to is I believe is the Dell Utility test. There is no way around that I can see.

So I Parted Magic again, reloaded without the alignment and the system boots. So he needs his laptop back and to me it is running, but I know of the alignment issue. Believe me when I say he is just going to love the speed compared to what he had (which BTW the original drive had like 738 unrepairable items), but I know about the alignment issue. Here are some screenshots I attached.

So I am wondering if there is a way to fix this without having to reload from the image? That way I can give him his laptop so he can work on whatever he needs to do and I can come back a week or two later to realign it; if that is all possible.

Also, if you look at the Disk Management I am not sure why at the end there is that 5GB un-formatted section. Maybe for the SSD to utilize? Not sure.

Any inputs would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[linnemeyerhere]

AirPower4ever,
This could be a helpful read.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/149969-ssd-install-transfer-operating-system.html?filter[3]=Installation%20and%20Setup

 

[Kaktussoft]

You can align partitions without reninstall/detsroying data. Do it with "partition wizard" for example.
How to align a specified partition ? MiniTool Partition Wizard help.
Align All Partitions ? MiniTool Partition Wizard help.

 

[AddRAM]

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/205905-ssd-fix-misalignment.html

Also a great suggestion by Kaktus.

 

[AirPower4ever]

To everyone, a massive thank you. Ran the program and it is aligned. Whew, definitely keeping these in the "toolbox" for future use.

Again, thank everyone

 

[Ztruker]

My SSD is not correctly aligned and can't be aligned without starting f4rom scratch. I'll do that some day but for now, it runs very fast so I doubt alignment will make any visible difference for me.

There is a long thread here somewhere on aligning SSDs which I participated in when I first got it. Wish I could find it now.

 

[AddRAM]

Why can`t you do what AirPower did ?

Whatever he did, as he didn`t tell us which program he used.

 

[Ztruker]

I don't remember now but I tried everything suggested and it would not work unless I did a clean install, using diskpart to setup the alignment. If I can find the thread I'll post a link here.

One thing I forgot, I am running Win 8.1 Update 1 on a Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO.

 

[Ztruker]

Found it: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/113967-ssd-alignment-9.html

 

[AirPower4ever]

I used the Minitool Partition Wizard. I followed the instructions and it aligned all the partitions. Example, the first partition was 102MB, after running the program it is now 100MB.

Strange that it is not working for you Ztruker. I know you mentioned that your SSD is pretty fast and I saw the same thing. I would honestly say I see an improvement in speed and snappiness overall. If I were to put a percentage I would venture to say 15-25% in speed difference. I only can compare as all my systems around the house are all SSD's of various flavors so seeing the laptop run I can get an estimated gauge.

Have you tried Parted Magic to wipe your SSD, go to command prompts to add the alignment and then load your system?

You might now this already, but just in case (lots of details)

Sean's Windows 7 Install & Optimization Guide for SSDs & HDDs

 

[Ztruker]

No, I don't want to start over. It would take me days to get back to where I am now. If I ever have a problem that requires a reinstall then I will but the way it is running now I don't see a need.

Thanks for the info and suggestions though.