SSD

Kurt:

Disk Director 11 is compatible with Windows 7 and will create and modify partitions that are aligned on 2048-sector boundaries, which is compatible with SSD alignments.

Hi,
I'm working under XP 32Bits

When i check via MSINFO32
the starting offset of the partition i've got 32 256 octets
if i understand well it's mean that the partition is not aligned

How proceed to align existing partition ?

Blues Brothers:

How many partitions are on your disk? Posting a screen shot from XP Disk Management would be helpful.

Which version of Disk Director do you have? Have you created bootable media for Disk Director? Do you have any version of Acronis True Image? Which one?

Knowing what you have to work with will help me to give you the simplest method of aligning your disk.

Hi and thank to answering me

I've only have Acronis Disk Director 11 update v2

I don't make yet bootable media for disk director
(i don't know about it before your post)

here screen capture from DD11

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/134/ssdsstaddh11update2.jpg

In the intervalle i try something but it seem not working as i expected

I boot from W7 ISO and start install and stop it after partitionning

now Alignement seem good,
here screen picture from Windows XP Dik Manager

http://img845.imageshack.us/img845/8109/windowsdiskmanager.jpg

After I make copy via DiskDirector 11 of the XP partition from my actual new SSD to the SuperTalent one

But when i start from SuperTalent SSD it say there is not able to start

You probably ran into the issue of trying to boot Windows with two identical copies of XP visible. You will need to repeat your procedure but this time use the bootable media version of Disk Director. Either use the Bootable Media Builder option in the program to create a bootable CD or else download a copy of the bootable ISO from your account on the Acronis web site.

Once you have this working, boot your PC from the Disk Director CD.

1. In the upper-right corner of the DD11 window is a drop-down list "structure de disque". Choose "bootable media environment"; do not choose "Windows XP". The first choice will create partitions aligned to 1 Mib boundaries while the "Windows XP" choice will create non-aligned partitions with 32 kib offsets.
2. On the SuperTalent SSD, delete the partition that you created
3. Commit the operation. You should now have a blank disk
4. Create a partition of the desired size.
5. Finally, copy the XP partition from your second disk to the newly-created partition.

Do not reboot your PC with both disks attached. Instead, shut down power and disconnect the 119.2 Go disk. For the first boot into Windows XP, have only the SuperTalent SSD attached.

If you still get an error message, please post the exact text of the message.

Mark Wharton wrote:

You probably ran into the issue of trying to boot Windows with two identical copies of XP visible. You will need to repeat your procedure but this time use the bootable media version of Disk Director. Either use the Bootable Media Builder option in the program to create a bootable CD or else download a copy of the bootable ISO from your account on the Acronis web site.

Thank for answering, I will dowload the .iso from site as indicated

For information, when i try to boot from the Secondary SSD
i turn 1st one Off via Bios parameter

Mark Wharton wrote:

Once you have this working, boot your PC from the Disk Director CD.

1. In the upper-right corner of the DD11 window is a drop-down list "structure de disque". Choose "bootable media environment"; do not choose "Windows XP". The first choice will create partitions aligned to 1 Mib boundaries while the "Windows XP" choice will create non-aligned partitions with 32 kib offsets.
2. On the SuperTalent SSD, delete the partition that you created
3. Commit the operation. You should now have a blank disk
4. Create a partition of the desired size.
5. Finally, copy the XP partition from your second disk to the newly-created partition.

Do not reboot your PC with both disks attached. Instead, shut down power and disconnect the 119.2 Go disk. For the first boot into Windows XP, have only the SuperTalent SSD attached.

If you still get an error message, please post the exact text of the message.

It is difficult for me to disconnect the 128Gb SSD, because to access it i have to desasembly all EeePC
for acces 50mm miniPCI-e Slot where i put this SSD (2nd IDE slot as Primary Slave)

as noted before instead, i use bios parameter to deseable it
if you think it is not enaufth do you think i need to mask it via DD11 option ?

I will test all you tell me and let you result ASAP

Turning off the disk in the BIOS should Be sufficient.

Does the current Windows XP installation that you are copying have the driver installed for the SuperTalent SSD? If not, you may want to install it before copying the partition.

Mark Wharton wrote:

.........

Once you have this working, boot your PC from the Disk Director CD.

1. In the upper-right corner of the DD11 window is a drop-down list "structure de disque". Choose "bootable media environment"; do not choose "Windows XP". The first choice will create partitions aligned to 1 Mib boundaries while the "Windows XP" choice will create non-aligned partitions with 32 kib offsets.2. ............

Hi, i try to change the disk structure option from XP without succes when i click on it a window appear and i don't find the option taht you talk about

I suppose that this option is accessible only by booting from the .ISO CD of ADDH11 ?

here a screen capture of the window

Mark Wharton wrote:

Turning off the disk in the BIOS should Be sufficient.

