Pre-Formatting New SSD for New Machine, Boot & App Drive

[Fun Guy]

I am finally building a new machine after 6 years, and got an 80GB Intel 320 for my boot and application drive. I also have an SATA to USB converter, so I can format the drive before I fire it up in the new machine, if necessary.

Should I? If so, is there a particular sector or block size I should use when formatting? Or anything else I should do?

Thanks in advance!!

 

[Fun Guy]

Forgot to say - I will be installing WinXP SP3 as the OS.

 

[Cerb]

Format it, MBR, from a Windows 7 computer. A quick format is just fine. Use actual SATA for the job, not the converter, just in case.

If you don't have access to a Windows 7 computer, check this out.

 

[Fun Guy]

Anyone else?

 

[curlysir]

Pretty much what Cerb said. If you don't have access to a Win 7 computer you will need to check alignment. Win 7 is much better for SSD's. With XP I don't know if trim works.

 

[razel]

On the Vista/Win7 machine try to use SATA if you can do so quickly, otherwise it's fine to format through USB. Out of laziness and time I would go the USB route. You can also use the Vista/Win7 installation disk or have a Vista/Win7 user make a bootdisk for you. In fact maybe a Vista/7 PE disk will work as well.

 

[Fun Guy]

I can use my work laptop, which is a Win7 machine, to format the drive. I don't have an SATA or an eSATA connector, so I'll have to use the adapter.

Once I format it, then I can install WinXP SP3, just like a normal HDD?

 

[happy_gopher]

I use diskpar for setting up ssd's under xp.
you have to download it from the web.
the command is (from a cmd line):
diskpar -s 1
-s is the setup switch, and the 1 is the drive raw number.
just set it up so that the first writeable block is at the correct page offset so your not at the middle of a page(which would cause an extra erase cycle)
I use 128 as my offset.(65536 bites)

Or you can just use win7 to format it.

I need to stop lurking....
Hg

 

[Fun Guy]

Okay, the more I think about it, and the more you guys respond, the more I think I'm just going to go with Win7.

If I fire up Win7 with the blank SSD as the boot drive, will Win7 automatically format the SSD properly?

 

[LokutusofBorg]

The Win7 installer that loads when you boot to the install CD will properly align your SSD when you partition it, yes.

 

[Fun Guy]

The Win7 installer that loads when you boot to the install CD will properly align your SSD when you partition it, yes.

Should I make just one partition (80GB) or more than one?

 

[Dadofamunky]

One partition is fine.

You SURE you want to run XP on that?

 

[Fun Guy]

One partition is fine.

You SURE you want to run XP on that?

Okay, the more I think about it, and the more you guys respond, the more I think I'm just going to go with Win7.

If I fire up Win7 with the blank SSD as the boot drive, will Win7 automatically format the SSD properly?

:biggrin:

 

[LokutusofBorg]

Should I make just one partition (80GB) or more than one?

I used to partition, I don't anymore. Way too much hassle. I do always have two drives in my computer though, which is essentially the same as two partitions. It's so that re-installs are easy. And now with SSDs it works very nicely to have a fast SSD for OS and programs, and then a large storage drive.

One large partition on your SSD and then spend $40 to get a spindle storage drive if you don't have one.

 

[Fun Guy]

I think this is my final setup:
- 1 x 80GB Intel 320 SSD (boot drive & apps)
- 2 x 1TB Samsung F3 in RAID 1 (data)

Thanks for all the help guys.

Oh yeah...Win7.