Nowadays, when buying a computer, many people have a question: a PC with which drive is better to buy, HDD or SSD. To answer this question, you first need to understand what the main difference between an SSD and an HDD is. HDD hard drives appeared back in the seventies and are still used today in millions of computers. Basic principle work hard HDD is in writing and reading information on special magnetic plates. Reading recording is done using the head movement lever, and the magnetic disks at this time they rotate at very high speeds. Due to the mechanical component hard drive HDD and write and read speeds are inferior to SSD solid state drives.

How does an SSD drive work? built on recording and reading information from special high-speed memory chips included in its composition. The very speed of writing and reading information from an SSD is several times higher than that of an HDD. In addition, thanks to the microcircuit design, the SSD is less susceptible to damage from impacts and falls, and also has miniature form factors that allow it to be installed in tablets and ultrabooks. Main disadvantages solid state drives are price and life cycle . But progress does not stand still, so we can already see how the price of SSDs is gradually falling, and their rewriting cycle is increasing. In this article we will look at all aspects of working with a solid-state drive and describe their characteristics, so if you decide to switch from an HDD to an SSD, then this article will be very useful for you. In addition, we will look at problems when the BIOS does not see the SSD and many others.

What types of SSD drives exist and which one is better?

When choosing a solid state drive first of all you should pay attention to its form factor and Various types interfaces, through which they connect to the PC. The most common form factor, as with hard HDD drive, is a 2.5-inch case form factor. This solid state drive can be found in many laptops and personal computers. Below is a list that lists all the types of form factors available in SSDs today:

• Form factor type 2.5 inches;
• mSATA form factor type;
• Form factor type M.2.

Below is a picture of 2.5-inch solid-state drives, which is the most common and familiar to many users.

The drives listed above are quite popular models and are labeled as follows: GOODRAM CX200 240 GB, Kingston HyperX FURY SHFS37A/120G and Samsung 850 EVO MZ-75E250B. Such drives are connected using a standard SATA interface, which is used on most computers.

The second type of mSATA device, presented below, has been used mainly in laptop computers since 2009.

It is extremely rare to see mSATA on desktop motherboards, but it is not uncommon in ultrabooks and tablets.

The third form factor M.2 represents a new development that should replace mSATA devices. Below is a picture showing an M.2 disk from Samsung.

We've sorted out the formats of solid-state drives, now let's try to figure out the type of memory used in them. Nowadays you can find devices with SLC, MLC and TLC types of NAND memory on sale. The table below shows the memory characteristics relative to NAND chips.

From the characteristics of the table it can be seen that disks built on SLC chips have 90,000 - 100,000 rewrite cycles. It follows from this that such discs will last longer. But buying an SLC drive nowadays is a very expensive pleasure, so most users prefer MLC and TLC drives. To give our readers an idea of ​​the lifespan of an SSD, we have prepared a table that describes it.

It is noticeable from the table that we took as a basis the cheapest drive with TLC memory chips. The formula shows that our SSD goes through one rewrite cycle per day, and this is not so little. For example, a PC user can rewrite much less information, 120 GB per day. But even under such unforgiving conditions, this disk is capable of working for 8 or 13.5 years.

Below is a table for a drive with SLC, MLC memory chips.

Of course, the user can use more rewrite cycles per day, but then the table indicators will be different. For example, if you rewrite an SSD on MLC memory chips 10 times a day, then the life cycle of this disk will be 7.5 years. Judge for yourself, with a 10-fold rewrite on this disk, you need to rewrite 1200 GB of information per day, which is quite a considerable amount.

Based on the information described above, an SSD with TLC memory chips is quite enough for the average PC user.

We solve problems by upgrading old SSDs

In all new SSD drives built-in a special subroutine that removes garbage as it becomes full. This garbage removal mechanism is needed to maintain SDD performance. Solid state drives have been on the market for quite some time. In older versions of SSDs, some models do not have a mechanism to protect against garbage cleaning, as a result write speed on such disks drops noticeably. This problem can be solved by completely erasing the information on the disk and subsequently rewriting Windows installations. In order not to reinstall Windows or split new partitions on the disk, below we will describe a method that preserves the previous state of the system.

