Is everyone exaggerating the steps for SSD alignment when upgrading to an SSD?
Under datentraeger (disks), not under Laufwerke (drives)
Information needed from the first disk.
Thank you very much. Now I found it.
I have another small question. If I have two partitions on my SSD, one for the system and one for data. If I only restore the system partition, will the allignment be ok?
AS SSD is free and a good benchmarking program for most SSD's. I say most, since it creates incompressible data that can overload generation 2 OCZ sand force drives. However as William mentioned just start the program and it will indicate in green if your SSD is aligned and in red if it isn't. You don't have to run it.
http://forums.legitreviews.com/about21729.html
The most appropriate benching tool for your RevoDrive is ATTO, though you could use AS SSD occasionally.
http://www.attotech.com/products/product.php?sku=Disk_Benchmark
Kurt,
If your disk is aligned and you restore a partition on top of an existing aligned partition, the alignment will not changed.
If your disk is aligned and you restore a partition on top of an existing aligned partition, the alignment will not changed.
Also if the partition to restore is the system partition?
That's right. As long as you restore on top of an existing partition that is aligned, you keep the alignment. If you restore an image of an aligned disk and your select the entire disk (all partitions and MBR+Track0), the result will be aligned.
In any case, if you restore and you have alignment issues upon restoring for any reason, you can restore one partition after the other. As long as the first partition as an offset of 1MB exactly, and each size is a whole number of MB, the result will be aligned.
As long as you restore on top of an existing partition that is aligned, you keep the alignment.
What this mean? I don't restore the entire disk. My top partition is probably the system partition and I want to restore it.
Let me try to clarify.
- if your disk is already formatted and the partitions on that disk are aligned, it has already a partition call C:\. If you restore a backup of C:\ onto the C:\ on the disk, the restored partition will stay aligned because only the content of the partition is changed, not its placement,
- if your disk is already formatted, but the partitions on that disk are not aligned, and you want to restore a single partition onto an existing non-aligned partition, the result will stay unaligned. You would have to align the disk. You can do this with 3r party tools, or you can recover the disk, partition by partition and align them, since you can control where to place the partitions.
- if you disk is not formatted, and your *image* is aligned, then you can restore the entire image/disk, and your disk will be aligned,
- if your disk is not formatted, but your *image* might not be aligned, in doubt, you can recover the disk, partition by partition and align them, since you can control where to place the partitions.
I think his Raid 0 is broken. It is easily fixed If he wants help I can walk him thru it. I think trim is overrated in mordern SSD's and GC is far more important but thats a different discussion. In short extra OP helps reduce the impact of drive performance in a "settled" state and substantially reduces the chances of it reaching a "Hammered" state. All due to the built in wear-leveling algorithims.
I am attaching an ATTO bench of my Revodrive X2 that has no trim, faces massive use and has been running for several quarters. The extra OP makes a significant difference. Check out the OCZ forums on Sandforce drives on this issue.
Snakeyes,
I am ready to clone my stable SSD 60G to Revodrive X2 100G now. I booted up ATI disk and I am in ATI screen and hoped I will see 1 disk instead of 4 disks then I can easily Clone "as is" from my 60G SSD to Revodrive X2 100G. But instead in ATI, I've 4 disks for Revodrive X2, 1 to 4. How can I clone a single 60G disk to 4 23G disks now. Please advice. Thanks!
Thank you Pat. Now it's clear.
hlkc when you log on normally into Windows with your SSD do you see the RevoDrive as a 100 GB drive?
If you do then clearly your Acronis disk is somehow not recognizing the raid. This is kind of strange since I have had no problems of this kind. On the other hand if you are seeing four drives when you log into Windows you need to set up the raid 0.
To do this, reboot your computer and look for the RevoDrive during the logon process. At this point press the F4 key and it will take you into the raid set up screen. The instructions that follow are fairly simple and allow you to add all four drives to your raid setup. Use the default option when setting block size.
If you need additional help during this process post and I will keep an eye out for your post.
Best of luck. It's an awesome SSD drive.
No. I think because of I SE them, which I guess I shouldn't, therefore it is 4 disks not instead of 1. I need to somehow rebuild that 4 disks to 1 disk as a R0 before I can continue. Any idea how to do that?
I saw your post on the OCZ forum. Praz posted a link to the instructions for the raid configuration utility. You can get to the same utility when you go into Windows with your old SSD. Just wait for the screen to show a line mentioning your RevoDrive. Immediately press the F4 key. This will bring you to the Raid configuration utility window. Follow the exact steps shown in the URL below.
http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/content.php?280-Secure-Erase-Fr…
I saw your post on the OCZ forum. Praz posted a link to the instructions for the raid configuration utility. You can get to the same utility when you go into Windows with your old SSD. Just wait for the screen to show a line mentioning your RevoDrive. Immediately press the F4 key. This will bring you to the Raid configuration utility window. Follow the exact steps shown in the URL below.
http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/content.php?280-Secure-Erase-Fr…
Hi Snakeyes,
I was successfully cloned the disk after created R0 using the Linux configuration utility. Thanks!
However, not sure what happen next, I was not able to boot up using the destination disk, "Bootmgr is missing press CTR-ALT-DEL" error Googled around, try so many fixed but it did not work, then I decided to just did a clean W7 installed and it is all working now.
But now, I have another clone question perhaps you and Pat L can give me some advices.
I am trying to clone this new W7 disks to another SSD as a back up. So I went to ATI Clone and I choose auto as a method, then choose source and destination disk then ask to reboot. Hit Reboot and after reboot it went to a black screen and it started to copy, left is reading the source and right is writing the source and the progress bar. About 8% in the progress bar, I turned around and screen went black and my PC shut down completely. I wait for a while nothing happens I power up and still nothing happens, I power down, unplug the power and now I can restart without problem.
May I ask why and what was going on? What did I do wrong and why is not cloning my disks?
The cloning of a system disk is best achieved trough the recovery CD.
When you restart, make sure that only the clone that is at the place of the original disk is in place in the computer.
Try again from the recovery CD.
The cloning of a system disk is best achieved trough the recovery CD.
When you restart, make sure that only the clone that is at the place of the original disk is in place in the computer.Try again from the recovery CD.
Pat L,
Thanks for your help once again!
I am not entirely sure what you mean. Are you suggesting boot up with the disk and then clone the source disk to the destination disk, right? If it is the case, how can I have only "only the clone that is at the place of the original disk is in place in the computer"?
Are you referring more a restore from the Acronis back up file using the boot up disk than a cloning?
He means do the clone with the recovery CD.
The key word in the next sentence is "restart". After the clone is completed you will have 2 identical drives in the computer and when Windows restarts it will see the 2 identical disks when loading Windows and can get confused.
After the clone is complete, shutdown the PC and disconnect or remove the original drive. If you put it on the connector the original was on then the PC will very likely see it correctly in the boot order. This can be more of a problem or less than a problem depending on your computers BIOS.
After the PC has done its first successful boot with the cloned drive then the original drive can be put back in the machine with no problems.
He means do the clone with the recovery CD.
The key word in the next sentence is "restart". After the clone is completed you will have 2 identical drives in the computer and when Windows restarts it will see the 2 identical disks when loading Windows and can get confused.
After the clone is complete, shutdown the PC and disconnect or remove the original drive. If you put it on the connector the original was on then the PC will very likely see it correctly in the boot order. This can be more of a problem or less than a problem depending on your computers BIOS.
After the PC has done its first successful boot with the cloned drive then the original drive can be put back in the machine with no problems.
Seekforever,
Concept is clear and that is what I expected. But it was not my behavior/experience with the exe in the Windows. Will try that with the boot disk and see. Thanks for the assistance.
Pat L, Seekforever and Snakeyes,
Sorry to report to you guys that it is not working.
Reboot with the Arconis boot up disk, begin clone, after done, shut down, remove original SSD, Revodrive from system, boot up, enter BIOS change copy SSD to 1st boot up drive. Boot up and indicated x000000xcf error, something like that. Shut down, remove copy SSD, put the original SSD, Revodrive, back and boot up without a any problem (screaming fast).
Revodrive is 100G and SSD is 60G, is that a problem I can't clone?
I consider myself pretty tech savvy but just new with Arconis. It seems to me cloning is not working so far for me twice. Please educate me if any above steps is not correct.
Thank you.
hlkf,
Try a reverse clone and clone manually:
- put the destination disk as the same spot as the working SSD,
- put the source SSD on another connector/port/enclosure
- boot on the CD,
- click add new disk from the tools section,
- double check you have selected the right drive!
- confirm that everything on the disk will be erased,
- clone from the source to the destination, choose clone manually. Do not resize the system reserved partition, leave 1MB before it. You can resize the c:\system partition to maximize the space. If you don't want to resize at all, choose Manual + as is. You will get 40GB of unallocated space on the 100GB SSD.
- shutdown the computer upon completion
- remove the source disk.
That should work. If it doesn't, darn! We will have to try a backup and restore.
hlkf,
Try a reverse clone and clone manually:
- put the destination disk as the same spot as the working SSD,
- put the source SSD on another connector/port/enclosure
- boot on the CD,
- click add new disk from the tools section,
- double check you have selected the right drive!
- confirm that everything on the disk will be erased,
- clone from the source to the destination, choose clone manually. Do not resize the system reserved partition, leave 1MB before it. You can resize the c:\system partition to maximize the space. If you don't want to resize at all, choose Manual + as is. You will get 40GB of unallocated space on the 100GB SSD.
- shutdown the computer upon completion
- remove the source disk.That should work. If it doesn't, darn! We will have to try a backup and restore.
Thanks for the tips Pat L,
How can I do that if the source SSD is PCI-e not SATA?
I will try restore to the 60G SSD after using the boot up disk. Anything I need to pay attention to?
hlkc,
Just make sure that you backup includes the system reserved and the system partition. You should also restore one partition after the other, leaving 1MB before the system reserved partition, marking it primary, active, then restoring the c:\system partition and finally the MBR+track0 and disk signature.