Do i need to align and format 2nd SSD drive aswell?

geordie56

geordie56

geordie56

Associate
Joined
2 Jan 2009
Posts
452
Hi and if you see this ninja you will probably know mate. I am just trying to get all the details for when i get my SSD's on wednesday. I am getting 2 60Gb vertex drives, i have read up on aligning 1st drive and installing os, however do i need to align the 2nd once the operating system is installed and or before i install either drives into my comp. Also what is this offset thing all about and do i need to alter it to use Raid 0 and if so how and what should it be set to? Should it be set to 128 and if so how do i do this? Can it be set on my old basic pc ready to install? Thanks.
 
Last edited:
OCZ forums are where you want for this.
Yes, align both of them. You do not need to alter this to raid 0 them. Stripe size is a difficult topic and depends primarily on what use you have in mind

Enjoy the drives, they're lovely :)
 
I intend to use them purely just for performance so in Raid0. As i will be using my 2 1TB drives purely for storage, so should it be set to 128 then?
 
If you are putting the two drives in RAID0 then you will need to do the alignment only once as the two drives will effectively be treated as a single volume, the alignment makes sure that the drives are set to the same starting block - and hence the stripe is set correctly (as I understand it).

For mine, I entered the Intel Matrix Storage Mgr (Ctrl + I at POST) to set the drives into a RAID0 array with a 128k stripe size (apparently this is best for Vista), then booted from the Vista disk and went to the recovery console and then followed the full details and instructions here on the OCZ Forums. There are several methods of doing it - as I said I did it from the Vista Recovery Disk method as shown in post#3 on that page (although with this method you will need a disk with the RAID driver available to you, on USB perhaps?) I'm pretty sure the recommended partition alignment for RAID0 on the Vertex's is 128.

Once aligned you can then go ahead and install your OS. Then you'll need to get the tweaks done for SSD performance (link here) and then I recommend you get Windows and drivers updated and finally DO AN IMAGE! (use something like Acronis True Image)

Occasionally there may be new firmware released for the drives and there are guides on flashing (old method here, and new method here) - this will completely clear the drive tho - so the image you've done can then be used to quickly restore the array. (I have a pair of Sammy F1's in RAID1 where my image is stored for easy access - boot from recovery disk, point to image, sit back and have coffee!)

And basically that's all there is to it! Easy! :) Hope this helps.
 
FaceplantSi,
"(although with this method you will need a disk with the RAID driver available to you, on USB perhaps?)"

Maybe a stupid question but my jmicron drivers are on the evga disk with all the other drivers. Will I be able to use that disk or have to find a way to put those drivers on a usb drive or different disk? That part of the whole process is the only one I'm confused on. Help me with this and I'll help tackle the questions others have about these drives.

Thanks in advance mate.
 
Ninja Please! said:
I'm using 64k stripe on my single 60gb. I wonder if I would see any increase in speeds with 128k since I am using Vista Ultimate.
Click to expand...

I assume you mean you are using an offset of 64k rather than a stripe as you have a single drive?

According to this post on OCZ Forums there are several alignment/stripe combinations for use with RAID0, 128/128 is the suggested one, and according to the bottom of this post 32k is a valid choice for a single drive.

Hope this helps.
 
Yeah I meant offset. Haven't had my coffee yet, sorry:o. I used 64 offset because the forum said their is no magical number so I gave it a shot. I wonder now if the 32 offset would have been better but no matter because in weeks all will be wiped clean for a new raid0 setup:D
 
Well if only I had read 2 more posts down from when I was doing my aligning I would have seen that with vista all of this was moot for me due to only having a single drive,...what a bonehead move.:rolleyes:
 
Ninja Please! said:
FaceplantSi,
"(although with this method you will need a disk with the RAID driver available to you, on USB perhaps?)"

Maybe a stupid question but my jmicron drivers are on the evga disk with all the other drivers. Will I be able to use that disk or have to find a way to put those drivers on a usb drive or different disk? That part of the whole process is the only one I'm confused on. Help me with this and I'll help tackle the questions others have about these drives.

Thanks in advance mate.
Click to expand...

On this one if you did have a RAID setup you would need to setup the RAID array first by altering the BIOS to reflect SATA's running in RAID mode and maybe also boot priority then go into the onboard RAID controller setup (on my Asus P5Q-E it's CTRL+I during POST to enter the Intel RAID setup where I specified RAID0, Stripe=128k and then added the member disks into the array), once this is done you need to do the alignment - I used the Vista Recovery method as per this post, and so booted from the Vista disk, then I had to browse to where the RAID drivers were located. In my case I already had the chipset drivers on an old HDD that was still attached (but not as a member of the newly created SSD RAID0 array) and so I could easily browse that drive to find the drivers required. If you didn't have this available to you then you could have them on a USB stick ready (but, of course you'd need to have got that sorted prior to reconfiguring the system for the RAID array!)