First of all, you need to download the image from http://clonezilla.org Clonezilla, which will help us save all partitions. You can also use other means of system cloning and recovery. The process of creating a system image using Clonezilla It is simple and can be handled by both an experienced user and a beginner. After creating a full backup, you can start cleaning the disk. For this we need an image Linux Parted Magic and utility UNetbootin. You can download this software from the following sites: https://partedmagic.com And http://unetbootin.github.io. Using the utility UNetbootin you can write our image to a flash drive, creating from it boot drive. After creation bootable flash drive you can boot from it.

Now on the desktop we will find the program “ Erase Disk" and let's launch it.

In the program window that opens, find the item “ Internal Secure Erase" and click on it. After this, a window should open asking you to select your SSD. Having selected the required disk, the overwriting process will begin. After cleaning, restore the system using Clonezilla. The restored Windows should function as if you had a new SSD.

With the help Linux Parted Magic the user can split and create new partitions on the SSD. You can partition and create a partition on a solid-state drive in the same way as on an HDD hard drive.

We solve problems with performance, BIOS and SSD firmware

The most common problem malfunction, or when the computer does not see the SDD, is old version microcode Motherboard BIOS boards. You can update the BIOS on any released motherboard. Most often, the problem with SSDs occurs with older versions of motherboards with a new UEFI BIOS. In most cases, updating the BIOS is done using a downloaded microcode file and a USB flash drive. The BIOS file is placed on a flash drive and is used to update. Every motherboard manufacturer has detailed instructions on the BIOS update website.

Be careful when updating the BIOS, as an incorrect update can damage the motherboard.

You can find out which BIOS version is installed on a Windows PC using the CPU-Z utility.

Many PC users buy SSDs to significantly speed up Windows. But with such an upgrade, you should take into account that most older PCs only support the SATA-2 connector. When connecting a solid-state drive to SATA-2, the user will receive a data transfer speed limit of 300 MB/s. It follows that before purchasing, you need to find out whether your motherboard supports the SATA-3 connector, which provides throughput at 600 MB/s.

To make the SSD more stable, you can get rid of most errors using firmware. The firmware for an SSD is a microcode similar to the BIOS, thanks to which the drive functions. The firmware, as well as the BIOS, can be found on the official website of the SSD manufacturer. Instructions for updating can also be found on the manufacturer's website. Such firmware can solve the problem on some motherboards when the SSD does not see them.

The computer does not see the SSD due to cable or drivers

In addition to the problems described above, very often the motherboard does not see the SSD due to a problem cable or connector. In this case it will help cable replacement SATA to working order. Also, in many cases, the motherboard does not see due to a faulty SATA port, so you can solve this problem connecting to another port.

If you connect an SSD to a computer running on an HDD, you may encounter a situation where it does not see it. The system does not see the installed SSD due to old drivers. This problem can be solved by updates such drivers, like Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver and AMD AHCI Driver.

SATA AHCI

AHCI is a required mode for the controller to work properly with your SSD. This mode allows the SATA controller to enable new functions, including increasing the speed of the SSD. Unlike the old IDE mode, AHCI mode provides the following advantages:

• AHCI mode support hot swap connected drives in Windows;
• AHCI improves productivity when using NCQ technology;
• AHCI mode allows you to use a transfer speed of 600 MB/s (relevant for SSD drives).
• AHCI mode includes support for additional commands such as TRIM.

When installing Windows on a modern motherboard, it is not necessary to enable AHCI mode in the settings, since it is by default, but if you have previously used more old Windows, for example, Windows XP, then you should switch the operating mode from IDE to AHCI. The picture below shows BIOS settings maternal MSI boards with AHCI mode enabled.

