SSD partition-alignment

[RottenToTheCore]

Hello,

i finally got an SSD, a Samsung Pro Series 850.
I arrived in the 21. century .

Wanna go for the setup at monday or so .

Some internet sources tell, that Win 7 automatically aligns the partitions for optimal use. Others tell, the manual alignment is the better way to go.

I of course want an SSD that "lives long and prosper" , and which has the optimal setup for the highest speed possible.

Any tips? Can i just go the normal way via Win 7 setup? Is that enough?


Greetz from Rotten

[EmanReleipS]

Hey Rotti!

I have the 840 EVO. In my case I just let Windows 7 do its thing and it seems to run smoothly and very fast.
Does your SSD come with the Samsung Magician Software as well? Cause that one includes some stuff to optimize your SSD performance and something called "Rapid Mode". My Magician software claims that the rapid mode is also available for the 850 Pro series.

[Steinein]

Congrats, you'll love it Rotty and then hate it when you have to use pc's without a SSD.

As far as I know, performing a fresh windows 7 install sets up the correct alignment for your ssd partitions. I have a Samsung 840 EVO and it aligned them properly for me, you can check if it did with this: http://tinyurl.com/7znpuhu

Samsung Magician is indeed a nice program for fine tuning your SSD, it supports your SSD too.

Gr Stein

[RottenToTheCore]

Hey, happy Halloween

thanks for the tips .

As i never installed Win 7 while a functioning Win 7 was on another HDD, i have one more question regarding the order:

1. Deplug HDD
2. Plug in SSD at SATA_0
3. Install Win 7 on SSD, make sure AHCI is on,
4. Boot first time on SSD, make some settings
5. Shutdown
6. Plugin HDD, reboot
7. Format the two partitions on HDD with partition management in Win 7 (C: system D: data).

Is that right, will only SSD boot, or will PC try to boot from SSD or HDD with a bootlist then?
That's what i don't want . Only want the SSD to boot.

Didn't check for this magician prog yet, will see if it's included when i plug it in first time

Greetings
Rotten

[Gollum~*B*~AF]

..and for MacNubs using [not Apple supported] SSDs ---> use http://www.cindori.org/software/trimenabler/

[Droopy_Bollocks]

Hey Rotti

The only real way to install Windows on an SSD is to boot from a USB Win7 stick, do not boot from a previous HDD and then install to the SSD (Win7 in place installations get all weird)

Set your BIOS to boot from the SSD, install from the USB stick and let Win 7 manage the partitions.

One important thing to do is to make sure that most of your software is installed to the HDD, you really don't want most software accessing the SSD all of the time, windows will use a pagefile on the SSD and the registry is there so that is all really, any legitimate Windows software will run from the HDD (Make yourself a program directory) and this will keep your read-write cycles to a minimum.

Obviously NEVER defrag an SSD for any reason, nor defrag the registry either, counterproductive on an SSD as is any utility claiming to increase the TRIM frequency (Windows manages that reasonably well)

Don't be tempted to install games on the SSD either, you'll gain very little performance that way whilst increasing R/W cycles on it massively.

Other than that, keep the install clean and fast, pick a decent lightweight antivirus (so avoid Kapersky, Norton etc) and you'll find windows can fly.

DB

[RottenToTheCore]

Hey Droops,

thanks for the tips! I will look, if all of my sys is SSD-ready .

Now already reinstalled; i didn't boot from HDD, i unplugged my HDD while installing on SSD.

Which was costing many of my nerves, because i didn't know of the UEFI-Bios-specific new entry in the Bios which says "Windows Boot Manager".
I couldn't boot anything although i had a clean install of Win 7 on SSD - didnt set up the boot order properly.
"It's not a bug, it's a feature"... that in UEFI in combination with Win 7 you can#t have your SSD on boot position #1.
It's now like #1 Windows Boot Manager #2 SSD #3DVD.

Dafuq.

I installed UT2004 on SSD ( just because fuck the traffic in case of UT2004, that's why! ) - it shouldn't produce much "traffic" on my SSD,
with the exception when i DL some files into the cache, right?

For AV i got Avira Free.

ATM my Win is ready to go from power button to "all loaded in the tray" in 18 seconds which is perfectly fine for me
(will rise, as i don't have much stuff on it yet.)

Greetz

EDIT: The best "WTF"-moment for a HDD user was by the way the moment at the windows install, after windows was "Expanding windows files".
With HDD the next point "Installing..." and "Finishing installation..." took 10 mins more. My SSD did this in 10 secs . The question is - why? It should only be 5 times faster, not 60^^.

[Droopy_Bollocks]

No worries Rotti, glad you got it all sorted.

One thing, unless you're using any other OS's that need UEFI then disable it completely.

WIn 7 doesn't need it, nor linux, I have to because of the OSX install I keep as a spare bit it's a pain in the arse purely invented to stop some machines have older OS's installed.

UT doesn't R/W to the hard drive too much but definitely don't install any newer games on there, BF4 for instance does massive amounts, it's always better to increase your RAM to silly levels and let the games take advantage of that instead.

Always good to make sure you have any firmware updates installed for the SSD too.

Avira is an excellent AV, I've used it for years and it's footprint is nice and low, always a good idea to shift your documents and download folders to the HDD as well, windows is quite happy to do that.

Other than that 18secs isn't bad at all, go through your BIOS and disable any things you don't need (floppy, serial and parallel ports, legacy USB that sort of thing) and you'll probably shave you boot time even more.

The record I've had for my SSD is booting a copy of Puppy Linux, sits in a 1GB partition and boots to a XFCE desktop in a touch under 4 seconds, then again it is less than 400mb all in ;-)

DB

[RottenToTheCore]

Hey Droops,

always had my DL-folder on drive D:, and all other data is there too.

Sure, the benefit of SSD when you play UT is very low, but it is noticable; one example is the saving of a screenshot, which does not produce a short lag now anymore, the startup time for the game etc. As UT is the only game i really play, i try to get everything out of it .

Firmware is up to date, as the drive is a very new model.

Man guys, thank you for the load of tips.

Hardware section on CEONSS-Forums, anyone?

Greetz

[Droopy_Bollocks]

Yeah I think a hardware section might be useful!

Many people are really frightened about building or modifying their own PC, mainly due the lack of available help.

I'm always happy to help in any way I can.

So now you've got a faster setup, I've got even less chance of landing a shot on you in game!

DB