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    SSD and XP

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by ZaZ, May 25, 2009.

  1. ZaZ

    ZaZ Super Model Super Moderator

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    I just picked up a 32GB OCZ SSD on eBay. I think it's the rebadged Samsung SLC. I'm running XP right now and have about 10GB on my boot partition, that's with a couple games on there. Usually when I've installed Vista it's right around 15GB with no games, then about 3GB for my music. 32GB should suffice as a boot partition for me, even if at some point I upgrade to Windows 7, which I can always slim down if need be. I haven't been following all of the ins and outs of SSDs. I think I saw where SSDs run really well in Windows 7 and almost as well in Vista, but there's some tweaking that needs to be done if you're running XP, which I am and probably will be for the immediate future. Am I correct in this assumption? Anyone got any pointers for using a SSD while running XP or can point to a good setup guide? Thanks for any help.
     
    ZaZ, May 25, 2009
    #1
  2. lemonspeaker

    lemonspeaker Notebook Evangelist

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    Remember to align the SSD.
     
    lemonspeaker, May 25, 2009
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  3. davepermen

    davepermen Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    just do only one partition (and align it). that way you have all set up the most simple and thus best way to handle.

    vista was 7gb with no games. i had a 32gb ssd configuration for half a year, worked without any problem (see the start page for the article about exactly the ssd i had).

    i really suggest vista on the ssd. with an ssd, all performance differences vanish, and then, vista is just much nicer to use.

    but non-the-less:

    disable/don't defrag
    for xp: align partition (vista does automagically)

    and that's about it. any further tweaks are not needed if it really is a samsung slc disk. should work great.
     
    davepermen, May 25, 2009
    #3
  4. ganzonomy

    ganzonomy Notebook Deity

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    Align the Disk? I'm confused.
     
    ganzonomy, May 25, 2009
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  5. davepermen

    davepermen Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    google it ssd disk alignment. should direct to an ocz forum.
     
    davepermen, May 25, 2009
    #5
  6. ganzonomy

    ganzonomy Notebook Deity

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    why does xp need "alignment"?

    and what does SSD do performance-wise to improve XP (as i will NEVER ever use vista)
     
    ganzonomy, May 25, 2009
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  7. King of Interns

    King of Interns Simply a laptop enthusiast

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    I have used a MLC (SLC - much faster) 120GB SSD with XP and it sped things up nicely over my 160GB 5400 rpm HDD. However I never aligned it, never heard of it until now!
     
    King of Interns, May 25, 2009
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  8. zephir

    zephir Notebook Deity

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    You never have to allign anything. The performance increase is very minimal on SSD with other controllers besides Jmicron. This is coming from someone using the Samsung SLC SSD for two years with Windows XP.
    If you use Vista, the partitions are automatically alligned for you.

    My benchmark for the drive in both Vista and XP are very similar to each other, indicating that partition allignment doesn't do much.
     
    zephir, May 25, 2009
    #8