# Need help with SSD alignment



## fullinfusion (Oct 9, 2010)

I have noticed my SSD is not aligned to the 1024K ,its running 31K BAD

Can some one explain or walk me through the process with out loosing all my data?
Problem has been fixed with a bit of testing.

*UPDATE*

I found by just wiping and re-installing Windows 7 don't fix the problem.
There are two ways to correct the alignment, One use OCZ Sanitary Wipe, Two when doing a clean install select the disk your going install windows on and click on it. Select delete drive and restart. Now back on the same screen click on NEW and don't partition the drive, let windows do it for you, that's the key.  

I came to my conclusion on how to format the drive and to have proper alignment by trial and error and these steps work. Why a ssd becomes un-aligned is beyond me but a proper aligned drive is a difference from day to night. 

I hope this helps some having Alignment problems.

Grab Sanitary erase for Indilinx HERE 
How to use Sanitary erase click HERE
And click HERE for the rest of the info your doing to need to complete the wipe as well as the W7 32bit repair disk.
Be sure to read POST #2


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## va4leo (Oct 9, 2010)

subscribed.


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## fullinfusion (Oct 9, 2010)

I found this but I need some expert help here, also if I want to do a clean install what do I need to do to align the drive? And whats with the partition gotta do with alignment?

http://www.tuxyturvy.com/blog/index...g-Windows-Partitions-Without-Losing-Data.html


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## fullinfusion (Oct 10, 2010)

Heck with it, I grabbed sanitary erase and going to try it. Will let yall know what happens after I'm done.


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## fullinfusion (Oct 10, 2010)

OK I'm back after getting the drive aligned. For those of you SSD owners you need to run AS SSD Benchmark. You can find it for D/L on the net. That tells you if the alinement is good or bad. Im going to update everything I found shortly. But all I gotta say is.... WOW, short and sweet. I thought this ssd was fast before, Was I ever wrong! Formatting the drive don't do shit. You need to google OCZ's program called Sanitary clean. That way the drive is totally cleaned after the program is ran.

Be back with more info.


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## fullinfusion (Oct 10, 2010)

OK, point being, windows starts 7 seconds faster. Every thing starts Waaaaaay faster. When you format the drive, your leaving cells dirty. Dirty = bad..(BAD) = slow. This option brings the old SSD back to 99% speed. (Outta the box) speed.

If anyone has any questions about running The sanitary erase post them, I'll be glad to help.


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## Mussels (Oct 10, 2010)

since i have no experience with SSD's, also subscribed.


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## fullinfusion (Oct 10, 2010)

Mussels said:


> since i have no experience with SSD's, also subscribed.


Cool, Mussles. I'm going to say this, a SSD that isn't aligned isn't worth a squirt of piss. It's castrated Big time. Most don't think about it but because...* it's fast as ever hey* *over a platter drive one see's it as Flash Gorden for speed*  NOT!!! only when it's aligned that's where the big difference is! I seen a 300-500% gain in the way it's running now compared to before.


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## Hayder_Master (Oct 10, 2010)

i hope this will be useful to u

http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/f...o-use-Vista-recovery-disk&p=325221#post325221

http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/f...h-stuttering-and-increases-drive-working-life.

http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/f...you-need-to-know-in-easy-to-understand-format.


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## digibucc (Oct 10, 2010)

i don't have OCZ - I have Intel SSds.... does that matter in using sanitary erase?

I downloaded AS SSD Bench and it says I am 31k Bad as well... don't know how the hell that happens?  anyway - how to go about this?  back up data, wipe, copy data back over?

thanks full!!


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## fullinfusion (Oct 10, 2010)

digibucc said:


> i don't have OCZ - I have Intel SSds.... does that matter in using sanitary erase?
> 
> I downloaded AS SSD Bench and it says I am 31k Bad as well... don't know how the hell that happens?  anyway - how to go about this?  back up data, wipe, copy data back over?
> 
> thanks full!!


Im not sure if it matters, I think not but google it to check. The links below are what I used.

http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/content.php?267-How-to-use-Sanitary-Erase

read post #2

http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?69503-How-to-use-Sanitary-Erase

you mite wana check on Intel SSD Alignment and see what they recommend. Its Thanks giving day here tomorrow but we're having it today so with that said I'll be gone now for the day. Good luck


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## digibucc (Oct 10, 2010)

fullinfusion said:


> Im not sure if it matters, I think not but google it to check. The links below are what I used.
> 
> http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/content.php?267-How-to-use-Sanitary-Erase
> 
> ...



thanks much !  two weeks til T-day here   have a good one!