Once you have the drivers loaded the Vista Recovery console will allow you to go into the command prompt to perform the alignment (again as per the post I linked to above) - without the RAID drivers loaded you wouldn't be able to 'see' the array to perform the alignment.

Once this is done you install your OS as normal, then do the tweaks, load updates etc etc and off you go!


Sorry if the above is a bit long winded... it should be fairly straightforward tho. Let me know if you have any Q's m8!

Cheers
Si :)
 
Thanks for all the help and this is way over my head now lol! Can i align each drive and format it individually on my spare pc ready to go onto my new setup as it is not running and there is nothing on it. Also as it is using the nvidia chip ive heard this can sometimes pose a problem for aligning and setting up. So if i can set it up on my spare pc would be better is this possible just do one then the other or do you have to do them both together for Raid0? cheers
 
geordie56 said:
Thanks for all the help and this is way over my head now lol! Can i align each drive and format it individually on my spare pc ready to go onto my new setup as it is not running and there is nothing on it. Also as it is using the nvidia chip ive heard this can sometimes pose a problem for aligning and setting up. So if i can set it up on my spare pc would be better is this possible just do one then the other or do you have to do them both together for Raid0? cheers
Click to expand...

Hi again, As you are putting your 2 x 60Gb into a RAID0 array you will only need to do the alignment once, not once per drive, just once as you will effectively only have one volume. This must therefore be done after you have setup the RAID array on your mobo controller, and hence can only be done on the new system. If you were to setup RAID on your spare PC and then transfer to another system, the new system would probably only recognise the RAID array that you had created if it was running the same controller.

For example I had an Asus P5Q-Pro running an Intel ICH10R controller and had my SSD RAID0 array setup on it fine. The mobo died and I got an Asus P5Q-E as replacement. After installing the mobo, I setup the mobo's BIOS and the onboard RAID controller and they detected my SSD array without me having to completely redo it - and that was due to both mobo's running the Intel ICH10R RAID controller. If I had gone from an Intel controller to a mobo with an nVidia chipset controller it most likely would have failed and necessitated a total reload from scratch.

I strongly advise you to do the setup on the new system as then everything will be guaranteed to work with that hardware.
 
No problem i will do thanks for all your help. So do i just fire my new computer up well (hopefully) then straight into bios and set the raid. Then do i reboot it and what do i do next as there will be no operating system on the new comp? So how do i align it and format it then install o/s? cheers
 
geordie56 said:
No problem i will do thanks for all your help. So do i just fire my new computer up well (hopefully) then straight into bios and set the raid. Then do i reboot it and what do i do next as there will be no operating system on the new comp? So how do i align it and format it then install o/s? cheers
Click to expand...

yes, unless of course your's does not ship with firmware v 1.1. In that case you can use your current pc to flash them like discussed before.
 
geordie56 said:
No problem i will do thanks for all your help. So do i just fire my new computer up well (hopefully) then straight into bios and set the raid. Then do i reboot it and what do i do next as there will be no operating system on the new comp? So how do i align it and format it then install o/s? cheers
Click to expand...

As Ninja Please! said you might need to flash firmware first (do that on your old PC) then if you look at my earlier post (#11 above) I have linked to the Alignment guide using the Vista Recovery Disk method.

Sequence of tasks is:

1) - Flash Firmware if needed (on old computer) instructions here.
2) - Attach drives to your new PC.
3) - Setup BIOS so SATA's are running in RAID mode.
4) - Boot from Vista Recovery Disk to do Alignment as per instructions here.
5) - Load OS as you normally would.
6) - Do tweaks as per instructions here.
7) - Update Vista, Drivers etc
8) - Image your array (I use Acronis True Image) for safety
9) - Enjoy!

There are other ways to do the Firmware flash for example so keep an eye on the OCZ Forums as well as these here for updated firmware info etc.

Cheers
Si :)
 
Personally there's a poll being done (ocz forums) on each individual tweak and at best only half of people said that a few worked for them. None made any difference good or bad in real world tests done by myself so I reverted them.
 
The point of alignment is that windows uses a small number of blocks on the beginning on each volume (note volume not disk. So a raid is treated just the same as a single disk).

Once the first partition is aligned, all subsequent partitions on that volume will automatically be correctly aligned without any further effort.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom