About Derek_S

Derek_S · ‎12-19-2016

Hello @ mispeltyuoth - A few suggestions from my own experience with an HP Mini 210. 1.) If you're going to take the machine apart to install the SSD, I would strongly advise that you upgrade the memory while you have it opened up. While almost all of the HP/Compaq Minis shipped with just 1GB of system memory installed, quite a few of them are capable of supporting 2GB. This makes a huge difference whether you're running Windows XP or Linux. I suggest using the Crucial Memory Advisor to do two things: 1.) Verify if your machine can actually be upgraded to 2GB. 2.) Whether your machine needs DDR2 or DDR3 memory. Be sure to enter your entire model number. Example: HP Mini 210-1032CL. 2.) Instructions for taking the lower case off: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Disassembling+HP+Mini+210+Back+Case/11414 BE SURE to remove the battery first and firmly press the orange tab and the orange button BEFORE attempting to pry open the case! Installing the SSD: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/HP+Mini+210+Hard+Drive+Replacement/11425 Installing memory: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/HP+Mini+210+RAM+Replacement/11415 3.) Whether you're using 1GB or upgrade to 2GB of memory, I suggest using a 32 bit version of either Ubuntu or Linux Mint. There is no real advantage to installing a 64 bit version of Linux unless you have 3GB or more of system memory available. Also, if you decide to stick with just 1GB of memory, you should use Lubuntu (LXDE desktop) instead of Ubuntu, or use Linux Mint with either the Xfce or MATE desktop. The Unity, KDE, and Cinnamon desktops use considerably more memory, enough to possibly cause system crashes. EDIT: I need to stop now and have dinner. I'll add more to this when I have the chance.

Derek_S · ‎12-19-2016

Hello @ gerrard_bekking and welcome to the Crucial forums. To add to what targetbsp has already mentioned, don't worry about the 1MB of unallocated disk space that preceeds the first partition. It's there to ensure that the filesystem's cluster size, which is usually 4 KB (4096 bytes), is properly aligned to the physical memory (page size) of the SSD. See here for a more complete explanation and a nice illustration: https://www.thomas-krenn.com/en/wiki/Partition_Alignment Now, in order to minimize excessive writes and extend the life of your new SSD, see here for the details of how to modify the system settings in Debian/Ubuntu/Linux Mint: https://sites.google.com/site/easylinuxtipsproject/ssd NOTE: The author of the above link recommends using the ext4 filesystem instead of BTRFS: "6. The best file system (formatting) for an SSD, is the usual default EXT4. So you don't have to choose anything different in this respect. The journaling that comes with EXT4 causes some write activity, but not very much. Plus journaling is a very important feature for system crash recovery, so you don't want to disable it. Note: don't select the BTRFS file system! Because under certain circumstances, BTRFS causes a huge amount of write actions." The rest is pretty straightforward. If you have any questions or run into any problems, please post back.

Derek_S · ‎03-02-2016

Hello Carl_S and bogdan - I'm no expert, but I noticed one glaring difference between one of the SMART attributes displayed for the two M500 SSDs: Attribute #5 - Reallocated Sector Count. For /dev/sda, the raw value is 0, which is excellent. But for /dev/sdb, the raw value is 32768! Yikes! Perhaps the second M500 has burned through all of it's reserved NAND blocks and is the one throwing the errors? Side note: Both are using firmware version MU02. The current version is MU05. Could that explain why SMART attribute #180 - Unused reserved block count - is missing?

Derek_S · ‎12-15-2015

Hello flupke01 - Have to tried running the chkdsk command? In Windows 10, right-click Start and select "Command Prompt as Admin". Then enter "chkdsk :d" to run chkdsk in read-only mode. If there are any errors reported, then enter "chkdsk :d /f", close the Command Prompt, and reboot. Hopefully, that will fix any problems with the filesystem.

Derek_S · ‎07-05-2015

Thanks for your quick responses, and the link to the article on anandtech.com in particular. ***Edited to remove Crucial competitor***

Derek_S · ‎07-04-2015

Hello to All - My brother already has a 240GB Crucial M500 installed in one laptop, and now he wants to buy a new Crucial SSD around 250GB in size for another machine. He wanted to buy another M500, but they're no longer available, and he isn't too sure which one to choose from the current models. Given the choice, and regardless of price, would you choose the BX100, the MX100, or the MX200?