It is also worth noting that if you installed Windows 7 after XP, then after switching to AHCI mode, the BIOS firmware sees the installed seven in IDE mode, and subsequently you will get blue screen. In this case it will help reinstalling Windows 7 in AHCI mode.

How to properly partition an SSD disk

Many PC users on forums often have this question: how to properly partition an SSD disk. The answer to this question is quite simple - there is no fundamental difference when partitioning disks between SSD and HDD. Therefore, if you have experience in partitioning HDDs, then you can also partition SDDs. The only point to consider is SSD capacity and HDD, it is much higher for the latter. For example, the volume of the system disk must correspond to the size of the software installed on it, and free space for its proper functioning.

Let's sum it up

After reading this material, each of our readers will be able to see what the advantage of modern solid state SSD over hard HDDs. Also in this material, our readers will find ways to solve problems related to SSDs. It is also worth noting that solid state drives needs to be configured correctly in the operating system. For these purposes, we have an article “How to set up an SSD for Windows 7, 8 and 10”, which will help you configure the SSD correctly.

Video on the topic

Partitions divide one physical disk into multiple logical drives (partitions). Each of them uses its own portion of an assigned portion of the physical hard drive and is treated by the operating system as a drive with its own drive letter.

Technically, every physical drive already contains a logical one, without it you won't be able to write files. And if you bought your PC with Windows pre-installed, it probably already has two or three partitions. Only one of them, C:, typically fills almost the entire physical disk - for regular use. Others, each of which is quite small in size, are used for maintenance and restoration purposes.

So, why do you need to split your C: drive into several partitions?

The first reason is the use of multiple operating systems.

Another reason, which in my opinion is the main one for most users, is the need to separate system and application data. This way, you can place the operating system on one disk, and all your data on the other. This is very convenient if you have to reinstall your OS in the future. And in this case, creating an image of your system partition is much easier.

Believe me, there is no greater nightmare than seeing a user HDD 1 TB in size (or even more) on which there is only one partition, and, as a rule, more than half filled with all sorts of rubbish, which when reinstalling the OS you are asked to save, and at the same time extra space you just don't have it.

The work of reinstalling the OS in this case can take almost a whole day instead of the standard hour.

How to crash your hard drive?

In this article we are looking at a computer running Windows control 8.1

To access Disk Management, you need to press Alt-X and select Disk Management.

Figure 1 Shrink volume

As you can see from Fig. 1, you can shrink your volume (partition) in order to then create a new partition in the free space.

As you can see, creating a new section is not at all difficult.

So, the disk partitioning algorithm is:

1. Perform a disk cleanup
2. Carry out defragmentation
3. Shrink the corresponding volume
4. Create a new partition in the free unallocated space.

After purchasing a computer or during installation of the operating system, users can split the hard drive into several partitions or leave it unchanged.

Thanks to this, you can conveniently sort all information and files without the risk of losing them in the event of a virus attack or operating system failure.

Next, we will look at how to divide a hard drive (HDD or SSD) into several partitions using built-in and third-party Windows tools.

Additionally, we will figure out how to do this on MAC OS X and Linux (using Ubuntu as an example).

Why do you need to partition your hard drive?

Read also:TOP 15 Programs for Windows disk defragmentation: choosing the best utility

After you succeed in dividing the disk into two or more, then during installation Windows any version will be asked to select the system partition on which the operating system will be installed.

Having chosen the one you need, Windows will prompt you to select one of the available formats file system :

• FAT is one of the first, and therefore outdated. You should only choose if you plan to work with earlier versions of Windows (95, 98, etc.). This way it can be avoided various problems application compatibility. It has a lower file copying speed and does not allow you to work with files larger than 4 GB.
• NTFS is a modern file system format. Compatibility issues may occur when working with Windows 9.x (if the format is selected for the system drive). Differs more fast work and reliability. Allows you to work with files of any size, without any restrictions.

If you wish, you can format each partition with different file systems to evaluate the quality and speed of their work.

