SSD alignment questions
I know if I do a fresh install of window, or restore from my Lenovo DVD’s I made that the SSD will be aligned correctly.
If I make a backup of the correctly aligned SSD using Acronis 2011 Home, and used it to restore the SSD at a later date will it still be aligned correctly?
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But I did restore(s) today, and it didn't retain the alignment! And I tried restoring just the c: partition as well as the whole drive (MBR, small 100MB Win7 active & primary partition, and my c: partition).
In the end I had to do it manually, and copy files across from the mounted tib (Windows booted off another drive), and then use my WIn7 boot disk to repair the install. Crazy! And of course, all the clever software that hid its license files had to be reactivated. I may as well boot off a live distro and zip/7z it.
Win7 64 bit, OCZ Agility 3 SSD
Henry
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I use SSDs myself I have never had an issue with alignment. In general:
- restoring an aligned image to the same disk as a whole disk restore (clicking all partitions and MBR+track0 in what to restore) will create an exact copy of the disk and. therefore, will be aligned,
- restoring a misaligned image to the same disk as a whole disk will result in a misaligned image,
- restoring an aligned image to a different disk as a whole disk will force ATI to do some automatic size adjustments and misaligned some partitions, potentially (you just don't control what ATI will do).
In any case, in doubt, restoring one partition after the other will force ATI to show you how it intends to lay out the restored partition and allow you to ensure that:
- you have 1MB offset for the first partition,
- you have each partition sized as a whole number of MB, so that each partition after the first one is sill starting on a whole number MB offset.
When you restore manually, don't forget to mark the right partition active, to restore the MBR+track0 at the end, and to restore the disk signature.
The manual process is a sure thing in my book. You went the hard way with file restores and repair. Hopefully your system is functional.
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All seems well now, and thank you for the advice. Had I only restored the MBR and small active partition first, I suspect I could have corrected things eg via GParted.
Per a chat with an Acronis tech, Home v11, which I have, may not deal with alignment correctly, although I am still a bit bemused as to how, on a sector-by-sector restore, it could go wrong - if every sector is put back exactly where it came from how could the end result be different (rhetorical). Que sera. Maybe I screwed up somewhere, or perhaps there was some (minor) corruption in the image; it has happened on the odd occasions over the years, but normally it then fails to restore.
But at least I have learned how I can rescue things if all goes wrong. Using my manual, but very tedious method, I can/could use any image, aligned or not, and end up with a successful result. I would prefer the normal Acronis 6 minutes and all is well solution though. Aren't SSD's the bees knees!
Even so, I will upgrade to 2012 as the, and my, future is SSD.
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Wait! if you have v11, not 2011, it is a different story... v11 precedes 2009, 2010 and 2011.
If you upgrade to 2012, make sure you have backup of your system prior to the installation. 2012 is hard to get rid of. Having a backup will be useful if you want to go back to v11.
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I have now upgraded to Home 2012, but prior to that I tested my last image by recovering the c: partition using v11 and the alignment was preserved. I suspect that if I did the whole shebang it would go wrong again, but I was not brave enough to try.
2012 reminds me why I haven't upgraded before! Why take a product that is not suited, IMO, for the average user, and then dumb down the interface - everything becomes so much more difficult to access and configure. I, sort of, know what I am doing else I would not dare to use a product like Trueimage. Still I shouldn't have to upgrade for another 3 or so years which is some comfort.
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h g,
It would probably make the transition to 2012 easier if you were to do some research before using.
Make sure your type backup is one that includes all partitions as shown in this next link in figures 5 & 6.
http://forum.acronis.com/forum/28705
Check out the restore options in this link as well.
http://forum.acronis.com/forum/29803
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Thank you for the links; there is always something new to learn.
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