Derek_S · ‎11-30-2014

Hello ian556 - I had a look at Lenovo's support website and couldn't find anything to say yea or nay on this. But I did find a link to cnet.com listing the specs for the Lenovo Thinkpad X60s, and their information claims that the SATA interface is Serial ATA-150. I'm not sure about the M550 series, but I know for a fact that my own M500 only supports SATA-300 and SATA-600, and it's not backward compatible with SATA-150. Maybe another forum member with a M550 can comment on this. Here is the link if you want to see for yourself: http://www.cnet.com/products/thinkpad-x60/specs/ Another thing I tried is the Crucial Advisor Tool on their own website. After I entered Manufacturer: Lenovo, Product Line: Thinkpad X Series, and Model: Thinkpad X60s Series, the only products listed are memory upgrades. There is no mention of SSD upgrades being available. Did you try this first before ordering the M550? An older model Crucial SSD like the M4 series might be compatible, I can't say for sure. If not, you should either stick with your conventional disk drive, or look into another brand of SSD that's compatible with the SATA-150 interface.

Derek_S · ‎09-08-2014

@Door43 wrote: Hello, I have problem with new SSD Crucial M500 on new notebook HP 250 G3 (J0Y29EA). Notebook has Windows 8.1 and latest BIOS. I want to replace HDD with SSD. So I created 4 DVDs with "HP Recovery Media Creation". ###Very good idea here. Then I format SSD in Disk Management on Windows 7 desktop. ###Partition table you created was MBR or GPT? Then I shutdown the notebook, replace HDD with SSD, disable Secure Boot in BIOS and boot from the first DVD. Some kind of Windows system came up and showed message that no disk was found. ###Secure boot disabled - great idea. But what about UEFI or Legacy boot? Which one was used? I have Windows 8.1 DVD so I tried boot from it. Everything was ok but there was nothing to choose in disk/partition dialog (dialog where I want to install system). I tried to load some drivers from USB flash drive but with no success (maybe wrong drivers). I tried this with Secure Boot disabled and enabled, Legacy mode disabled/enabled. No success. I also tried run console (shift+F10) and list disks in diskpart with message "There are no fixed disks to show". No success. I tried old SSD Crucial M4 from desktop in notebook and system from this old SSD (Windows 7) boot up in seconds (Legacy mode enabled). ###This would result in MBR partition table and MBR boot, the default for Win 7. I let the old SSD in notebook and boot from Windows 8.1 DVD and it was shown in disk/partition dialog. I put the new SSD back in notebook and tried to boot from Windows 7 DVD. New SSD was shown in disk/partition dialog. Installation was completed and Windows 7 boot from new SSD in seconds. ###Correct drivers on Win 7 DVD I bet. I let the new SSD in notebook boot from Windows 8.1 DVD and no disk was shown to choose. I tried boot from bootable recovery CD based on Windows 7 and the new SSD was shown in somelike disk manager. I tried boot from ubuntu recovery USB flash drive and the SSD shown too. ###Linux sees everything! Much better than Windows in this respect! I tried combinations with MBR and GPT on new SSD with no success. ###See below. It looks for me like Windows 8.1 doesn't like Crucial M500 :) So I test another Crucial M500 and same results. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks Hello Door43 - One rule as far as BIOS settings and the disk's partition table are concerned. If your BIOS is set to UEFI boot enabled then the disk should have a GPT type partition table on it. If your BIOS is set to Legacy boot enabled then the disk should have a MBR type partition table on it. If you try a cross-combination, your BIOS may not recognize the disk as being a bootable device. So you have to match the BIOS setting to the disk's existing partition table, or install a partition table on the disk to match the existing BIOS setting. Also, booting your installation media with the wrong BIOS setting/partition table combination usually results in a failed installation or a non-bootable system. This is because the bootloader gets installed to the wrong location on the disk (MBR area of the disk vs. EFI system partition). I found this out the hard way trying to install Linux MInt on a laptop with an existing Win 8 OS on it using UEFI boot. I had the BIOS set to Legacy when I booted the USB flash drive to begin installation. Your idea to disable Secure Boot is excellent. Do not try enabling Secure Boot until after you succeed with your installation. Drivers are another issue. It appears your Win 7 installation media has drivers that work, and your Win 8 installation media does not. You might want to try using the Intel RST drivers in place of whatever the Win 8 installation media has on it. I'm not 100% sure how to do this either before or during the installation, so maybe another forum member can explain how. Here's a link to Intel's download center: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/SearchResult.aspx?lang=eng&keyword=%22Intel+Rapid+Storage+Technology+%28Intel+RST%29%22

