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As I understand it, for SSD it's important to have partitions starting at the proper offset (i.e. correctly aligned). How can I check this offset under Windows Vista?

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6 Answers

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Just run "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\MSInfo.exe", go to "Components > Storage > Disks" and find "Partition Starting Offset". It will be in bytes, divide the number by 512 to convert into sectors. On my SSD it is 1Mb (1 048 576 bytes), but as far as i know, 128k is enough.

On x64 you need to run msinfo32

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On my Windows 7 x64 system it is C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\MSInfo\msinfo32.exe – peter_mcc Dec 21 '11 at 21:53
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You are right, but it does not work like that on Windows XP. There you can use diskpart:

diskpart -i (number of your ssd)

And you'll get geometry information and disk partition information.

I hope this helps.

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up vote 2 down vote

I use the Paragon Alignment Tool, which comes with Paragon products, or can be bought seperately.

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In Windows XP:

> diskpart -i <disk number>

should show HiddenSectors divisible by 64 and StartingOffest divisible by 32768

In Vista: 

> E:\Home>wmic partition get BlockSize, StartingOffset, Name, Index
BlockSize Index Name StartingOffset
512 0 Disk #1, Partition #0 1048576
512 1 Disk #1, Partition #1 53688139776
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diskpart doesn't seem to work that way in WinXP. can you give more details? – quack quixote Apr 23 '10 at 14:53
I had to do a convoluted series of commands on WinXP: diskpart > select disk 1 > list partition Result: <blockquote> DISKPART> list partition Partition ### Type Size Offset ------------- ---------------- ------- ------- * Partition 1 Primary 49 GB 32 KB Partition 2 Extended 883 GB 49 GB Partition 3 Logical 883 GB 49 GB</blockquote> – Syclone0044 Nov 9 '11 at 19:50
up vote 0 down vote

Per OCZ

Windows Vista aligns partitions by default correctly

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Question asked how to check alignment, not if it does. – Mxx Dec 23 '12 at 6:35
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To check alignment, start "wmic" with admin rights, and enter command "partition get BlockSize, StartingOffset, Name, Index"

(wmic is available in Win7, possibly Vista)

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