Does the current Windows XP installation that you are copying have the driver installed for the SuperTalent SSD? If not, you may want to install it before copying the partition.

I don't know about Driver for the 32GB SuperTalent SSD SST-FMP32-GLSE

For Information

At the begening, my Asus EeePC 901(XP ed) was equiped with original Asus 16GB SSD

I replace it by SuperTalent SSD because of need of free space
I use a "materiel Raid" Box to make a binary copy of the Old SSD (Asus) to the New SSD (SupeTalent)
I don' t remember of driver needed or installed ?

now i replace the 32Gb SuperTalent by a 128GB KingSpecs SSD
using the same procedure (physical Raid Box)

At least i want to optimize this new/last installation
that why i request your help for find a way/procedure to aligne the SSD partition

Correct; the disk structure option for 1 Mib partition offset (Bootable media environment) will only appear when you are booted to the DD 11 ISO.

Which disk are you trying to align - the SuperTalent SSD or the KingSpecs SSD? I may have misunderstood.

Well, in fact i'am prudent

and i want to aligne the SuperTalent First to insure that the procedure work well

after every thing will be saf i want to aligne the KingSpec one

sorry if i make you confuse

OK - so first try the procedure in reply #5, above, on the SuperTalent SSD. If this disk does not boot correctly, please post the exact text of the error message.

Ok i Fallow the procedur and i have a good new and a bad new
the bad new is that the copied partition is not boot

the error message that appear 1 second after boot start sequence is
"operating system loading error"

the good new is that the alignement procedure work well
I confirme creation of copy aligned to 1 Bb when done by booting from .iso of ADDH11 and if i select as indicated in the upper-right corner of the DD11 window is a drop-down list "structure de disque". Choose "bootable media environment"; do not choose "Windows XP". The first choice will create partitions aligned to 1 Mib boundaries

For the point that the copy partition no booting Acronis advise it when we are launch copy the partition

i'am realy desapointed by this point

in the past i use a historique disk manager software (Partition Magic) that it is not still existinng/uptodate today
and when i use it to make a copy of a XP system volume

the copy was perftectly boot up !

NB : I stop using it cause Partition Magic v8 is not compatible with HD > xxGb
I don't remember the size limtation, i will check it and maybe test it, considering those SSD are not realy Big

Blues Brothers:

The error message "error loading operating system" is produced by the MBR boot code when the loader cannot find and load the boot sector of the XP partition.

Can you try the "fixboot" command from the recovery console of a Windows XP installation CD? Do this when the SuperTalent disk is the only disk enabled in the BIOS so that the command is targeted to the correct disk. Also, confirm that the BIOS is set to boot from the SuperTalent disk after the fixboot repair and before attempting to boot from the disk again.

Hi,
fixboot don't work to fix boot sequence

i will try to rebuilt the boot.ini file
as explain here (in French)
http://www.pcastuces.com/pratique/windows/xp/console_recuperation/page1…

I doubt that will help. Boot.ini is processed later in the boot sequence. The error message that you are getting occurs before the boot sector of the Windows XP partition is executed. So either the partition boot record is missing or damaged (but fixboot should have repaired it) or else the disk geometry is being incorrectly interpreted by the BIOS.

Earlier you mentioned having two SSDs installed in your EeePC. Is the SuperTalent SSD in the same physical slot as it was when it was your primary disk? If not, can you move it back to the slot that it was in previously?

thank you for this detailled comments

At the begening the ASUS SSD and after the SuperTalent SSD was respectivly/successivly put in the same Primary Master mini PCI-e Slot noted as IDE1
that it is the only one directly accessible on my Asus EeePC 901

i have desassembly the all NetPC and put the new KinSppecs SSD in the Primary Slave mini PCI-e Slot noted as IDE2
Now the difficulty is that after re-assembly the NetPC i can't acces to IDE2 Slot

actualy i have put the SuperTalent in the IDE1 slot, as before, only difference is that i have the KingSpecs SSD inthe IDE2 slot

Additionnaly i Note a point and i don't know if it is something can cause issue or not
when i select in the Bios Diseable primary slave (the KingSpecs SSD)
it is not appear in the bios page listing that is display when NetPC start as expected
BUT after booting from ADDH11 .iso or XPHome.iso
I can see and acces to the KingSpecs SSD !

