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trparky
Premium Member
join:2000-05-24
Cleveland, OH
·AT&T U-Verse

trparky to FizzyMyNizzy

Premium Member

to FizzyMyNizzy

Re: Suggestion on a decently priced 256 GB SSD?

Ok...

FizzyMyNizzy
join:2004-05-29
New York, NY

FizzyMyNizzy

Member

Odd... did you format it funny? and AHCI on?

You should be getting these result:


Did you do a full format? or was it quick? Also, did you use some kind of back up software? clone software?

trparky
Premium Member
join:2000-05-24
Cleveland, OH

trparky

Premium Member

Yes, AHCI is enabled on the controller. No, I didn't format it weird.

FizzyMyNizzy
join:2004-05-29
New York, NY

FizzyMyNizzy

Member

said by trparky:

Yes, AHCI is enabled on the controller. No, I didn't format it weird.

Next try this: »whirlpool.net.au/wiki/ch ··· lignment
quote:
Checking SSD Partition Alignment

To check the alignment of your SSD's partition, it is quite simple.

In windows 7, run msinfo32 by typing it into the search box on your start menu and hitting enter.

click on: components => storage => disks

Look for your SSD and check the partition starting offset.

It needs to be divisible by 4096 (ie return a whole number when you divide by this) otherwise the alignment is not correct.
exp:


59914579968 / 4096 = 14627583
60019437568 / 4096 = 14653183
Since it is a whole number. The alignment is right.

trparky
Premium Member
join:2000-05-24
Cleveland, OH

1 edit

trparky

Premium Member

Partition Starting Offset 1,048,576 bytes
1,048,576 / 4,096 = 256
trparky

trparky

Premium Member

Size 223.57 GB (240,054,796,800 bytes)
58607128.125

FizzyMyNizzy
join:2004-05-29
New York, NY

1 edit

FizzyMyNizzy

Member

said by trparky:

Size 223.57 GB (240,054,796,800 bytes)
58607128.125

I wonder does koitsu knows how to fix alignment for ssd.

The way i know how to do it was to use ultimate boot cd, doing a hot swap, to do a low level format.
»www.ultimatebootcd.com/
HDDerase, secure erase, then low level format. Should be an youtube video... oh and try at you own risk.

And yea your ssd could be super faster. Just your alignment is wrong.

»lifehacker.com/5837769/m ··· formance
i'm not sure can windows full format fix it.

trparky
Premium Member
join:2000-05-24
Cleveland, OH
·AT&T U-Verse

trparky

Premium Member

Click for full size
According to this program, it's aligned.
trparky

trparky

Premium Member

The only thing that I can think of is that the SATA controller is crappy. It's a Marvell 9123 on-board SATA3 controller that's on my ASUS P6X58D Premium motherboard.

The driver is from 3/17/2010, the version is 1.0.0.1036, the Digital Signer is Microsoft Windows Hardware Compatibility Publisher, and the manufacturer is Marvell Inc.

FizzyMyNizzy
join:2004-05-29
New York, NY

FizzyMyNizzy

Member

Did you use full format using windows?

trparky
Premium Member
join:2000-05-24
Cleveland, OH
·AT&T U-Verse

trparky

Premium Member

Yes, I did. The first format I did ended up being bad but that's a funny story. I first installed Windows on the SSD with my HDDs plugged in, big mistake. It ended up putting the boot loader on another disk which resulted in my SSD being unbootable.

So, I pulled the HDD power wires and then reinstalled Windows but before I did that I made sure to delete the existing partition so as to make it so that Windows saw the drive as uninitialized (no partition on the drive). I then told it to install to the free space. And here I am.

FizzyMyNizzy
join:2004-05-29
New York, NY

FizzyMyNizzy

Member

Because msinfo32 is telling us your ssd alignment isnt right. Atto is telling us the speed isnt up to where it should be.

Up to you do you want to follow lifehacker site using gpart.

trparky
Premium Member
join:2000-05-24
Cleveland, OH

trparky

Premium Member

Then why would the Acronis tool be saying that it's aligned right?
trparky

trparky

Premium Member


What is going on here?
What is going on here? Why that 100 MB of space at the beginning of the drive?

