Re-alignment without data loss.

Upgrade Ace

Re-alignment without data loss.

[ Edited ]

If you want to re-align your SSD without starting from scratch and losing your data it can be done with gparted live CD.

 

Live CD

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/#

 

Guide

http://www.tuxyturvy.com/blog/index.php?/archives/59-Aligning-Windows-Partitions-Without-Losing-Data...

 

I recently restored a backup image and noticed that the partition was not restored respecting the original 1024kb alignment.

So I used this boot cd to move the existing partition and restore a valid alignment / partition starting offset.

 In my case I decided on 512kb (524,288 bytes) which is the same size as a NAND erase block and a valid multiplier of 4kb .

 

TIPS

 

Create a full image backup of your SSD first! 

If it all goes wrong this is the only way you are going to get it all back.

 

In gparted be sure to untick 'round off to cylinder boundary' box when resizing and moving.

 

If windows does not bootup afterwards, boot from your windows disc instead and choose the repair option.

It should auto-detect the windows installation on the SSD and fix the boot problem for you.   

 


 

61 Replies
JEDEC Jedi

Re: Re-alignment without data loss.

Neat tip. Smiley Happy

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Megabyte Maverick

Re: Re-alignment without data loss.

[ Edited ]

And did it actually change anything concerning your ssd performance ???

JEDEC Jedi

Re: Re-alignment without data loss.

Correct alignment is critical. Microsoft say an incorrectly aligned SSD can suffer performance loses of up to 50%.  If you installed Vista or Windows 7 straight to the SSD and let it make the partition on the SSD for you then your alignment is fine.  it's only of concern if you're installing XP or you're restoring a partition image backup as Daz did.

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Binary Boss

Re: Re-alignment without data loss.

So are you saying that a cloned copy from a hard drive to an ssd will have the wrong alignment?

 

Since that is what Idid, how do I check my alignment?

 

The drive I cloned to my Crucial 256gb ssd was set up with Vista Ultimate 32bit on a Dell Vostro  1400.

 

My test results seem to be good, and I have had no problems so far ( installed only 2 weeks ).  Just want to make sure I am getting the best performance possible.

 

Thanks

Stephen

Megabyte Maverick

Re: Re-alignment without data loss.

 


acje99 wrote:

So are you saying that a cloned copy from a hard drive to an ssd will have the wrong alignment?

 

Since that is what Idid, how do I check my alignment?

 

The drive I cloned to my Crucial 256gb ssd was set up with Vista Ultimate 32bit on a Dell Vostro  1400.

 

My test results seem to be good, and I have had no problems so far ( installed only 2 weeks ).  Just want to make sure I am getting the best performance possible.

 

Thanks

Stephen


 

 

run "diskpart" as Administrator. this is on spinning rust media, so no alignment issues, but for the purpose of an example...

 

DISKPART> select disk 0

 

Disk 0 is now the selected disk.

 

DISKPART> list partition


  Partition ###  Type              Size     Offset
  -------------  ----------------  -------  -------
  Partition 1    Primary             20 GB    32 KB

 

 

Vista and w7 will align at 1MB on a fresh install, I believe, but XP does not.

 

Binary Boss

Re: Re-alignment without data loss.

Ok ran here is what I got.  Does this look correct?

diskpart partition.JPG

Upgrade Ace

Re: Re-alignment without data loss.

[ Edited ]

You have to be careful with 'DISKPART' it rounds off the value to the nearest 0.5.

 

E.G

32Kb could actually be 31.5Kb, which would be misaligned.

 

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

'DISKPAR' <--- no 'T' at the end, will display the exact value correctly.

Download: https://kb.wisc.edu/images/group14/4556/diskpar.exe

Command: diskpar -i 1 (where 1 is the drive number). 

 

E.G

StatringOffset = 32256

(32256 (31.5Kb) / 4096 (4kb) = 7.875 ,is not an integer of 4, hence is in misalignment).

 

 

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

Windows system information (components > storage > disks) will also display the exact value in bytes.

 

E.G

Partition Starting Offset 524,288 bytes

(524,288 (512kb) / 4096 (4kb) = 128 which is an integer of 4, hence is in alignment)

 

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

As grb said Vista SP2 and Windows 7 will automatically align a solid state drive to a 1024Kb offset by default.

 

E.G

(1048576 (1024kb) / 4096 (4kb) = 256 a  integer of 4, hence is in alignment)

 

 

 

@kallogan

 

Yup benchmarks across the board were much improved especially on the 4Kb read and writes.

In real terms you may not notice much of a difference, but being in alignment definitely helps for I/O throughput.

Maybe more important for the first gen SSDs that have smaller cache and suffer from the infamous I/O stutters and pauses.

Megabyte Maverick

Re: Re-alignment without data loss.

Ok but i installed win7 x64 straight to my ssd so i think the job has been done correctly Smiley Wink

JEDEC Jedi

Re: Re-alignment without data loss.

I installed Windows 7 onto an existing XP partition on my hard disk so my alignment was wrong because XP made the partition.  I used the trial version of this to tell me the alignment: http://www.paragon-software.com/home/pm-personal/ as I also needed it to shrink my OS partition to 60gb for cloning to the SSD.

As to whether your alignment or not is correct depends on the cloning software and settings you used.  There's a weird unintuitive way you can use Acronis to clone a misaligned partition onto another drive in such a way as it is aligned which sorted me out.

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