Hi, in this post i will group different informations / Questions
to keep lisibility / good understanding ; -)

My objectif is at the end, is to aligne the KingSpecs SSD volumes
For security, i prefer valid the procedur by testing it on tthe Super Talent SSD

For history, and inf : XP volume System from Asus SSD -> to SuperTalent SSD -> to KingSpecs SSD
3 SSD are abble to boot/load XP System when i inter-change them in the IDE-1 miniPCI-e Slot of the EeePC 901
NB : I'am using a physical RAID Box to make BINARY copy beetwen HD/SSD

By disassembly the NetPC i put the KingSpecs SSD in the IDE-2 miniPCI-e Slot that is not accessible in other way
At this point, SuperTalent & KingSpecs SSDs are installed in NetPC and i 'am ablle to boot from 1st or 2nd one
by using from wich HD Boot from Bios options of the Asus EeePC 901 (Last version 2103)

***************************************************************
I have re-done the Acronis DDH11 procedure from start
using .iso bootable media of Acronis (for volume alignement purpose as wanted) 0/ i suppress volume from SuperTalent SSD

1/ i make copy of the system volume from the KingSpecs SSD
here Acronis show message that telling the copy will not be considered as a system volume

at this point for test, i don't select "volume activation" in Acronis copy option

2/ ............. I re-Start the PC whith boot bios option to insure that it will boot from the SuperTalent SSD Result, error message "Reboot and Select proper Boot device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key" That is normal i suppose and consequence of the non-activation of the volume when copied ! Well, i reload Acronis DDH11 from .iso Boot Media and i have active the XP volume copied on the SuperTalent SSD Result, error message "Error loading operating system"

**************************************************************************
Considering bios description i have done in the precedent message :
Do i need to use Acronis DDH11 to Mask patitions / volumes of the KingSpecs SSD to insure that it will not make the SuperTalent SSD not Bootable ?

In my opinion the Pb is in the copy made by Acronis Disk Director Home cause when i done a binary copy from the KindSpecs SSD using my Raid Box Raid to the SuperTalent can boot/load XP system volume In that way i don't understand why the copy from the same source using Acronis DDHome11 don't work with the same materiel, SSD and physical installation in the Asus EeePC 901

Blues Brothers:

I also don't understand what's going on here. The User Guide for Acronis Disk Director 11 also contains warnings about copying a system partition but they do not explain the details, so I don't know what they mean by the warning.

I believe that the copy process should work, despite the warnings. To see for myself, I did an experiment using a VMWare virtual machine (VM) as follows:

1. Start with a Windows XP VM that uses a single disk of size 20 GB with only one partition with used space of 8 GB.
2. Add a second hard disk to the VM of size 10 GB.
3. Power off the VM and boot into the Acronis DD 11 iso.
4. First, select "Bootable Media Environment" as the disk layout.
5. Initialize the new 10 GB disk as a Basic MBR disk.
6. Commit the operation.
7. Copy the XP partition from the 20 GB disk to the new 10 GB disk using Copy Volume and choosing 0 bytes before the partition and the maximum size possible for the partition, and make the partition Primary, Active.
8. Ignore the warning about copying system or boot volumes.
9. Commit this operation and wait for it to finish.
10. Use the disk editor to confirm that the new partition has 1 MB offset (2048 sectors) before the partition (aligned).
11. Power off the VM. Remove the 20 GB disk and put the 10 GB disk as primary IDE master.
12. Power on the VM.

At this point the VM booted directly into Windows XP. Since Windows detected that the hardware had changed, I did get a warning that I needed to activate Windows within 3 days. But the procedure worked.

Now, the question is why this isn't working for you. It could be hardware-related with your PC BIOS not correctly recognizing the disk geometry. To rule that out, can you look to see if there is a BIOS update available for your EeePC?

Another possibility is that when you disabled one disk in the BIOS, Windows was still able to see the other disk after it booted up. If this happened and Windows detected two identical disks it could have modified one of the Windows installations to render it unbootable. To work around this you may have to physically remove the source disk after the copy operation and before trying to boot the destination disk.

Normally I wouldn't use DD 11 for this task, instead preferring their disk imaging product, Acronis TrueImage. So a final possibility is to obtain a copy of TrueImage (version 2010 or later) and use it as follows:

1. Create an image of the XP partition on your source disk, saving the image to an external hard disk or a PC on your network.
2. Remove the source disk, put in the destination disk in its place.
3. Boot into the True Image ISO and initialize the destination disk
4. Then restore the image file to the destination disk as a primary, active partition that fills the disk.

Finally, if your KingSpec SSD is booting correctly and only needs alignment, you could do it entirely with DD 11 just by booting to the ISO and selecting "Bootable Media" for the disk layout. Then you could move the XP partition to the right a little bit, commit, then move it back to the left to the beginning of the disk. It would then align to a 1 MB boundary. You could also change the size of the partition while moving it. BUT !!! I would not take a chance on doing this without having a backup because if something went wrong you might be left with no working version of XP. Having TrueImage would allow you to have a backup. If you have a backup you could then try realigning the disk this way.

