SSD Alignment

I restored Windows 7 wich was backed up on a non SSD with Acronis True Image, and my installation is aligned exactly like the 'typical windows 7 installation'

Is that just luck, or does Acronis somehow do this?

I've noticed a lack of information on the internet in regard to aligning the partitions of an SSD. I have discovered a really simple way to handle the task, and it seems fool proof. All one needs is to use the disk management utility in Windows 7.

First, add the new SSD to a Win 7 machine (leave the boot drive in). Boot the system, then go to the computer management console (right-click on My Computer and select Manage from the menu) and click on Disk Management. The new SSD should appear in the disk map. Right-clicking on the SSD entry will bring up a context sensitive menu that will allow one to initialize the SSD (create MBR), format it, and shrink or the extend volumes.

Initializing and formatting the SSD will automatically align the first volume with a partition offset at 1,048,576 bytes (1,048,576 divided by 4096 = 256). To separate the disk into multiple volumes, right-click on the SSD entry and select Shrink Volume. Enter the amount the volume is to be shrunk by (this will be the size of the new 2nd volume). Finish the process. Next, right-click on the new volume and select Format. Then go to the Start Menu and type msinfo32 into the search box. Go to Components->Storage->Disks. Find the SSD and locate the partition information. The Partition Starting Offsets for both the first and second partitions will be divisible by 4096 with no remainder.

Repeat the above process to divide up the disk into the desired number of partitions. All should be correctly aligned.

Hmmm. You do realize that this thread you're posting in is a tutorial on SSD alignment right? Written by the person about you (whs): SSD Alignment

Hi There, Quick Question...

So if you do nothing with a freshly wiped (with no allocated partitions at all) IDE DRIVE, install WIN7 64bit onto it and get all the updates and programs up and running .... then clone that drive to an SSD with Acronis. Will that automatically set up the SSD alignment correctly?

Took only 7 minutes to clone it.

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I am saying this is past tense as I have already done an upgrade and kicked it out the door with rocket fast speed differences. It literally now takes 15-19 seconds to boot into the Os with the New SSD 60 gig drive I set up as the primary ....

I upgraded it to the motherboards max. It is an older PC and now has with 8gig of DDR2 1066 Cosair ram with a new graphics card and Power supply, also upgraded the CPU to a Quad core 2.33G intel.

I was abolutely amazed at the change in the machine :) for under $450 in parts you get the new age feel for a fraction of the cost. Of couse I uploaded and flashed the latest Bios and Chipset drivers.

I benchmarked the read write speeds before and after and it was 34.2 wit hthe IDE and now is 186.4 !!!
Cheers

Westy

whs said:

Westy, AHCI is nice to have but IDE mode is not that much slower. I would not stand on my head for AHCI. I run several old systems in IDE with good results.

Regarding alignment, just check it. Instructions are under 'Verification' of this tutorial.

I would suggest KiwiXboxer read his dicumentation as some SSD drives (my OCZ does) will tell you to use AHCI. And I personally think all SSD drives should be using AHCI.

As to the performance gains, well, that can be debated by those more adept in the area than I am.

Anyway read your documentation and see what it recommends.

With regards to Acronis, I'll put it this way, anything after 2010 should be aligning SSD drives. I know my copy of Acronis 2010 does, or at least it doesn't remove them if it's there.

Edit: Regarding AHCI and SSD drives (OCZ) - http://blog.ocztechnology.com/?p=178. Again, does it "have" to be enabled, debatable. However there's really no reason not to in today's systems.

My two cents.