During installation of Windows 7, 8, 10

Read also: TOP 3 Simple ways to clear RAM on a computer or laptop running Windows 7/10

The easiest way split the disk into parts during installation of the operating system. Then you won’t have to copy the necessary files and free up space.

The method is suitable for partitioning a disk during installation of versions 7, 8 and 10 of Windows.

1 Insert the CD or bootable USB flash drive with the operating system image, restart the computer and wait for the Windows installation wizard to appear.

3 Buttons for creating and deleting partitions will become available. Before you partition your hard drive, you need to get rid of old volumes. Therefore, first click on the unnecessary sections on the screen and click “Delete”. If you see only one, then there is no need to delete anything. Once the excess sections are erased, you can begin partitioning.

Along with deleting the partition, all information stored on it will be erased. Therefore, before doing this, make sure that you have copied all the necessary information from it.

4 If you did everything correctly, then there will be one available line on the screen in the list of available drives "Unoccupied Space" Click on it and below, in the toolbar, select “Create” and in the field that opens, enter the desired partition for the new volume in MB. After this, click “Apply”.

5 Create the desired number of new partitions in a similar way.

After this, do not forget to specify the drive on which the operating system will be installed and click “Next”.

As soon as the program finishes, opening “My Computer” you will see the created partitions.

During installation of Windows XP

Read also: Errors when loading Windows (XP/7/8/10): We deal with the most common ones

Despite the fact that Microsoft has officially stopped supporting XP and releasing updates for it, many continue to use this version of the operating system.

Disk partitioning during XP installation is slightly different from the method for seven or ten.

1 Before partitioning your hard drive on Windows XP, you will have to delete existing partitions. To do this, select the unnecessary volume using the arrows on , and then press the “D” button. Confirm the action by pressing the Enter key.

2 After this the line will appear "Unallocated area". From this disk space we will create required sections . To do this, press “C” on your keyboard and then “Enter”.

3 A new window will appear where you can enter the desired disk size in MB (the maximum and minimum available are indicated in the line above). Confirm your actions by pressing the Enter key.

In the same way, create the required number of partitions, then continue and complete the installation of the operating system.

Dividing a disk via the command line

So how to divide by 2 Windows disk 7 can be done using system tools, it is most logical to use them without resorting to third-party software.

Although it also has its advantages (about them in another section of the article).

To start it "Disk Management"(it is through this program that we will do everything) click on the “My Computer” icon right click menu and then context menu select Manage.

If for some reason this cannot be done, then use another method. Open "Control Panel"- "Administration"(easy to find via the search form).

Find and open in the list "Computer Management". Then select from the menu on the left "Storage Devices" - "Disk Management".

After opening the utility, a list will appear in front of you available volumes, their location, type and file system used. You only need to divide those where the letter is indicated (C, D, E, etc.).

Volume "Reserved by the system" It won't be possible to break it into parts, because... it is hidden and is needed solely to store files necessary to boot the operating system.

Using the utility you can:

• divide the HDD or SSD into two or more partitions;
• delete an unnecessary volume and give its memory to another;
• change (reduce, increase) the sizes of existing volumes;
• rename sections, etc.

To immediately launch the program for editing drives, open the Run utility ( shortcut keys“Windows + R”) and enter “diskmgmt.msc” (without quotes) and then press the “Ok” or “Enter” button.

Divide the disk into two

Before you start dividing the volume (in our case, this is drive C), you need to compress it. To do this, select it in the list, and then right-click on it and select “Shrink Volume”.

The program will begin analyzing the space available for compression, after which it will prompt you to manually enter the size in MB that will be allocated for the new volume.

Please enter this information as carefully as possible. If you enter incorrect information the first time, it will be much more difficult to repeat this operation to correct it.

If you share the system disk (on which Windows is installed), then try to leave at least 60 GB on it. For comfortable operation of the computer, there should always be free space on it (10-20% of the total capacity).

Once you decide on the size, click on the “Shrink” button and wait for the operation to complete. After this, “Unallocated space” will appear opposite the selected one, exactly what we just selected.

