Partition Alignment tool

[robgxmn]

Get in before it goes non-free people Particularly you system techs out there.
M@

Unfortunately not. Tech use would be a EULA violation:

4. This license entitles the user to install and use the Software on only one computer at a single location. If this computer is part of a multi-user-system, the license is valid for all authorized users of this system.

Expected, as Paragon uses a tiered pricing model based on the EULA restrictions for their other products.

[monsterbeetle]

totally different use, but it claims to speed up digital audio playback:

http://www.analogx.com/contents/downloa ... eeware.htm

the tool interleaves audio streams on the HDD so that the head of the HDD does not have to jump around while trying to stream multiple tracks from the HDD.

Have anyone used it?

[robgxmn]

I haven't, as I have no bandwidth issues for the audio I record, but I've heard it helps on some hosts, not others, but I forget which & can't find the forum I read that on.

Sorry, not much help there, eh?

You can always download it, bechmark it and see if it helps or not.

[metamorphosis]

Caution.

Aligned my drives, over the last week I've noticed several files or folders gone missing, as well as several smaller files corrupted (some jpegs for example).

Only do this on a freshly partitioned drive, or if you're able to duplicate all your data onto an alternative drive and then copy it all back. Otherwise you risk data corruption. Luckily I'd done this.

[DevonB]

Caution.

Aligned my drives, over the last week I've noticed several files or folders gone missing, as well as several smaller files corrupted (some jpegs for example).

Only do this on a freshly partitioned drive, or if you're able to duplicate all your data onto an alternative drive and then copy it all back. Otherwise you risk data corruption. Luckily I'd done this.

Glad you didn't lose anything. You certainly did the right thing by doing a backup before trying to do something like this.

However, this is a block-level tool; it just takes what data it finds and re-writes it to another physical part of the drive. I'd sooner be looking at your drive as the problem rather than a problem with the software. These types of tools know nothing of the file system, nor does it care. It just moves each and every block in succession, no matter what it is, empty space, files, whatever. Did you report the problem to them at all if you truly think it's the software?

Devon

[metamorphosis]

If you move physical file locations, you have to adjust the file system to maintain correct pointers.
It's the software.
We're talking about 3 drives here (and three different types of drive) and defragging them doesn't have the same affect- I've also done partition resizing and 'slides' in the past with no such issues-
as noted before, it removed several directories on FAT32 partitions, converting them to 120b files - so it's working the FAT and MFAT's, and getting shit wrong in the process.
m@

[DevonB]

If you move physical file locations, you have to adjust the file system to maintain correct pointers.
It's the software.
We're talking about 3 drives here (and three different types of drive) and defragging them doesn't have the same affect- I've also done partition resizing and 'slides' in the past with no such issues-
as noted before, it removed several directories on FAT32 partitions, converting them to 120b files - so it's working the FAT and MFAT's, and getting shit wrong in the process.
m@

Could you please go to Start/Run/msinfo32, go under Components, Storage, Disks and look at the bottom entry for the drive labeled Partition Starting Offset. What number is in that field, please? I just want to see what it's doing, and this is the way to tell. I know I'm not doing this to my drive.

Devon

[metamorphosis]

I'm running XP nlite'd, don't have MSinfo on my system. Also, which drive are you talking about? The one with the partition where the folders turned into 120b files?
Cheers,
M@

[susiwong]

Caution.

Aligned my drives, over the last week I've noticed several files or folders gone missing, as well as several smaller files corrupted (some jpegs for example).

Only do this on a freshly partitioned drive, or if you're able to duplicate all your data onto an alternative drive and then copy it all back. Otherwise you risk data corruption. Luckily I'd done this.

So all those drives are of the new variety, i.e. 1.5TB (only a few of the newest 1.5TBs afaik) or 2TB ?
"Aligning" a legacy drive is not a legal operation.

Got a brand new WD EARS 1.5TB last week, partitioned and formatted it (using XP Pro), used the new WD Acronis tool for alignment. The tool checked all drives and correctly only offered the new WD drive for alignment.
Total time 2 mins.