Thank you for tests you done
There is no official Bios update available or my EeePC 901

i will make additionnal test with Acronis DDH11,
It is also installed on my DeskTop PC an Good Old Dell dimesion 4500 (But working well till today)

i will copy the XP system volume from the 16Gb ASUS SSD to the 32 GB SuperTalent SSD
(my 128GB KingSpecs SSD is inside the NetPC and very difficult to access)

and after i will replace it in the Asus EeePC to test booting from SuperTalent

And then we will know if the Pb come from Using Acronis DDH11 from the EeePC

Thank you for Alignement Solution you give using ADDH11 boot from media .iso

I will make a viable backup of my KingSpec SSD
(maybe it will necessary that i disassembly my EeePC)

And after i will test redimensionnement of the sytem volume
still using the ADDH11 Media .iso boot procedur to achieve SSD aligenement

Best Regards and thank you for the time you spend on my request

That sounds like a good plan. You should do this while your Dell Dimension 4500 is booted to the Acronis DD 11 ISO. Do not use the Windows version of DD 11. As soon as the copy process is finished, turn off the power and remove the SSD. Install it in the EeePC and be sure that it's the only disk visible to the BIOS when you boot the PC.

Upon thinking further about the warning DD 11 gives when copying partitions containing an operating system, I think it was meant for Windows Vista and later operating systems. XP has a very simple boot process which involves locating a file (boot.ini) on the active partition. The absolute sector location of the file doesn't matter. However, Vista and later Windows operating systems use a different boot process which usually references absolute sector locations in the BCD file, so they are more fussy about being moved to different disks and to different locations on the disk. The warning doesn't apply to XP, as my experiment demonstrated.

Hello,

I'am back to give my feedback
It was hard but i arrive to make it work at all

I' don't know why but to solve situation with the SuperTalent SSD it was necessary to me to start from blanck page
if i dont do that it was not possible to make it work

1° i make a copy of the partition on an other disk
2° i flash (update) the Firmware of the SSD -> start from a blank page
3° i boot up from acronis Disk Director 11 Home .iso
4° i choise "bootable environement and make 4Mo partition for SSD alignement purpose
5° i past the copied partition from the other disk after the small aligned Partition
6° XP would not start hal.dll is missing (hall.dll est manquant)
7° Then, i need to start from XP .iso CD to use Recovery consol
8° i perform a chdsk /r (check and repair File system)
9° i rebuild boot.ini file as explain here (in french) and add the XP system in the OS Boot list
http://forum.pcastuces.com/sujet.asp?page=-1&f=1&s=140620&REP_ID=2630954
10° Now it is start and run well !

Very good. I am glad that you got things working.

I forget to say that before i can use the XP Os
i was in obligation to activate again the OS

it was an other point to solve because ther is a bug
it ask me to activate XP before starting User session

if i said yes activate, nothing apend !

To solve this issue

i need to start in "mode sans echec avec fenetre de commande" / "Safe mode with dos prompt" to solve the situation
as indicated here (in french)
http://www.ordinateur-informatique.net/blog/configuration/probleme-acti…

after start in no echec mode with dos prompt
i write in the dos prompt "explorer" to get the explorer graphical user interface
from that point i have acces to the files of the computer and solve the situation (a long fight again)

and after that i fallow the instruction from here (in french) to suppress IE8
http://www.vista-xp.fr/forum/topic8278.html
by launch c:\windows\ie8\spuninst\spuninst.exe
after that i restart normaly and click yes "activate XP"
and the the activation windows appear

NB: Uninstall of IE8 will "restaur" IE6 that still permess Activation on line or Windows Update

At all i've just finish to what i wanted to done

I have my new SSD 128GB KingSpecs installed

- W7 installed 1st and running well
I also install under W7 EasyBCD that help a lot to manage the multiBoot
- XP copy copied from the 32Gb SuperTalent SSD to the 128GB KingSpecs in 2nd partition and running well (i work hard for it)
- FAT32 Partition for datas purposes

I done BackUp copy of the W7 and XP partition on external HD and will test if it start well also

Question : How save the MBR of The Disk with ADDH11 ?

Blues Brothers:

You could save a copy of the first sector of the disk by using the disk editor feature of ADDH11. But be careful when restoring this sector. If you ever restore this sector from a saved file, you must not write over the partition table if you have made any changes to the disk layout by resizing, adding, moving, or deleting partitions. If you have made changes and then restore an old copy of the partition table you could lose access to all data on one or more of your partitions. If you haven't changed the partition structure in any way then and only then would it be safe to restore the entire first sector from a backup.

Unless you completely understand the low-level structure of the first sector on a disk, you would be better off using a Windows 7 installation CD to restore only the boot code in the first sector without damaging the partition table. The command is:

bootrec /FixMBR

See this article for details: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927392#method1

A low-level disk editing tool like the one in ADDH11 is very powerful but you can do a lot of damage unintentionally if you change the wrong bytes on the disk.