Single magnetic drives aren't affected by this offset issue--only SSDs, or any magnetic drive that uses the new 4096-byte sectors but uses 512-byte emulation for legacy systems, like the newest WD drives that feature what they market as "Advanced Format technology".
but not my 18 month old Raptor... how can you tell other then knowing what you bought?
Striped arrays are also impacted, even with magnetic drives, but for a different technical reason. Make sure you're dividing by 4096, not 4024 like in your example.
I don't know where I got that from ... but I did it right on the SSD though w
> -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] [mailto:hardware- > [email protected]] On Behalf Of Winterlight > Sent: Sunday, April 04, 2010 3:44 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [H] OS on RAID 0 ?? > > OK, Greg, now that I have had some sleep I read over this again. I > checked my drives and my SSD offset is indeed evenly divisible by > 4096. I have ordered the second SSD and will flash them both to 1.5 > then I will RAID 0, format with Windows 7 install, Restore with > Acronis at VOLUME setting and set the BIOS to boot from the RAID, > remove or hide the old primary active partition. and boot to windows. > > Will Acronis set the new RAID 0 to active when it restores at VOLUME > ? Or will Windows do this when preparing for install. If not, how do > I accomplish this without using DOS tools or partitioning software. > > I also checked my other magnetic hard drives and they are not evenly > divisible by 4096. For example, my boot drive is a primary active > partition of 50GB on a 300GB Raptor. There are three other logicals of > D my old Vista = 40GB > E Programs = 92.8 > F the rest > > The primary active partition has an offset of 53924935680 /4024 = > 13400828.95 > > The other magnetic drive partitions also do not come out even. Does > that mean they are all seriously performance degraded? My only > solution being to wipe them and reparation with Windows 7 Drive > Manager? > > thanks > w > > > At 11:28 PM 4/3/2010, you wrote: > >Which SSD? > > > >Your process appears mostly correct, but you do need to consider > alignment. > >Acronis, like versions of Windows prior to Vista, uses a 63-sector > offset > >when creating partitions. That works well and good when you have a > magnetic > >drive with 512-byte sectors as the absolute unit of drive interaction, > but > >is very bad when you use a SSD or one of the new WD > >4K-sector-with-512b-emulation drives. Without going into a great > amount of > >detail, you want your partitions to be aligned to a multiple of 4096 > bytes > >(4K), rather than the 63 sectors x 512 bytes = 31.5K that Windows XP > and > >earlier and Acronis use. Otherwise, you can drastically reduce > performance > >of the drive. > > > >Acronis actually maintains alignment in a few unique circumstances, > but > >usually it resets the partitions to use its outdated standard. The > best way > >to ensure your alignment is correct is to use Windows Vista or Windows > 7 to > >create your actual partitions on the drive, and then use Acronis in > volume > >(as opposed to whole-disk) mode and restore your backup's data into > those > >volumes. You can also use the Vista/W7 installation media to do this-- > simply > >boot to the disc or USB drive, and continue with the installation to > the > >disk management page. Create your partitions here and you will be > properly > >aligned. Close the installer at this screen after creating your > >partitions--if you click next, it will go ahead and install Windows. > > > >To check your alignment, run msinfo32.exe. > >Components, Storage, Disks. The Partition Starting Offset (in bytes) > for > >each partition on your boot drive should be evenly divisible by 4096. > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > > From: [email protected] [mailto:hardware- > > > [email protected]] On Behalf Of Winterlight > > > Sent: Saturday, April 03, 2010 6:59 PM > > > To: [email protected] > > > Subject: [H] OS on RAID 0 ?? > > > > > > I have very little experience with RAID as I never found it useful > > > for my needs. But now I do think I have a use for it. > > > > > > Last Dec I picked up a 30GB SSD for 100 bucks, mostly just to play > > > around with it, as 30GB isn't big enough for windows 7 OS. I have > my > > > pagefile on it and I will run whatever game I am playing for faster > > > load times. It is OK, although I haven't had the spectacular > > > experience that I have read about from others. The biggest thing > that > > > I noticed is that I was able to tell VMWare to swap out all the > > > memory and use as little physical memory as possible, which freed > up > > > lots of physical RAM and VM performance actually improved. > > > > > > Today I see my exact SSD on sale and I am thinking about buying it > > > and then RAID 0 with the existing one which should now be big > enough > > > = 60GB to run windows 7 from. Right now I have a Raptor, with one > > > primary active as the Win7 system drive, and then three logicals > for > > > various other things. All other drives are partitioned as one big > > > logical. I have one more SATA port available to put the SSD on. > > > > > > First I would use Acronis to backup the existing active primary > with > > > Win7 on it. > > > > > > Then I would have to set up the RAID 0 with the two identical SSDs. > > > > > > At that point I could delete the active primary partition on the > > > Raptor, and set the bios up to boot from the RAID 0 SSDs > > > > > > Restore the system to the SSD > > > > > > And then boot up into windows 7. > > > > > > Do I have the process right? Would this work ? It is not a > > > problamatic setup is it? Can I have the OS and boot drive entirely > on a > > > RAID 0. > > > > > > thanks > > > > > > w