Derek_S · ‎09-08-2014

Hello SamBam77 - Crystal Disk Info should give you some idea of the condition of the M4. You can download it here: http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/crystaldiskinfo.html

Derek_S · ‎07-23-2014

Hello machare - I'm not here to offer a solution of any sort, just advice. You really shouldn't hibernate (suspend to disk) any operating system installed on a SSD. Using sleep (suspend to memory) is fine. You should go into Power Options and uncheck the box for Hibernate.

Derek_S · ‎07-22-2014

Hello sbdman - I just spent well over an hour typing a reply to your last post. When I hit the "Post" button, I got a message about not having authorization to do so, and lost my post. Since I don't feel like repeating this ordeal, I'll simply say this: I'm glad to hear your MX100 is working, I guess it was more of a driver related issue. If it works, then use it.

Derek_S · ‎07-20-2014

Derek_S wrote: Hello sbdman - I'm not trying to be critical here, just offering some good advice so that you don't repeat this mistake in the future. Using the combination "bootrec /fixmbr", "bootrec /fixboot", and "bootrec /rebuildBCD" is fine for a Windows 7 machine using MBR boot. But on Windows 8 and 8.1 64 bit operating systems using EFI boot, using this combination of commands can cause big problems. For future reference, see here: http://superuser.com/questions/460762/how-can-i-repair-the-windows-8-efi-bootloader And here: http://www.fixedbyvonnie.com/2013/12/how-to-repair-the-efi-bootloader-in-windows-8/#.U8nUh-kg85s I tried following your links, but apparently, my HP Slimline that originally came with Windows 7, and then, I installed Windows 8 on, even though the Bios supports UEFI, the upgrade is not? I did a clone again, and when I went into the recovery command console, assigned a drive letter to the system drive, (I had given it one already with Disk Management), and went to that drive, the root directory did not have an EFI directory. There was one on the OS drive in Windows\boot\EFI, but no BCD file there, either. I think it's because still, there is a Recovery partition if ever one needed to rebuild back to a stock unit. I tried the fixboot and bcdboot commands (as written), on external ssd not knowing what BCD file they'd overwrite, rebooted back to internal hard drive, but I think I may still be mbr based? I guess I could attempt a cludge - re-install a wiped ssd, build a new 8.1 stock install, then just clone my original OS (with all the software and settings) over the ssd stock install. It took me several months to get my HTPC configured with all the right codecs and tweaks to play evey media file/BD I throw at it, and I wouldn't want that grief to repeat! What do you think? This new information throws everything I have suggested and everything you have done into question. I had assumed that your machine had Windows 8.1 pre-installed at the factory and no clue that it originally came with Windows 7 installed. These questions apply only to your original hard drive, not the cloned MX100 SSD. 1.) Are you absolutely sure that your BIOS is EFI capable? And if so, did the original Windows 7 installation boot by using EFI boot enabled in BIOS or did it boot using CSM/Legacy boot enabled in BIOS? 2.) Did you simply upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 8.1? Or did you perform a clean installation of 8.1? If so, did you install Windows 8.1 with EFI boot enabled in BIOS or with CSM/Legacy boot enabled? In other words, did you change any of the BIOS settings used by the original Windows 7 operating system prior to installing Windows 8.1? 3.) Does the Windows 8.1 installation on the original hard drive have a small EFI boot partition, formatted FAT32, at or near the beginning of the hard drive? This will indicate whether it is using EFI boot. If no such partition exists, then it is using MBR boot. Please use Windows Disk Management to verify this. Also do this while you have Disk Management open: Right click on the left side area where it has "Disk 0 - Basic", then select "Properties", then click the "Volumes" tab. Look to see if the partition style is MBR or GPT. This is another indicator to look for when determining EFI or MBR boot. These questions apply to both the original hard drive and the MX100 SSD. 4.) In reference to the commands you used in order to fix your boot problem ("bootrec /fixmbr", "bootrec /fixboot", and "bootrec /rebuildBCD") did you apply these commands to only the MX100 SSD drive? Or did you use them on the original hard drive as well? 5.) Likewise for the commands in the links that I provided, did you use them only on the MX100 SSD, or did you use them on the original hard drive as well? What I'm trying to get at here is this: if you only tried to fix your boot issues on the MX100 SSD, and did nothing to alter your original installation on the original hard drive, then it should be all right. And if it's all right, then determing whether it is using MBR format/MBR boot or GPT format/EFI boot will determine how to go about fixing the cloned SSD's boot issues.

