I retained the system reserved on my SSD (make it ~200MB not 100MB) using the same alignment procedure for it and the OS partition. This enables me to retain the ordinary F8 function.
When restoring Macrium images to the SSD using Macrium V5 you Drag & Drop the images to retain the alignment of the destination SSD.
Partition Alignment
Wolfgang I don't know if you think adding this link to your good tutorial is worthwhile?
Hum whs I am going to try Macrium again as last time I was a bit green and have got a bit lazy using EaseUS to clone.
That in itself is no problem until you get to cloning from large to smaller drives but another member (friend) has put me right on that in that I can just do partitions instead of the whole sheebang.
But as a by the by I have found the EaseUS partition tool so easy to use and just recently saved me a lot of work resizing some partitions in a machine I needed make the C: larger to be able to defrag it even.
In the introduction you said
Is partition alignment on an SSD more important than on a HDD ?Partition 1 Primary 59 GB 1024 KB - but 64KB or any number divisible by 4 is also good. The offset has to be divisible by 4.
Would incorrect alignment or incorrect offset be guaranteed to PREVENT BOOTING,
or might it simply degrade operation of Windows Explorer etc.
I use Macrium Partition Imaging, Server Edition with no problem on my 1 GB HDD
First the BIOS BOOT order had to be juggled because the BIOS had forgotten to maintain USB Boot priority for my USB Flash Drive Macrium Boot Rescue.
Then I restored the 100 MB System Reserved + C:\ System partitions to a 60 GB OCZ SSD
After more BIOS BOOT order juggling C:\ was no longer the old Windows on HDD,
but the new Windows on SSD, and it booted up o.k.
But Windows Explorer was not working correctly.
The image was restored a second time, with the same results.
A Windows Installation Disc including SP1 then installed the two partitions,
and Windows now works exactly as Microsoft intended
So now I have to fix it again to be how I want it
This new system on SSD results in the old HDD Windows System partition being automatically allocated the letter J:\
I guess that applied also when the Macrium restoration resulted in a bootable system with defective Windows Explorer.
I am desperately looking for a reason why an image can be restored to an HDD with perfect success, but with limited success on a SSD.
I am hoping that it can be explained as a SSD having less tolerance than a HDD to misalignment or incorrect offset.
The other feature that MAY be significant is that some non-system application folders were relocated via Junction Folders to other partitions on either my primary MBR type HDD, or my secondary GPT type HDD.
Would a restored C:\ partition with reparse points linking an SSD to a GPT HDD cause Windows Explorer to have a "Bad Hair Day" and throw a wobbly ?
Regards
Alan
P.S. I have just noticed post 180. I was not aware of that Macrium FAQ
I cannot remember if drag-n-drop was used.
All I remember is that no attempt was made at cloning.
Last edited by alan10; 18 Mar 2012 at 17:48. Reason: Added P.S.
1. Proper alignment is very important for the SSD - not only for performance (up to 300% degradation with misalignment) but also for wear and tear.
2. No idea what happened to your Explorer. I have done many Macrium restores and never encountered that problem.
3. The reallocation of drive letters is normal because the running system gets the letter C:
4. It sounds like your partition on the SSD was smaller than the partition on the HDD from where the image was taken. Then Macrium may move some stuff to other disks. But I am guessing and not 100% certain. In any case, when there is a discrepency in partition size, things like that can happen.
5. Drag & Drop is the right way. If you drop into a partition on the SSD, the SSD will be automatically aligned by 1MB. If you drop into an unallocated space, the alignment will be as it was in the partition from where the image originated.
6. I would not use the 100MB system partition. Move the bootmgr to C:, then you can ignore the 100MB partition. Bootmgr - Move to C:\ with EasyBCD
Hum whs what exactly do you mean by this -
1. Proper alignment is very important for the SSD - not only for performance (up to 300% degradation with misalignment) but also for wear and tear.
I am not really sure of what alignment is and my SSD (Crucial M4 128GB) has slowed a fair bit since I installed it. So how does one tell if it is aligned or not?
See Step 7 of this tutorial SSD - Fix Misalignment
If you have a misalignment, the tutorial tells you how to fix it. It is a bit involved but short of buying a commercial program, that is the best way.
With point 1. I mean exactly what it says. With a misalignment your SSD will run a LOT slower and wear more.
Well, you do what is right for you. I would not have any PC without an SSD any more. The difference in speed for the OS is really significant. Have a look at this little video I made where I boot Windows 8 - and that in Virtual Box - that is real time. No editing: Start Win8 in vBox1.wmv - YouTube
Hum I see what you mean Wolfgang I suppose I should not be so defeatist I suppose. My own boot is about 25 seconds to password which I again suppose is not bad. After password it flies.
I am like I said rather not well acquainted with the finer stuff and have a hardware based mind - nuts and bolts as it were. I was somewhat mystified by alignment as I just thought it was a matter of installing the drive and loading it up.
Sorry I know I am a pain but I don't quite know what you meant by divisible by four as when I looked at my own drive there is only two partitions and I see the C: contains everything (in pic). The large drive in diskpart is where I store my music etc
Apologies to everyone for taking up time with my dumb queries
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