Creating a new volume

• Having decided on the size, click “Next”, after which the utility will prompt you to select a letter for the new drive (only those available for selection will be in the drop-down list). Here you can connect the volume as an empty NTFS folder.
• Next, you will be asked to format the future drive using one of the file systems available for selection. We recommend choosing NTFS, and leave the rest of the indicators as default. Despite the terrible threat that all information will be deleted from the partition, feel free to agree and start formatting (after all, we are creating a new partition with nothing on it).

After this, the Create Simple Volume Wizard will complete its work and display brief information about the new disk.

Now, after opening “My Computer”, you will see the partition you just created, which can be used to install programs and store files.

Using third party software

Read also:The computer does not see the hard drive - what to do?

In some Windows versions system utility may work slightly differently for creating new volumes.

Therefore, you have to use third-party software that supports working with HDD and SSD.

In addition, unofficial programs have a more understandable and “friendly” interface, making it easier for untrained users to work with sections.

Today we will look at how to partition a disk using the completely free and Russified program AOMEI Partition Assistant.

You can find and download it from the official website of the developer.

• Launch the program. In the window that opens, you will see a list of available disks, partitions, volumes and their short description(including removable hard ones).
• Right-click on the disk you plan to partition and select from the context menu "Split partition".
• A new window will open, where in the “New size” field you will need to indicate the capacity of the future drive (should not exceed the volume from the “Original size” field). Enter the information and click “OK” to move to the next step.

• After this, the program may display a message that the disk was successfully partitioned. But it is not so. So that everything changes made come into force, you must additionally click on the “Apply” button. The utility will warn you that to save the data you will need to reboot, after which the operation will be completed successfully.

This method is much faster and easier than using system tools because the program automatically reserves the required space and compresses the volume.

The default file system is NTFS, so if you want to format a future disk in FAT 32, then at the stage Section divisions you will need to click on the button Advanced settings then specify the desired parameters.

When purchasing a computer or installing Windows or another OS, many users want to split the hard drive into two or, more precisely, into several partitions (for example, drive C into two drives). This procedure makes it possible to store separately system files and personal data, i.e. allows you to save your files in case of a sudden system crash and improve the performance of the OS by reducing fragmentation of the system partition.

Update 2016: new ways to split a disk (hard or SSD) into two or more have been added, a video has also been added on how to split a disk in Windows without programs and in the AOMEI Partition Assistant program. Corrections have been made to the manual.

There are several ways to partition a hard drive (see below). The instructions discuss and describe all these methods, indicating their advantages and disadvantages.

• On Windows 10, Windows 8.1 and 7 - without using additional programs, using standard means.
• During OS installation (including how to do this when installing XP).
• By using free programs Minitool Partition Wizard, AOMEI Partition Assistant, and Acronis Disk Director.

How to partition a disk in Windows 10, 8.1 and Windows 7 without programs

You can partition HDD or SSD in all latest versions Windows is already installed system. The only condition is that there be no less free disk space than you want to allocate for the second logical drive.

To do this, follow these steps (in this example, the system drive C will be partitioned):

After these steps, your disk will be divided into two, and the newly created one will receive its own letter and will be formatted into the selected file system. You can close Windows Disk Management.

Note: You may later want to increase the size of your system partition. However, it will not be possible to do this in the same way due to some limitations of the considered system utility.

How to partition a disk using the command line

You can split a hard drive or SSD into several partitions not only in Disk Management, but also using the command line in Windows 10, 8 and Windows 7.

Be careful: the example shown below will work without problems only in cases where you have a single system partition (and possibly a couple of hidden ones) that needs to be divided into two partitions - for the system and data. In some other situations (MBR disk and already have 4 partitions, when shrinking the disk, there is another disk "after" it) this may work unexpectedly if you are a novice user.

The following steps show how to split the C drive into two parts at the command prompt.

Done, now you can close command line: V Windows Explorer you will see a newly created disk, or rather a disk partition with the letter you specified.

