SSD alignment

[John Connor]

Was reading this and ran AS SSD after I just installed Windows 7 and noticed that the SSD is not aligned properly. I formatted the SSD with the Windows 7 disk, but despite that the hard drive isn't aligned right.

So while reading Lifehacker's article it said there could be a possibility of an error. Has anyone had this happen?

 

[=Wendy=]

Formatting alone wont align an SSD. You must start with the SSD blank with no partition. If there is already a partition on the SSD then delete it, and then recreate the partition from a Win7/8 boot install media, and then format the SSD.

If this still fails to align the drive correctly, do an internal secure erase and start over.

 

[bigi]

Formatting alone wont align an SSD. You must start with the SSD blank with no partition. If there is already a partition on the SSD then delete it, and then recreate the partition from a Win7/8 boot install media, and then format the SSD.

If this still fails to align the drive correctly, do an internal secure erase and start over.

^+1.

If the partition had been created with wrong alignment, formatting would not fix it.

 

[MontyAC]

Follow the site's instructions to align your SSD.

 

[John Connor]

Well duh! If people would have read the link I was refering to...

All I asked was if aligning a partition will cause Windows to not start and if I have to repair. I wanted to know if anyone else has encountered this.

 

[RU482]

back up...how exactly are you determining that your partition is not aligned??

 

[MontyAC]

Well duh! If people would have read the link I was refering to...

All I asked was if aligning a partition will cause Windows to not start and if I have to repair. I wanted to know if anyone else has encountered this.

Yes, after doing the lifehacker alignment, you need to do a repair with the windows disk. That's how I completed alignment on my SSD.

 

[John Connor]

back up...how exactly are you determining that your partition is not aligned??

Reading compression 101! Reread my first post very carefully.

 

[taq8ojh]

That article is pile of crap. It doesn't even mention any Windows version, and on top of that, it wants you to boot some crap Linux CD. Wtf! If you really want to mess things up, be my guest.

Fact is, if you properly (as in, deleting all partitions during setup) install Windows 7 on a SSD, it WILL be aligned correctly. You don't need to do anything else.

 

[John Connor]

.Fact is, if you properly (as in, deleting all partitions during setup) install Windows 7 on a SSD, it WILL be aligned correctly. You don't need to do anything else.

I did a format on the SSD with the Windows 7 disk before I installed the OS. It was still out of alignment. Gparted is not some crap software it's used by many and comes on many live disks. Furthermore I heard on this forum many times that an SSD needs to be aligned. So how do you do gthat after the OS has been installed?

 

[taq8ojh]

I have no idea what had you done to it, but with Windows 7, you don't need to do a damn thing to have it aligned properly - as long as any existing partition is deleted during the disk configuration part of setup, which by the looks of it is exactly what you didn't do. ***

Messing with it after the system is installed, and even with some Linux stuff, is something I wouldn't do at all. Better reinstall properly this time.

*** And if you did (was the SSD brand new when you installed Windows onto it?), maybe you are getting wrong results by using wrong software or something.

 

[hackerballs]

My most seriously given free advice is, never partition a SSD but rather have a backup storage drive (HDD) that can be partitioned till your hearts desire. If one can afford a SSD, then one can afford a Storage drive.

 

[Carson Dyle]

I did a format on the SSD with the Windows 7 disk before I installed the OS.

Why?

Furthermore I heard on this forum many times that an SSD needs to be aligned.

I guess you missed the part about not having to worry about it when installing Windows 7. All you needed to do was a normal install of the OS to the SSD.

There must be a utility available that can do a lossless partition alignment. Good luck.

 

[GlacierFreeze]

Furthermore I heard on this forum many times that an SSD needs to be aligned.

That's only partially correct. That's happens when someone clones/images an already installed Windows setup on an HDD and wants to put that onto a new SSD, in order to avoid reinstalling everything from scratch on the SSD.

Fresh Win7 install will automatically align correctly. It did on mine and apparently everyone else's but yours for some reason.

 

[John Connor]

I had Windows XP 64 on the SSD prior to me installing Win 7 so I formatted. Now it's not aligned so I will give this a shot and see what happens.

 

[taq8ojh]

You just formatted it or did you also remove all partitions?

 

[glugglug]

You know, even if you are 4KB aligned, all current SSD controller use at least 8KB pages now. And most are I think 16KB.

So writing a 4KB cluster (assuming it isn't part of a larger write involving surrounding clusters) still means reading a 16KB page from flash, merging that 4KB of data in, and writing the 16KB page somewhere else, regardless of your 4KB alignment. If you aren't aligned sometimes you are doing this to 2 16KB clusters...

It's kind of stupid that Windows doesn't have the menu anymore for what cluster size to use when formatting during the initial install. The initial partition is 100MB aligned, so if you could do 16KB clusters you would have correct SSD page alignment optimization like we did for the first few gens of SSDs.

 

[John Connor]

You just formatted it or did you also remove all partitions?

I just formatted with the Windows 7 disk.

 

[GlacierFreeze]

Yep, should have deleted all partitions then recreated one new partition.

 

[john3850]

After having problems with 98,ME and xpp I will only install a new partition during the basic windows install and limit the size if need be on a non ssd.
For what ever reason windows doesnt play good with other partitioning software at times.
To avoid partition problems I use a small 64gb ssd for windows and a second ssd for the rest of the media stuff.
I also do a SE before doing clean install on a used drive to be safe.

 

[John Connor]

Yep, should have deleted all partitions then recreated one new partition.

You can do that with the Windows disk? I know it can be done with software, but when you're installing an OS you don't have that option unless you remove the drive and connect it to another computer. PITA if you ask me.

 

[Dufus]

Yes, if during install you don't use the express settings you can delete partitions, add new ones and format them if you want. IIRC Windows native way of aligning is to use 800h sectors which works out to 1MiB with 512 logical sectors.

Me, I prefer to make my own partitions before hand with diskpart or other software and have always had multiple partitions without any alignment problems.

 

[taq8ojh]

You can do that with the Windows disk? I know it can be done with software, but when you're installing an OS you don't have that option unless you remove the drive and connect it to another computer. PITA if you ask me.

You could do that even with XP.

 

[John Connor]

I know XP had the delete partition option, but I didn't see it in Windows 7, just format. The way Windows 7 is it's a cluster F!

 

[taq8ojh]

The way Windows 7 is it's a cluster F!

Inability to see something right in front of you doesn't automatically make it crap. Why don't you look for a problem on your side? Seriously, what the...

Bottom line is, if Windows 7 is so bad, why are you trying to install it? Stick with the XP awesomness.