How to setup Core V1/2, Solid, Apex, Vertex SSD with aligned partitions using USB (if available on the drive) or SATA. Updated to show how to use Vista recovery disk

[Tony]

This guide covers the partition alignment of Core V1 and V2, Apex and Vertex along with Solid series either using USB to connect the drive (if available) or using SATA connection with the drive as a spare . You do need to have a working OS to boot to in order to align the partition on the drive.

For this guide I will use USB on a Core V2, if you have V1 with No USB connector you will need to connect the drive using SATA to an existing PC.

NOTE...this method is for fresh installation, if you want to reload an image of your system just follow your usual method once you have formatted the SSD drive.

Here we go

1 the primary PC can be either XP or Vista based...just download Diskpar from here:
https://kb.wisc.edu/images/group14/4556/diskpar.exe

2 move (copy) diskpar to the root of your OS drive, so if this is C just open C drive right click in space and hit paste.

3 Now go to administrative tools > computer management > disk management. Right click on the SSD drive and Delete the volume if one is present. For Diskpar to work the volume must be RAW...Remember this will destroy all data on the disk...make sure you have backed up all data you need.





4 now open CMD by typing cmd.exe in the run box on XP or type CMD in the search box on Vista and then hitting CMD.exe in the results box.

Type the following.

C:\diskpar -s 1 then hit Y to continue...see pic1

Pic1



Now we need to hit Y again to continue and press enter/return..see pic 2

pic2



Now its time to Align the drive and set the partition space. Keeping things simple I am only advising to set the partition to the whole of the drive so this tweak covers the whole of the SSD.

Note what to set in the pic, my drive is 30GB, if you have a 60GB or larger diskpar will report the size...you just need to copy it and hit enter. Note the Alignment number is 64

Pic 3



Now all that is left to do is hit enter and check the new info for the drive.

Pic 4



To exit Diskpar just now type exit and hit return/enter and CMD.exe will close. You may now get a prompt to format the drive, you can either format the drive from this prompt or navigate again to disk manager and format the drive from there.

[Tony]

if like me you wish to format the SSD after aligning the partition using Disk manager just follow the instructions below.

Remember do NOT delete the partition if you do you will need to go thru the diskpar setup again to re align the drive.

1 open computer management > disk manager and follow pic 1 for what to set.

Pic 1



I was not asked to set the drive to active here using Vista, but XP may ask you to, be prepared to set the drive to active before you are able to format.

now follow pic2 to format the drive:

Pic 2



Wait a few seconds while the drive is formatted, once complete you can close disk manager down. The drive is now aligned and formatted. all that is left is for you to install windows to it. Remember do not delete the partition during windows installation...if you do you need to re align the drive all over again.

Rookie tells me you may have to reformat and make the drive active when installing XP, so if you see issues try reformatting when the XP installation gives the option.

[therookie]

This is yet another guide on how to align a system partition on your OCZ SSD. This guide does not require you to have access to another computer. It does require your computer to have an optical drive and you also need to download and burn the Vista Recovery Disc (32-bit version) hosted by Neosmart.

(If you have a Vista installation disc, you can use it instead of downloading the recovery disc)

http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/window...disc-download/

Please note that if you are running a RAID SSD system, you need to select an appropriate stripe size in your RAID BIOS setup utility before proceeding further. Tony recommends a stripe size of 128k.

Once you have installed the SSD(s) in your system, boot from the Vista Recovery Disc and you will be taken to the first screen.



Select your keyboard layout and click Next.





Select “Repair your computer”.





If you are running a RAID system, you can load the device drivers for your setup before proceeding. Otherwise click Next right away.





Click on “Command Prompt”.




The above screenshot shows the commands for creating a primary partition spanning the entire SSD and being aligned at 32k, which is a valid setting for a single drive and for the default File Allocation Unit Size (4096 bytes).

If you are running RAID SSD, you need to use another partition offset (alignment). See this post for Tony’s recommendations.

http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/fo...8&postcount=47

For a reference on Diskpart commands see

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l.../cc766465.aspx

After you are finished, exit diskpart and the command prompt and shut down the computer.

You can now do a fresh install of the Windows operating system of your choice onto your aligned partition. When you are installing the operating system you need to select NTFS as file system and preferably the quick format option.

Do NOT delete the partition and recreate the partition in the OS installer. This will kill the alignment that you have performed.

[Halk]

Sticky!

Also worth pointing out that if you have Vista and are going to do an install onto a brand new single OCZ drive then Vista will set an appropriate offset by default - however XP will NOT.

[therookie]

Thanks, I should have clarified that. I do mention that in my original post on the subject http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/fo...ad.php?t=48309.

[Halk]

Yep, I'm only repeating what you've already told me!