How to partition a disk in Minitool Partition Wizard Free

Minitool Partition Wizard Free- an excellent free program that allows you to manage partitions on disks, including dividing one partition into two or more. One of the advantages of the program is that a downloadable version is available on the official website. ISO image with it, which can be used to create a bootable USB flash drive (the developers recommend doing this using Rufus) or to burn a disc.

This makes it easy to perform disk partitioning in cases where this cannot be done on a running system.

After loading into Partition Wizard, you just need to right-click on the disk you want to split and select “Split”.

The next steps are simple: adjust the partition sizes, click OK, and then click the “Apply” button at the top left to apply your changes.

You can download the Minitool Partition Wizard Free bootable ISO image for free from the official website https://www.partitionwizard.com/partition-wizard-bootable-cd.html

Video instruction

I also recorded a video on how to partition a disk in Windows. It shows the process of creating partitions using standard system tools, as described above and using a simple, free and convenient program for these tasks.

How to partition a disk during installation of Windows 10, 8 and Windows 7

The advantages of this method include its simplicity and convenience. Partitioning will also take relatively little time, and the process itself is very clear. The main disadvantage is that the method can only be applied when installing or reinstalling the operating system, which in itself is not very convenient; in addition, there is no possibility of editing partitions and their sizes without formatting the HDD (for example, in the case when the space of the system partition has run out and the user wants add some space from another hard drive partition).

If these shortcomings are not critical, consider the process of disk partitioning during OS installation. These instructions are fully applicable when installing Windows 10, 8 and Windows 7.

Attention! When you delete disk partitions, all data located on them will be deleted.

Partitioning a hard drive when installing Windows XP

During Windows development XP was not designed to be intuitive GUI. But although control occurs through the console, partitioning the hard drive when installing Windows XP is as easy as when installing any other operating system.

Step 1. Delete existing partitions.

You can repartition the disk while defining the system partition. You need to split the section into two. Unfortunately, Windows XP does not allow this operation without hard formatting disk. Therefore, the sequence of actions is as follows:

Step 2. Create new partitions.

Now you need to create the necessary hard disk partitions from the unallocated area. This is done quite simply:

Step 3. Determine the file system format.

After the partitions are created, select the partition that should be system and press Enter. You will be prompted to select a file system format. FAT format is more outdated. With it you will not have problems with compatibility, for example, Windows 9.x, however, due to the fact that systems older than XP are rare today, this advantage does not play a special role. If you also consider that NTFS is faster and more reliable and allows you to work with files of any size (FAT - up to 4GB), the choice is obvious. Select the desired format and press Enter.

Then the installation will proceed in standard mode - after formatting the partition, the installation of the system will begin on it. You will only be required to enter custom parameters at the end of installation (computer name, date and time, time zone, etc.). As a rule, this is done in a convenient graphical mode, so it is not difficult.

Free AOMEI Partition Assistant

AOMEI Partition Assistant is one of the best free programs for changing the structure of partitions on a disk, transferring a system from HDD to SSD, and, among other things, you can use it to split a disk into two or more. At the same time, the program interface is in Russian, unlike another good similar product - MiniTool Partition Wizard.

Note: despite the fact that the program states Windows support 10, in my system it did not partition for some reason, but no failures occurred (I think they should fix it by July 29, 2015). Works without problems in Windows 8.1 and Windows 7.

After launching AOMEI Partition Assistant, in the main program window you will see the connected hard drives and SSDs, as well as the partitions on them.

To partition a disk, right-click on it (in my case on C), and select the “Partition Partition” menu item.

In the next step you will need to specify the size the section being created- This can be done by entering a number, or by moving the separator between two disks.

After you click OK, the program will display that the disk has already been partitioned. In fact, this is not the case yet - to apply all the changes made, you must click the “Apply” button. You may then be warned that your computer will restart to complete the operation.

And after the reboot, you will be able to observe the result of disk separation in your Explorer.