Derek_S · ‎07-18-2014

Hello sbdman - I'm not trying to be critical here, just offering some good advice so that you don't repeat this mistake in the future. Using the combination "bootrec /fixmbr", "bootrec /fixboot", and "bootrec /rebuildBCD" is fine for a Windows 7 machine using MBR boot. But on Windows 8 and 8.1 64 bit operating systems using EFI boot, using this combination of commands can cause big problems. For future reference, see here: http://superuser.com/questions/460762/how-can-i-repair-the-windows-8-efi-bootloader And here: http://www.fixedbyvonnie.com/2013/12/how-to-repair-the-efi-bootloader-in-windows-8/#.U8nUh-kg85s

Derek_S · ‎07-18-2014

Hello sirovai and welcome to the Crucial forum. I've found Gparted to be pretty reliable when it comes to setting up new partition tables and reformatting hard drives, so I doubt this was the cause of the problem, although I'm not going to rule it out entirely. And the fact that your system BIOS still recognizes the M550 as a system device is promising. Based on that, I would not yet consider the M550 to be "dead". But when you say "all the softwares can't see it, neither under Ubuntu", this is could be better explained. Exactly which software are you talking about? Do you mean to say that it is not recognized when you boot Ubuntu from DVD or USB and run it as a "live" session? Or are you referring to Ubuntu or another operating system that is installed on a second hard drive that is also a part of your system? And what about Gparted? It no longer recognizes the M550 as well? I think the problem might not exactly lie in your system BIOS, but in some of it's settings. Please look into the following: 1.) Are you absolutely certain that your machine has an EFI capable BIOS? 2.) Is the BIOS currently set to use EFI boot or is it set to use CSM/Legacy boot? 3.) Does the BIOS currently have Secure Boot enabled or is it disabled? 4.) As far as the boot order is concerned, exactly where is the M550 in relation to your other boot devices? Specifically, do you have it as the very first device in the boot order? The key to the problem might be that you have the M550 listed as the first device in the boot order, but an incorrect combination of your other BIOS settings is preventing your BIOS from recognizing the M550 as a bootable device, and your BIOS is instead using another device that is further down the list. I'm going to play around with my own machine later on and see if I can duplicate a condition similar to this. If you don't hear from me soon, it means I broke something and am busy fixing my own machine.

Derek_S · ‎07-14-2014

You mentioned that the M500 was installed on your old system using Windows 7. Then I spotted this: "Changed BIOS from AHCI to IDE and back. I changed the SATA port to SSD in UEFI". Here is something to look into. Your Windows 7 machine probably has a MBR type BIOS and used MBR boot. Therefore the M500 was formatted as a MBR disk to function on that machine. Your new machine appears to have a UEFI capable BIOS (based on the above quote) and therefore a hard drive would need to be formatted as a GPT disk and use UEFI boot. One thing to try would be to change the BIOS settings on your new machine from UEFI boot to Legacy/CSM boot, boot with the M500 connected, and then see if it is recognized. A question - you also mentioned you booted Parted Magic on the new machine. What BIOS settings did you use to do this? If you changed the settings to Legacy/CSM in order to boot Parted Magic, then you can disregard everything I said.