FizzyMyNizzy
join:2004-05-29
New York, NY

FizzyMyNizzy

Member

That 100mb is normal. M$ system reserved

trparky
Premium Member
join:2000-05-24
Cleveland, OH
·AT&T U-Verse

trparky

Premium Member

Click for full size
I also checked some other things too.
trparky

trparky

Premium Member

C:\Users\Tom>wmic partition get BlockSize, StartingOffset, Name, Index
BlockSize Index Name StartingOffset
512 0 Disk #0, Partition #0 1048576
512 1 Disk #0, Partition #1 105906176
512 2 Disk #0, Partition #2 524289048576
512 0 Disk #1, Partition #0 1048576
512 0 Disk #2, Partition #0 1048576
512 0 Disk #3, Partition #0 1048576
512 1 Disk #3, Partition #1 105906176
512 0 Disk #4, Partition #0 0
trparky

trparky

Premium Member

1,048,576 / 4,096 = 256
105,906,176 / 4,096 = 25856

FizzyMyNizzy
join:2004-05-29
New York, NY

FizzyMyNizzy to trparky

Member

to trparky
said by trparky:

Size 223.57 GB (240,054,796,800 bytes)
58607128.125

This number here is telling us it isnt align right. Up to you if you want to follow lifehacker site. Hopefully it will fix it and you get back you speed.

trparky
Premium Member
join:2000-05-24
Cleveland, OH

trparky

Premium Member

Then why all the other conflicting data?
trparky

trparky

Premium Member

What scares me about doing the tutorial on LifeHacker is that it makes no mention about how to handle the 100 MB empty boot partition. I'm afraid I'm going to f**k something up if I follow that.

Some forum said to use a product called AOMEI Partition Assistant Home Edition to align the partitions but I can't find the function in the program.
trparky

trparky

Premium Member

And another program telling me that the partition is aligned properly.

You're telling me one thing, these programs are telling me another. Who am I to believe?!?!

FizzyMyNizzy
join:2004-05-29
New York, NY

FizzyMyNizzy

Member

Maybe we should leave it alone. If it isnt broken dont fix it. =D

trparky
Premium Member
join:2000-05-24
Cleveland, OH

trparky

Premium Member

Unless it's my SATA controller that sucks.
trparky

trparky

Premium Member

I updated the drivers for the SATA card, no change.

I have to wonder if the Marvel SATA controller onboard the motherboard just plain sucks.

Octavean
MVM
join:2001-03-31
New York, NY

Octavean to trparky

MVM

to trparky
Techpowerup has an SSD Alignment Calculator

»www.techpowerup.com/arti ··· ther/157

Not sure it will be of any use to you though. And yes Marvell controllers tend to be somewhat lackluster.

trparky
Premium Member
join:2000-05-24
Cleveland, OH

trparky

Premium Member

Any suggestions on a decent SATA 6 controller?

sk1939
Premium Member
join:2010-10-23
Frederick, MD

sk1939

Premium Member

Price range?

Octavean
MVM
join:2001-03-31
New York, NY

Octavean to trparky

MVM

to trparky
said by trparky:

Any suggestions on a decent SATA 6 controller?

No not really,…..

I have been looking at the HighPoint RocketRaid 2720SGL for my own use for a while now:

»www.newegg.com/Product/P ··· 02720SGL

which would require a SFF-8087 mini-SAS to SATA breakout cable:

»www.newegg.com/Product/P ··· 16151081

This may be more then you need though.

In fact I don’t necessarily think you should view this as something that needs to be fixed unless you really see a performance deficit in everyday use. In other words, if you see and feel the benefits of the speed that a typical SSD provides over a HDD then perhaps you should just leave it be until you update your platform.

trparky
Premium Member
join:2000-05-24
Cleveland, OH
·AT&T U-Verse

trparky

Premium Member

said by Octavean:

In fact I don't necessarily think you should view this as something that needs to be fixed unless you really see a performance deficit in everyday use. In other words, if you see and feel the benefits of the speed that a typical SSD provides over a HDD then perhaps you should just leave it be until you update your platform.

Well... now that I think about it, you may be right.

The machine is the fastest I've ever seen this machine perform. It boots up in nothing flat according to what it took on the old-school spinning HDD.

I used to dread rebooting the machine since it would take nearly 30 seconds to go from BIOS to the Windows Log-In Screen. Then, once I put my password in it would take nearly two minutes to load all of my start-up applications and then another minute for Input/Output levels to come down to the point where I could actually use the computer. If I didn't wait for I/O levels to come down, asking the computer to load any programs would be like asking a tiger not to look at you without licking its lips.

Now... from BIOS to Windows Log-In Screen is about ten to fifteen seconds. After I put my password in it takes about five seconds to load all of my start-up applications and then another two seconds for Input/Output levels to come down.

To say that there was a major improvement in performance between the HDD and the SSD would be the understatement of the year. Easily a 1000% improvement in performance and I/O bandwidth.