How do I Clone to SSD with out altering alignment

[FireChicken]

Hi,
I am running windows xp and would like to move to a vertex 3 as my OS drive. I have followed the procedure for aligning the ssd and was being lazy so i just tried cloning to the new drive but apparently cloning seems to change the alignment to the original drive.

Is there a way to clone my current drive to my pre-aligned ssd without changing the alignment of the destination drive? I am really trying to avoid a fresh install...

TIA

 

[thecoolnessrune]

You can use a paid for tool like Partition Magic. If you're not willing to spend money then you can use the lengthier free method.

Clone the data to the SSD (shrink your partition first to as small as you can fit your data in to save time). (I use GPart'd)

Burn a copy of GPart'd and boot to it after you have cloned your drive to your ssd using your preferred tool.

Move your partition so that there is 2MB at the beginning of the drive. This is to correct a bug in GPart'd where it will not expand to exactly 1MB, but it will shrink down to exactly 1MB. Make sure align to cylinders is UNCHECKED.

Now move your partition back so that there is 1MB at the beginning of the drive. You can also extend your partition to take up your remaining space now.

Now you need your Windows XP install CD and go into repair installation. Select your drive and then enter fixboot and fixmbr to repair your boot record.

You will now have an aligned clone of your original drive.

 

[Wuzup101]

I used EaseUS Todo Backup (v 3.5 - free version) to do what you are asking using the clone function. All you have to do is tick the "optimize for SSD" box and it'll take care of alignment. I didn't have to fix my MBR or anything like that (though I'm not saying that this is the norm). I simply switched my boot drive (in bios) from my old HDD raid 0 array to my new SSD raid 0 array.

 

[groberts101]

i just tried cloning to the new drive but apparently cloning seems to change the alignment to the original drive.

Is there a way to clone my current drive to my pre-aligned ssd without changing the alignment of the destination drive? I am really trying to avoid a fresh install...

TIA

doubtful that the cloning process changed anything and just carried the known issue of XP being misaligned by default through to the new SSD. As previously mentioned.. you need a utility that will actually realign that improperly aligned XP install over to the SSD.

GParted's been used for years and works fine(although rather complex in comparison to others if you're a newbie). Not sure about the other one mentioned.. but sounds feasible as many utilities are making it possible to realign a previously misaligned image. Some use Paragon's utilities to do that as well since it gives you the preferred alignment option during the config process.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

I used EaseUS Todo Backup (v 3.5 - free version) to do what you are asking using the clone function. All you have to do is tick the "optimize for SSD" box and it'll take care of alignment. I didn't have to fix my MBR or anything like that (though I'm not saying that this is the norm). I simply switched my boot drive (in bios) from my old HDD raid 0 array to my new SSD raid 0 array.

Have you checked your alignment afterwards? I used that tool when I was originally trying to migrate my Windows 7 install (that was started at sector 63) and after doing the migration I booted and checked and noticed it still started at sector 63. I had to do it all over again and thats when I just decided to do it manually with GPart'd.

 

[Wuzup101]

Have you checked your alignment afterwards? I used that tool when I was originally trying to migrate my Windows 7 install (that was started at sector 63) and after doing the migration I booted and checked and noticed it still started at sector 63. I had to do it all over again and thats when I just decided to do it manually with GPart'd.

Yes I did. I cloned the drive the first time without checking the SSD box and it was not correctly aligned. When using the SSD option it aligned correctly.

 

[FireChicken]

Thanks for all the responses.

I was using diskpar.exe to align the drive. I used acronis to clone the drive. I checked the alignment befor and after cloning with diskpar. befor it said it started at sector 2048 and after cloning 63.

I will give some of these options a shot. Im not too savy so i might try the easiest route which is prolly just pay for partiion magic.

 

[FireChicken]

I tried the easeus todo utility. It is very easy to use.

It signaficantly increased my write speeds. for 170 MB/sec to 230mb/sec max using ATTO. Not bad considering im on sata II in ide mode. Read speeds did not increase stayed at bout 240MB/sec

It used an an offset of 8.
is this a correct offset? I was trying to get an offset of 2048.

 

[groberts101]

Why on earth would you be set to ide mode?

Do the required reg changes and swap the bios settings over to AHCI mode. Better drivers.. better/more agressive caching algorithms.. NCQ support.. equals faster speed and response. Especially when the drive/system is multitasked.

Well worth the few minutes of time.

 

[kbp]

Why on earth would you be set to ide mode?

Do the required reg changes and swap the bios settings over to AHCI mode. Better drivers.. better/more agressive caching algorithms.. NCQ support.. equals faster speed and response. Especially when the drive/system is multitasked.

Well worth the few minutes of time.

+1

 

[FireChicken]

Why on earth would you be set to ide mode?

Do the required reg changes and swap the bios settings over to AHCI mode. Better drivers.. better/more agressive caching algorithms.. NCQ support.. equals faster speed and response. Especially when the drive/system is multitasked.

Well worth the few minutes of time.

i would love to if I knew how, with out doing a reinstall. My googling tells me this might be a little over my head at least for xp.

was reading this

http://blog.mytwocents.it/?p=11 and this http://www.blah-blah.ch/it/how-to-s/enable-ahci/

two very different methods, which one is the right way

 

[Old Hippie]

Bummer!

All those nice components and you're running XP?

Here's a third method.....I slipstreamed the SATA drivers into a new XP install disk.

Easy Peasy and you can use it over and over.

Good Luck!