Derek_S · ‎06-22-2014

Hello Rob and welcome to the Crucial forum. There is one thing I can see that you did wrong. "The MX100 was in an external Vantec Nextstar USB 3 dock for the cloning process." A lot of people do this, and according to Acronis, it's not the way it should be done. Please read here: https://kb.acronis.com/content/2931 The source drive, your Crucial M4, should be the one installed into your external USB device. Your new SSD, the MX100, should be the one installed into your laptop as the target drive. You should then boot from the Acronis software CD to begin the cloning process. However, before proceeding, I suggest doing something else first. There's no sense in cloning an operating system that may have problems to begin with. Boot your original Windows OS from the M4 SSD. Open the Command Prompt by right clicking it and select "Run as Administrator". Then enter the command "sfc /scannow" and run the System File Checker in order to verify that none of your Windows system files are missing or corrupted. If everything is all right, you should see the message "Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations." You are also in good shape if you see the message "Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them. Details are included in the CBS.Log %WinDir%\Logs\CBS\CBS.log." However, if you see this "Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them. Details are included in the CBS.Log %WinDir%\Logs\CBS\CBS.log.", you have a real problem. Provided you have Windows Vista, 7, 8, or 8.1 installed, you can fix this problem by leaving the Command Prompt open and entering "Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth". Be patient, this can take a long time to run. Note: This will replace any missing or corrupted Windows system files only, it does nothing for any user installed applications. These will have to be uninstalled and reinstalled where necessary. Also, if you wish to do a secure erase on the Crucial MX100 before trying another clone, I suggest using Parted Magic. You can download it here: http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/parted_magic.html If you wish to install Parted Magic to a bootable USB stick, I suggest using Rufus. You can download Rufus here: http://rufus.akeo.ie/

Derek_S · ‎06-15-2014

Hello Rebecca - I think you have to keep in mind the very definition of cloning - to create an exact copy that is virtually indistinguishable from the original. If you were cloning an installation of Windows 8 or 8.1 64 bit from a machine using UEFI capable BIOS, then the result would produce a GPT format disk. Any other version of Windows would be a MBR format disk. The only exception I'm aware of is if you installed Windows 7 64 bit to a GPT disk yourself, it is possible if you take the proper steps prior to and during the installation. But as far as I know, any factory installed version of Windows 7 64 bit will use MBR format/MBR boot.

Derek_S · ‎06-15-2014

Hello merrittr - I think we need more information from you in order to be of help. First, what operating system is on the disk you are trying to clone? Windows XP, Vista, 7, or 8/8.1? 32 bit or 64 bit? Second, this disk has a total capacity of 800GB, but exactly how much data is on the disk? And in how many partitions? Third, is the disk MBR or GPT format? I ask because Win8/8.1 64 bit uses GPT format/UEFI boot, everything else is usually MBR format/MBR boot. Fourth, I do not think Norton Ghost v.9 supports cloning GPT format disks due to the fact it was created circa 2004. You should consider using more modern imaging/cloning software that supports both MBR and GPT disks. I've had good luck using Macrium Reflect, it is simple to use and dependable. The download link is here: http://filehippo.com/download_macrium_reflect/ (Use the green bar to the immediate right marked "Download Latest Version") The instructions for cloning are here, read them in full and watch the video at the bottom of the page: http://kb.macrium.com/KnowledgebaseArticle50081.aspx Also, if you are cloning Windows XP, be aware of partition alignment. Macrium can correct this during the cloning process if you know how to change the settings. See here: http://www.macrium.com/help/v5/partition_alignment.htm

