Been told to create an 1mb unallocated at start of SSD?

martin57

Hi folks,


Ordered an SSD and want to have an idea of how to set it up when it arrives hence the following question.


I have a few windows 7 installations on my present HDD so will be partitioning the SSD into probably four different partitions. Is it ok to book into my present windows and use disk management to partition the SSD when its installed?


I have been told that I should leave a 1mb unallocated space at start of SSD for disk alignment purposes it seems, Can I do this when I am partitioning the SSD using windows 7 disk management?


Intend then to install my acronis images onto SSD.


Wonder if this is the right way to go about things?


Thanks for any advice.
martin57

wongataa

martin57 wrote: »

Hi folks,


Ordered an SSD and want to have an idea of how to set it up when it arrives hence the following question.


I have a few windows 7 installations on my present HDD

Why?

martin57 wrote: »

so will be partitioning the SSD into probably four different partitions. Is it ok to book into my present windows and use disk management to partition the SSD when its installed?

SSDs aren't that big, unless spending a lot, so you may run out of space doing this. Windows Disk Management is perfectly capable of doing it. In general it is best to have one partition per physical disk though. It is faster (certainly for traditional disks) and if there is a disk failure only one partition is lost.

martin57 wrote: »

I have been told that I should leave a 1mb unallocated space at start of SSD for disk alignment purposes it seems, Can I do this when I am partitioning the SSD using windows 7 disk management?

I have never heard this or done it. There is no need to do it. If you haven't carried out a clean install of Windows 7 or later on a SSD then you need to turn on the SSD features such as TRIM and turn of the auto defragging of the disk. That is all you need to do with a SSD. If you do a clean install then this is done for you during installation.

kwikbreaks

I've heard of aligning SSD partitions but not by that method. I don't recall what I used to clone my disks but I do remember an offer to align them in the process which I probably took.

I did a quick search and found this..

http://lifehacker.com/5837769/make-sure-your-partitions-are-correctly-aligned-for-optimal-solid-state-drive-performance

It may well all be moonshine.

Cycrow

The small partition at the beginning is used by Windows for the boot manager and the bitlocker drive encryption.

you dont need to create this however, as windows will do it automatically for you when you install.

if you need to split the drive into different partitions, then its best to do it during install, rather than manually do it first

kwikbreaks

Cycrow wrote: »

The small partition at the beginning is used by Windows for the boot manager and the bitlocker drive encryption.

That one is significantly bigger than 1MB though. Just checked and mine seems to be 260MB.

poppy10_2

Cycrow wrote: »

if you need to split the drive into different partitions, then its best to do it during install, rather than manually do it first

This is very good advice. Windows 7 or above will automatically create the partitions in the correct manner, including any recovery partitions and alignment that needs to be dealt with. Just delete any existing partitions when it asks where to install to, and select the whole disk - Windows will deal with it all from there

AlicePhoebe

you can create a partition to fit your need with windows, and windows 7 makes partitions with good aligning for ssd, if you are not doing fresh Windows installs on the SSD just cloning the installs from HDD, you can adjust partition sizes during the clone setup/process. resize or adjust partition, this tool maybe help http://www.partition-tool.com/resource/resize-partition-windows-7.htm