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## fullinfusion (Oct 15, 2010)

Post #1 has all that's needed to fix the problem.


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## digibucc (Oct 18, 2010)

thanks so much man 
unfortunately I got a virus today, replaced winload.exe and nothing i did could fix it - but on the bright side it gave me an excuse to do a clean install and try this out!

I didn't use sanitary erase, i just did what you said delete the drive and restart.  SSD bench now says 1034ok or whatever, and bench and boot are definitely faster...

thanks again!


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## fullinfusion (Oct 19, 2010)

digibucc said:


> thanks so much man
> unfortunately I got a virus today, replaced winload.exe and nothing i did could fix it - but on the bright side it gave me an excuse to do a clean install and try this out!
> 
> I didn't use sanitary erase, i just did what you said delete the drive and restart.  SSD bench now says 1034ok or whatever, and bench and boot are definitely faster...
> ...


I'm glad to hear your drive is aligned proper now, and hell yeah what a difference. I could hardly believe it myself the difference it made.


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## Enmity (Nov 4, 2010)

Subscribed. I'm getting my first SSD soon, will i need to follow these steps even with a brand new SSD out of the box with a clean install of Win 7 x64?


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## Zenith (Nov 4, 2010)

I have expirience with Intels. I use Win7 cd to format the disk. Or to just create partition. If installing image with Norton Ghost on that partition I get aligned WinXp or Win7 on that SSD. If installing new XpOS then I choose Quick format in XP install menu. Everything aligned. Win7 are aligned out of box.


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## fullinfusion (Nov 4, 2010)

Zenith said:


> I have expirience with Intels. I use Win7 cd to format the disk. Or to just create partition. If installing image with Norton Ghost on that partition I get aligned WinXp or Win7 on that SSD. If installing new XpOS then I choose Quick format in XP install menu. Everything aligned. Win7 are aligned out of box.


Never format a SSD drive EVER! Your going to kill it, I have studied a heap of info on the dos and donts.

Go down load OCZ's sanitary erase program and use it. formatting a ssd leaves garbage behind, sanitary erase, cleans all the cells and bring it back to outta the box condition minus the ssd's stats on times powered up and such.....

with a ssd and W7 just follow the prompts to install and dont create the partition, W7 will do it for you and it does it well. Also make sure you install your mobo's drivers for a hassle free SSD.


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## fullinfusion (Nov 5, 2010)

I love how much life this SSD has left in it!


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## Mussels (Nov 5, 2010)

thats actually a pretty useful app.


also, you suck at screenshots - use alt-print screen with TPU capture, and it caps the complete window in one go (and auto uploads it!)


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## fullinfusion (Nov 5, 2010)

Mussels said:


> thats actually a pretty useful app.
> 
> 
> also, you suck at screenshots - use alt-print screen with TPU capture, and it caps the complete window in one go (and auto uploads it!)


hehe I'm used to Vista paint, W7 paint trips me out. ... TPU capture... I haven't got the hang of it but will try asap...

But hey... Maybe I did it just to mess with ya! Looks cool though lol


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## Techtu (Nov 8, 2010)

fullinfusion said:


> I love how much life this SSD has left in it!
> 
> http://img.techpowerup.org/101104/Capturessd.png



I'm not exactly great with maths but even from what I see you have 68% life left in your SSD which equals out to be over 9 years left, surely going by those figures alone to figure out how long the drive has actually been running is something like 4+ years?

I may be way off so please someone tell me if I've got this totally wrong?



Mussels said:


> thats actually a pretty useful app.
> 
> 
> also, you suck at screenshots - use alt-print screen with TPU capture, and it caps the complete window in one go (and auto uploads it!)



I'm having a few problems with TPU Capture, goes through the saving/uploading ok but then I'm unable to see the uploaded image so therefore I have to use www.techpowerup.org to upload any images I want to use here  I've also checked firewall settings and nothing seem's set wrong there. If you don't have a quick answer I'll probably start a new thread about it as I feel bad for hijacking this post already.


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## robn (Nov 8, 2010)

Mussels said:


> also, you suck at screenshots - use alt-print screen with TPU capture, and it caps the complete window in one go (and auto uploads it!)



Or, if TPUcap isn't working at least save yourself some hassle with Snipping Tool - under accessories on the start menu! 

Interesting thread BTW


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