Other programs for creating partitions on your hard drive

There is a huge amount of different software for partitioning a hard drive. These are both commercial products, for example, from Acronis or Paragon, and distributed throughout free license– Partition Magic, MiniTool Partition Wizard. Let's look at dividing a hard drive using one of them - the Acronis Disk Director program.

How to partition a hard drive in MacOS X using standard means

Can be done breakdown of hard disk without reinstalling the operating system and installing additional software to your computer. IN Windows Vista and above, the disk utility is built into the system, and the situation is also the same in Linux systems and MacOS.

To partition a disk on Mac OS, do the following:

After this, after a short (for SSD anyway) partition creation process, it will be created and available in the Finder.

I hope the information is useful, and if something doesn't work as expected or you have questions, please leave a comment.

The problem of improperly formatting SSD drives has been discussed many times since these drives entered mass production. And although modern operating rooms Windows systems Having already learned how to work correctly with solid-state drives, when formatting drives with third-party utilities (or in Windows XP), performance problems are possible, which will be discussed below.

The reason for conducting tests and writing material was not only the desire to personally check the result, but also, to a greater extent, the need to obtain specific numbers, since too many Internet resources, when describing the problem, instead of accurate data on changes in performance, provide vague formulations and refer to other articles, which, in turn, are sent somewhere else. Ultimately, after finding some negative feedback about the effect of partition alignment on SSD performance, it became clear that the situation needed to be sorted out on its own. The material outlines theoretical basis and a guide to checking the correctness of partition shifting on an SSD, as well as performance tests.

A little theory
Modern drives are presented to the operating system and programs as memory divided into 512-byte sectors, however, at the physical level, the size of each disk sector is 8 times larger and amounts to 4 KB. To maintain compatibility with older applications, another layer is created above all this, in which each sector is also 4 KB. OS Microsoft products released before Windows Vista reserve the first 63 sectors at the beginning of the disk for the MBR (master boot record), and this causes the logical (topmost) and physical (bottommost) layers of the drive to move relative to each other, and therefore one logical sector is located on two physical ones at once. It follows from this that all I/O operations will be performed twice, which not only reduces the performance of the SSD, but also consumes its resource faster (as you know, SSDs have a limited number of write cycles). As you might guess, in order for the sectors at the physical and logical levels to coincide, the shift at the very beginning of the disk must be a multiple of 4 KB (4096 bytes).

How to tell if a partition on an SSD is shifted correctly
As mentioned above, modern systems Windows knows how to correctly shift partitions when formatting, but if the initial partition was done in third party utility or in Windows XP, then even reformatting in Windows 7 will not correct the situation. In this case, it will help either complete removal partition(s) and creating a new one, or shifting the entire disk area using special utilities.
To find out whether you need to do all this at all, you need to run the msinfo32 utility, go to the Components->Storage->Disks section and find the Partition Starting Offset value for your SSD drive.


If dividing this value by 4096 results in a non-integer value, then the first section is not shifted correctly. In our case, 32,256/4096 = 7.875, which is what you would expect after formatting the disk under Windows XP.

An alternative way to obtain the same information is to run the following command at the command prompt:
wmic partition get BlockSize, StartingOffset, Name, Index


As you can see, on one drive (SSD in our case) the first partition is shifted incorrectly, but on the second (HDD) it is shifted correctly, since 1048576/4096 = 256 (integer).

How to move a section
If nothing important is stored on the disk, then the fastest way to fix the error is by deleting all partitions and creating them again under Windows Vista/7. Simple formatting is not enough here, since the area does not shift.
If the disk is bootable and the operations described above are undesirable, then you should move the partition. Let's see how this is done using free utility GParted.
1 . bootable GParted ISO disk (115 MB) or use one of the Linux distributions in which GParted can be available as a separate utility.
2 . We burn the image to a CD or flash drive and boot from the media.
3 . In GParted, select the first partition of the SSD drive and the Resize/Move command.
4 . Uncheck the box next to Round to cylinders, put “2” next to Free space preceding, click Resize/Move and then Apply.
5 . We repeat the previous point, but instead of “2” in the Free space preceding we put “1”. Click Resize/Move and then Apply.
6 . If there are several partitions on the SSD, then operations 3-5 must be repeated with each of them, which may take several hours.
GParted performs the shift operation without deleting data, but when working with hard drives, it is always recommended to save important files on another medium.