Derek_S · ‎06-14-2014

Hello nadro and welcome to the Crucial forum. Given the fact that you have stability problems with Windows 8.1 but not with Ubuntu 14.04, I would tend to believe your problems have less to do with hardware and more to do with the operating system itself. Just because you have the latest drivers installed does not guarantee that Windows is without problems. Problems with Internet Explorer in particular would have me looking in two areas: malware and/or system file corruption. First, has your antivirus software given you any indication of problems? It would be a good idea to scan your system completely, do not do a quick or partial scan. Also, consider scanning with more than one antivirus/malware product. Scanning with just one product leaves the possibility that malware can go undetected. On my system, I use Avira for real-time scanning, backed up by Malwarebytes and Trend Micro Housecall for on demand scanning. Then, if you do not detect malware of any sort, or have fixed any issues having to do with malware, open the Command Prompt by right clicking and selecting "Run as Administrator". Then enter "sfc /scannow" to check for missing or corrupted Windows system files. When the scan completes, if you get the message "Windows resource protection did not find any integrity violations", then you have no problems. However, if you receieve a message telling you to look at the CBS.log file, then you have issues. You can fix this from the Command Prompt by entering "dism.exe /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth". When this completes, run "sfc /scannow" to verify that your system files have been repaired/replaced.

Derek_S · ‎06-11-2014

Hello Manthus7 - Given the situation you have described, you shouldn't have any problems. However, if Acronis does not work, you could try using Macrium Reflect to clone your drive. You can download it here: http://filehippo.com/download_macrium_reflect And the instructions for cloning are here: http://kb.macrium.com/KnowledgebaseArticle50081.aspx Read everything first, then watch the video at the bottom of the page. It's very simple to use. After you finish cloning, you can then use it to create backup images. The instructions are here: http://kb.macrium.com/KnowledgebaseArticle50074.aspx

Derek_S · ‎06-11-2014

@JohnnyBob wrote: I know nothing about Linux and won't get involved in any such complications. Also I'm not going looking for different cloning software. I bought the clone kit from Crucial and I expect them to honor their presales claim that it works. And yet you did exactly what I suggested in post #5, and it worked.

Derek_S · ‎06-10-2014

Hello Kurt - It's good to hear from a fellow Linux user for a change. As far as firmware updates are concerned, all you have to do is use the Manual Boot File updater instead of the Windows based updater. Look here and download the instructions to see what I'm talking about: http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/support-ssd As far as setting up Ubuntu to work better with a SSD drive, here's a link detailing the settings you need to tweak for better performance and to extend the life of your SSD: https://sites.google.com/site/easylinuxtipsproject/ssd BTW: Acording to the info in the link, Ubuntu 14.04 LTS already has Trim enabled using a weekly cron job. However, I believe this only applies to certain brands and models of SSDs. Maybe searching Ubuntu support or the Ubuntu forums can shed more light on this issue.

Derek_S · ‎06-10-2014

Hello JohnnyBob - If you want to update your M500's firmware from MU03 to MU05, you don't need to do it using Windows. Got to this page and download the Manual Boot File and the instructions. The link is here: http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/support-ssd This is what I used because my M500 has a Linux OS installed. Just follow the instructions, the application basically starts and runs itself. As far as cloning, if Acronis isn't working for you, there is an alternative. Try using Macrium Reflect. The download link is here: http://filehippo.com/download_macrium_reflect Use the green button on the right, not the one immediately below. The instructions for cloning are here: http://kb.macrium.com/KnowledgebaseArticle50081.aspx Please read the instructions in full and watch the video before proceeding.

Derek_S · ‎06-07-2014

Hello HCC and welcome to the Crucial forum. As far as using the "sfc /scannow" command, I don't see any harm in using it since it only looks for corrupted or missing Windows system files. As far as using the "chkdsk" command, I believe it's a matter of which options you choose to add to the command line. Running "chkdsk /f" (to "fix" filesystem errors) shouldn't cause any problems because it is looking for errors on the filesystem level, and not on the physical media itself. Running "chkdsk /r" (to "recover" data from bad sectors and rewrite it to good sectors) is another story. I can't say for certain if using it would add an appreciable amount of wear and tear on your SSD. Under the right conditions, it might. But I think using the "/r" option is completely unnecessary because your SSD's firmware should already taking care of this issue with wear leveling. Maybe another forum member can add to this, or correct me if I'm wrong.

