x64 disk partition aligment and geometry?

[AdamWu]

I am installing Windows 7 onto my newly purchased X64, on a pretty aged laptop (centrino generation). Windows 7 did recognize that i am installing on an SSD, so it uses 1MB alignment for the partition. But the first partition being 1MB away from the beginning of the disk is way too large for my motherboard, making it hang at post (think of it like a caveman can't count to 10... LOL).

 

So, I manually aligned my partition with a PTEDIT32 and calculator. From the RAID guide, it seems like the flash block is 128K bytes large. So I manually created two partitiones, all aligned to 128K boundary. The first partition is now only 128K from the beginning of the disk, and my motherboard seem to like it. :P

 

However, I have a question: PTEDIT reports the disk has 7783 cylendars, and the geometry is 255 heads/cylendar, and 63 sectors/head. However, if you do the math, 7783 * 255 * 63 * 512B/sector, the totaly size of the disk is not a multiple of 128K! How is this possible? Did PTEDIT missed something?

[Davyc]

This is very strange - normally Windows 7 will do everything for you automatically with regards to partition alignment. When left to it's own devices it will created two partitions - 1 x 100MB for system files and the remainder in the other partition for you to install Windows and your programs on.

 

Have you tried running DISKPART.EXE which you can get to by inserting your Windows 7 disc .... get past the screen where you select your language and then choose Repair Your Computer .... goto the Command Prompt option and then type in DISKPART.

 

From there you can select the disk to work on, clean it (ie destroy all partitions and reset all NAND Cells to 0), create and align your partition and then reinstall windows without any need to do anything else.

 

Google Diskpart for more info on how to use it and how it works .... hope this helps :)

[RAM GUY]

However, I have a question: PTEDIT reports the disk has 7783 cylendars, and the geometry is 255 heads/cylendar, and 63 sectors/head. However, if you do the math, 7783 * 255 * 63 * 512B/sector, the totaly size of the disk is not a multiple of 128K! How is this possible? Did PTEDIT missed something?

 

A: Yes it did there are no Cylinders and Heads in an SSD Drive so it is translating the drive as if it were a normal HDD. I would suggest following what Davyc suggested.

[techspec6]

I am installing Windows 7 onto my newly purchased X64, on a pretty aged laptop (centrino generation). Windows 7 did recognize that i am installing on an SSD, so it uses 1MB alignment for the partition. But the first partition being 1MB away from the beginning of the disk is way too large for my motherboard, making it hang at post (think of it like a caveman can't count to 10... LOL).

 

So, I manually aligned my partition with a PTEDIT32 and calculator. From the RAID guide, it seems like the flash block is 128K bytes large. So I manually created two partitiones, all aligned to 128K boundary. The first partition is now only 128K from the beginning of the disk, and my motherboard seem to like it. :P

 

However, I have a question: PTEDIT reports the disk has 7783 cylendars, and the geometry is 255 heads/cylendar, and 63 sectors/head. However, if you do the math, 7783 * 255 * 63 * 512B/sector, the totaly size of the disk is not a multiple of 128K! How is this possible? Did PTEDIT missed something?

 

Hello Adam,

 

I've heard of others with a similiar problem that you're having with getting the disk aligned and not getting the OS NOT FOUND error or whatever it is. If you've manually partitioned the drive and it's got an aligned offset, you should simply enjoy the drive. Don't worry about what PTEDIT reports, because as the others have said, it's getting it's numbers from the bios and is only meant for compatibility. I'd suggest imaging that drive so you don't have to go through the manual partition process again. It's a pain...

 

Jason