After a reboot, the system will most likely refuse to start, but Windows performance can be quickly returned by using the Repair Your Computer command in the first dialog of any boot disk with Windows 7.
After the Desktop appears, check the correct alignment in Msinfo32:


2,097,152 / 4096 = 512 – the section is shifted correctly.

Performance
Before directly measuring performance, an attempt was made to count I/O operations before and after formatting the disk. According to Microsoft Help, the I/O Reads and I/O Writes parameters in the Manager Windows tasks show the number of corresponding read or write operations for each specific process.
Five times before using GParted and five times after, the same 700 MB ISO file was copied to an SSD using file manager Altap Salamander. In each case, the number of read and write operations was exactly 22.3 thousand. The lack of difference is most likely due to the fact that Windows Task Manager only works with top level disk and cannot display the actual number of operations at a basic level.
HD Tune and Crystal Disk Mark programs were used to directly measure performance. The Kingston HyperX SH100S3B/240G SSD drive was first tested on a computer with SATA 2.0, and then on a platform supporting SATA 3.0, where it was able to fully reveal its potential: the drive’s performance is at the level of 500+ MB/s, but when using SATA 2.0 it is limited at 200+ MB/s. All measurements were carried out 5 times, and the size of the test file in CrystalDiskMark was 1000 MB.
In HD Tune's Benchmark mode, only the read speed was measured, since writing testing required deleting all partitions from the disk (for the utility to directly access the drive), and this, of course, made the whole test meaningless.

SATA 2.0

It would be logical to assume that a drive whose performance is 2.5 times higher than the throughput of SATA 2.0 would simply be limited by the capabilities of the interface and would not show any improvement on an outdated platform, but this turned out to be completely wrong. An increase, quite significant, was recorded even in this configuration of the test system.
As can be clearly seen in the diagram, the reading speed is SATA mode 2.0 remained virtually unchanged, and the determining factor here (with the exception of the last two tests with small block sizes) was the bottleneck of the interface.
A completely different picture emerges in the write speed tests, where in each case an obvious difference in performance was recorded. The minimum performance increase was 12%, and the maximum was 450%.

SATA 3.0

This mode made it possible to reveal the full potential of the drive, and in tests it demonstrated exactly the speeds that the manufacturer indicated on the box (about 500 MB/s in read and write mode).
The reading test again did not bring any special sensations, except that HD Tune in Benchmarks mode seemed to correct the result in the previous test, where instead of a slight increase in performance, a slight, but still strange decrease in performance was recorded. The result of CrystalDiskMark (4K QD32) also stands out, where the difference in speed was not a couple of MB, as in other tests, but much larger.
The recording results are also very similar to those obtained in SATA 2.0 mode. The gain in each test (except for the first and last) is almost identical, and this is easily explained by the fact that the SSD performance in these tests did not depend on the version SATA interface. If you do the calculations, the minimum increase was 18%, and the maximum was 310%.

Conclusion
The test results were somewhat unexpected. Firstly, in theory, the drive’s performance should have increased during reading as well, but an obvious improvement in the tests was recorded only during write operations. Secondly, before the start of testing, much more modest growth rates were expected (if expected at all), but despite this, in some tests a 3-4 times increase in recording speed was obtained.
Since checking whether partitions have been correctly shifted on an SSD takes literally less than a minute, we recommend that all owners of such drives check their solid state drive and, in case of incorrect formatting, configure it correctly to receive maximum performance. Interestingly, incorrect shifting is also relevant for conventional drives, and there is evidence that the negative impact of this factor is manifested on R.A.I.D. arrays. Consequently, owners of such data storage systems, especially those configured for maximum speed, and not on excessive security, it also makes sense to optimize your system.