Derek_S · ‎06-01-2014

Hello Kolrex - I believe you should add the "quick" option to the command line to do a quick format, otherwise the default would be a full format. The correct syntax would be: format fs=ntfs quick Here is a link to Microsoft TechNet detailing the diskpart commands: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc766465(v=ws.10).aspx

Derek_S · ‎05-31-2014

Hello Kolrex - I have a problem with using my hand held calculator, since it only displays 8 digits! However, I double-checked the calculation using the Windows calculator prior to making my previous post, and just now I have used the calculator on my Linux laptop and it agrees, showing the whole number 31483136. In light of the fact our two Windows based calculators agree, as well as my Linux based calculator, I would think your hand calculator has an error of some sort when working with extremely large numbers. The only other thing to do would be to get out a pencil and paper and do the multiplication 31483136 x 4096 and see what the result is. I have a feeling that you will arrive at 128954925056 due to the fact that the very first operation is 6 x 6 = 36.

Derek_S · ‎05-31-2014

Hello Kolrex - Did you do the math? Here's what I get: Part 0 1048576 / 4096 = 256.0 Part 1 105906176 / 4096 = 25856.0 Part 2 128954925056 / 4096 = 31483136.0 All the results are whole numbers with no decimals; exactly what is the message from Wmic telling you these partitions are not aligned? According to the numbers, they are aligned, at least in terms of the starting offset. Is Wmic complaining about the end point of partition #2, the last partition? If that is the case, try making part. #2 exactly 103GB, or 105472MB in size.

Derek_S · ‎05-30-2014

========== Edit: I have used Windows Disk Management, the same result. Partition Wizard is showing every partition as aligned, whatever the vaulue of Startoffset. I'm basicly running out of ideas! If Partition Wizard is indeed showing this kind of behavior, then I would consider it unreliable and use the information provided by the wmic command instead. To reiterate what bogdan has already posted: wmic partition get BlockSize, StartingOffset, Name, Index C:\Users\Bogdan>wmic partition get BlockSize, StartingOffset, Name, Index BlockSize Index Name StartingOffset 512 0 Disk #0, Partition #0 1048576 512 1 Disk #0, Partition #1 99615768576 *****If the last numbers are divisible by 4096 (that is, if dividing them by 4096 equals a whole number and not a decimal), those partitions are correctly aligned.***** I am curious what results would you get from that command This is displaying the information for each partition's starting point in terms of individual bytes, not GB, or MG, or even KB. As bogdan has stated, if you divide these numbers by 4096 and get a whole number, with no decimals, that means the NTFS filesystem's 4096 byte clusters are properly aligned to the SSD's physical memory at the page level, which is either 4096 bytes or 8192 bytes depending on the model.

Derek_S · ‎05-29-2014

Hello kmita1 and welcome to the Crucial forum. Two things to look at: First make sure you have AHCI mode enabled in BIOS, not Compatibility mode. Second, sometimes Windows Disk Management gets itself into a snit if the disk in question does not have a master boot record installed, or if the existing MBR is somehow corrupted. To fix this, right click and open the Command Prompt as Administrator. Then type "diskpart". The command prompt will change to "DISKPART>". Then type "list disk", and see if the Crucial SSD appears on the list. If it does, take note of the disk number assigned to it. Then type "select disk #", replacing # with the assigned number. You should get a reply "Disk # is now the selected disk". Then type "clean", this will get rid of any existing partition table and install a new MBR. You should get a confirmation when this is done. Then type "exit" twice, once to close diskpart, then to exit the Command Prompt. Then go back into Windows Disk Management to see if the SSD is there.

Derek_S · ‎05-29-2014

Hello Kolrex - I crunched the numbers for partition #2, it is aligned properly and it is exactly 122880MB, or 120GB. What happened to partition #3? I have to ask a question at this point: This .5 GB of unallocated space you mentioned, does it exist after patition #3? Or does it exist in between partition #2 and #3? The last sector of #2 and the first sector of #3 must be butted up against each other, there can't be any unallocated space in between. Going back to my previous post, if the last sector in #2 is 251865087, then the first sector in #3 must be 251865088, understand? Instead of using Partition Wizard, try using Windows Disk Management to delete and re-create partition #3 again. Then use Partition Wizard to check the alignment.

Date Registered	‎03-02-2014 01:08 PM
Date Last Visited	‎04-06-2019 08:53 AM
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