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    Guide: How to align boot partitions without losing data

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by Tomy B., Oct 11, 2009.

  1. Tomy B.

    Tomy B. Notebook Evangelist

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    2048 sectors is fine, You don't need to fix it.
     
    Tomy B., Dec 29, 2010
    #51
  2. HTWingNut

    HTWingNut Potato

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    edit: nvm, I need to read first.
     
    HTWingNut, Dec 29, 2010
    #52
  3. electron1948

    electron1948 Newbie

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    Hi,

    I've tried to follow this guide but ran into problems due to a newer version of gparted. Instead of the 'Round to cylinders' option there is an 'Align to' dropdown that has different options - don't know which to chose. In addition the new version will not let you set 'Free space preceeding' to less than 1.
    Did some best guessing and ended up with the 32k partion which I deleted as instructed. XP still boots but 'diskpar' still reports 'Hiddensectors=63'.
    Is there an updated 'How to' covering the changes to gparted?
    Many thanks.
     
    electron1948, Aug 17, 2011
    #53
  4. Tomy B.

    Tomy B. Notebook Evangelist

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    I didn't use GParted for a long time, but You always can download older versions. Try 0.6.x.x
     
    Tomy B., Aug 17, 2011
    #54
  5. electron1948

    electron1948 Newbie

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    Any idea which version of 0.6.x.x, how far back to go? 0.6.4 also has the 'Align to' with 'Cylinder/MiB/None' options and won't go to '0' for 'free space before'. I don't want to keep downloading and burning ISO's!

    Many thanks for your help.
     
    electron1948, Aug 19, 2011
    #55
  6. rockman0

    rockman0 Notebook Enthusiast

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    I bought a WD Scorpio Black from Newegg. They include the program WDAlign. How good is that program? Anyone here have any experience from it?
     
    rockman0, Aug 19, 2011
    #56
  7. Tomy B.

    Tomy B. Notebook Evangelist

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    Sorry but I really don't remember which version I was using.

    Maybe I'll test 0.9.0-7 in next week or two and make some new guide, but now You could try with 0.4.8-6 and if that doesn't work then 0.5.2-9.
     
    Tomy B., Aug 19, 2011
    #57
  8. Richard Adams

    Richard Adams Newbie

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    Here's an update to the method that worked for me.

    I used the current (as of this post) Gparted version 0.9.1-1.

    Referring to the instructions on the first page of this thread, I used 1MB instead of 10MB at step 4.

    I observed an error "not in supervisor mode" at step 6 while trying to run "parted" in the console. Therefore I could not use parted function, and didn't proceed with any other listed steps. Instead, I exited Gparted and shut the system down.

    Note: Although I stopped early in the instructions, it turns out that the Gparted utility had already completed the alignment sufficiently at this point.

    I booted the resulting SSD. Windows XP started, and then XP started CHKDSK automatically. It gave me the option to stop this, but I let it run chkdsk.

    When chkdsk finished and I signed into Windows XP, Windows asked me to reboot for new hardware, as if it re-detected the drive.

    Windows XP now boots and operates correctly.

    Benchmark
    Using AS SSD Benchmark version 1.6.4237.30508
    Before align with IDE, score at bottom = 133
    After align with IDE, score at bottom = 254
    After align and now with AHCI mode, score at bottom = 480

    The SSD is a Crucial M4 64GB.

    Conclusion:
    The whole point of this is to not have to do a fresh install in order to align the SSD for Windows XP booting, while retaining all previously installed programs and settings. Rather than the fresh install recommended by the SSD manufacturer, I used a clone of my Windows booting drive onto the SSD, and then aligned and enabled AHCI.

    The SSD speed is fantastic. The AS SSD Benchmark when the 480 score occurred also confirmed and reported aligned at 2048k (2048k x 512 = 1mb) and AHCI mode active,

    Task accomplished. Love the SSD speed!!!
     
    Richard Adams, Oct 6, 2011
    #58
  9. hankaaron57

    hankaaron57 Go BIG or go HOME

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    Can this be done with Acronis Disk Director Suite or some other tool?
     
    hankaaron57, Oct 6, 2011
    #59
  10. Richard Adams

    Richard Adams Newbie

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    According to the posts in the following thread, Acronis is not reliable for this alignment task. There is a discussion that win7 images restored with Acronis may have an undesirable loss of alignment.
    alignment on a SSD | Knowledge Base

    There is a reference in the above linked thread to the Paragon Alignment Tool. I found links for a so called promotional free version and a "not free" version of this. Link are below. The promotional page seems to be for a white paper, not the software.
    Paragon Paragon Alignment Tool - Overview
    Paragon Alignment Tool FREE

    Since the free Gparted utility worked for me the first time, I haven't tried the Acronis nor Paragon tools.

    I am planning to install Win7 on a second partition I left room for on my SSD, and will report the resulting alignment when successful with that.
     
    Richard Adams, Oct 7, 2011
    #60
  11. hankaaron57

    hankaaron57 Go BIG or go HOME

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    Roger that Richard, thanks for the input and links. Will look into this further. Would be thoroughly upset if a company with a rep as good as Acronis' truly was that faulty with something as simple as alignment though :-/
     
    hankaaron57, Oct 8, 2011
    #61
  12. crashnburn

    crashnburn Notebook Consultant

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    Does this apply to one or more of the following:
    - Windows 7 x 64 bit OS
    - GPT / GUID vs MBR Partitioned Disks
    - Advanced Formatting Disks with 4k Sectors
     
    crashnburn, Oct 8, 2011
    #62
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