The only downside is older tools like Partition Magic don't recognize the aligned partition and report a partition table error.
Oh well ...
That's Symantec for you - buy a great tool and bury it - happened with PM, happened with Ghost, happened with their own Norton Utilities (WinDoctor anyone ?) ...
And Acronis follow in their footsteps regarding driver support for their Linux boot disks.

Ymmv,
susiwong

[metamorphosis]

So all those drives are of the new variety, i.e. 1.5TB (only a few of the newest 1.5TBs afaik) or 2TB ?
"Aligning" a legacy drive is not a legal operation.

You should probably read up some facts on the subject. All drive partitions can use alignment, not just those in the newer drives. In particular it can help with RAID and SSD partitions.
I suggest you read the Acronis white paper, which, while based around pushing use of their app, is informative. I'd hesitate to call the non-new variety drives (which are the dominant force in the market) "legacy".
There is no such thing as 'illegal'ly aligning partitions.
Cheers!

[DevonB]

I'm running XP nlite'd, don't have MSinfo on my system. Also, which drive are you talking about? The one with the partition where the folders turned into 120b files?
Cheers,
M@

Yes, any drive that you used the tool on. Do you have msinfo32 on any other system?

Devon

[susiwong]

So all those drives are of the new variety, i.e. 1.5TB (only a few of the newest 1.5TBs afaik) or 2TB ?
"Aligning" a legacy drive is not a legal operation.

You should probably read up some facts on the subject. All drive partitions can use alignment, not just those in the newer drives. In particular it can help with RAID and SSD partitions.
I suggest you read the Acronis white paper, which, while based around pushing use of their app, is informative. I'd hesitate to call the non-new variety drives (which are the dominant force in the market) "legacy".
There is no such thing as 'illegal'ly aligning partitions.
Cheers!

Didn't find any Acronis Whitepaper, but Paragon have one which clearly states several things:
- legacy HDs with 512b sectors (call them whatever you want, they will be gone in a while) will see no benefit from alignment, only contemporary 4k drives will.
- instead compatibility with the old CHS adressing scheme is broken.

So while illegal might have been the wrong word, nonsense might be more appropriate.
Why potentially risk data (only if there is no backup, as has already been pointed out) and break compatibility (even with an old norm) for zero gain ?

Ymmv,
susiwong

[metamorphosis]

- legacy HDs with 512b sectors (call them whatever you want, they will be gone in a while) will see no benefit from alignment, only contemporary 4k drives will.
- instead compatibility with the old CHS adressing scheme is broken.

So while illegal might have been the wrong word, nonsense might be more appropriate.
Why potentially risk data (only if there is no backup, as has already been pointed out) and break compatibility (even with an old norm) for zero gain ?

Ymmv,
susiwong

You should probably read up some facts on the subject. All drive partitions can use alignment, not just those in the newer drives. In particular it can help with RAID and SSD partitions.

Like I said. The Paragon one mentions this.

[metamorphosis]

Yes, any drive that you used the tool on. Do you have msinfo32 on any other system?

Yes- tried to run it on the main machine (with requisite dlls etc) and it didn't do anything - guessing there's some registry keys it needs or something like that. What does that mean anyway (the info you're lookin for)?
Cheers,-

[DevonB]

Yes, any drive that you used the tool on. Do you have msinfo32 on any other system?

Yes- tried to run it on the main machine (with requisite dlls etc) and it didn't do anything - guessing there's some registry keys it needs or something like that. What does that mean anyway (the info you're lookin for)?
Cheers,-

It'll show me if they re-did the partition alignment that the OS knows about it or if they just moved the blocks and left the OS out of it. A normal XP and below should be at 32256 (31.5kb) whereas Vista/W7 should be at 1,048,576 (1,024kb) The number just needs to be divisible by 4096. When I do partitions, I set them at 65,536 bytes, which is also divisible by 4096. I registered for the Paragon white paper, but never got the stupid email. If someone could pm me with a link to the paper or email it to me, let me know? I want to read it, even if I'm familiar with the majority of it (I've read other vendors white papers on the subject from EMC and NetApp, and they've been sitting on my desk at work for years.)

Devon