SSD partition alignment under windows 7

[wgoldfarb]

I'm confused (well, that is actually not very rare :biggrin.

I recently got an Intel 80Gb G2 SSD and performed a fresh Windows 7 x64 install on it. Instead of letting the installer partition the drive, however, I first created the partition manually (from within windows 7 RC, which was installed in my spindle drive), and then I clean installed Windows 7 x64 onto that partition. I did this because the Windows installer was trying to create an extra (small) partition on the drive, and I was trying to avoid this extra partition.

I had read that if you partition an SSD from within Windows 7, the partition will be aligned correctly and be optimized for SSDs. Now I am reading that the installer will align ssd partitions correctly, but doing a manual partition from within windows 7 might not.

So, how can I tell whether my SSD was partitioned with the correct alignment?

If the alignment is not correct, what are my options? I assume I need to delete everything and do a new fresh install of win 7. Should I manually delete the partition and create a new one, and then install Windows, or should I just run the installer, and let it delete the partition and create a new one?

Thanks!

 

[Thor86]

Run msinfo32 and look under Components > Storage > Disks.

Under the partition starting offset, this number should be divisible by 4096, and if not, then it is not properly aligned.

A fresh install through the Windows 7 installer will automatically align the SSD.

 

[Binky]

Look here:
http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=57599

 

[wgoldfarb]

Thanks to both! My Offset is 1,048,576, so I guess I'm ok. I'm glad I won't have to reinstall everything!