anyone using an SSD? did you align partitions to erase blocks?

graysky · 2009-08-14 19:26:51

I'm waiting on the 2nd gen Intel SSDs to copy my / and /home to the faster I/O device. In the meantime, I'm reading up on these things and have found numerous sources that suggest aligning partitions on SSD's to the erase block of the device. I found two major sources detailing the process. This one shows a setup using parted and explains the process.

I'm just posting to solicit feedback from the community on this issue. Does Aloisio have it right in that blog post?

keenerd · 2009-08-14 20:03:59

This sounds about right, but I seem to remember reading that the partition table or boot sector would add a small but tricky offset. After some googling, I can not find my source, but here is another good guide:

http://thunk.org/tytso/blog/2009/02/20/ … lock-size/

That said, I have not bothered to align mine. File system is configured for low writes, but that is it. I really should align things, I hear it can triple performance. I do replace the SSD* every year, though.

*What? SDHC cards are only $20 ;-)

graysky · 2009-08-14 21:33:43

Thanks for the link... most of that went over my head though. I'm not too sure about the whole boot 'tricky offset' as you described it though

My partition scheme for the 80 gig ssd will be pretty simplistic:

20 gigs of NTFS as partition #1
15 gigs of ext4 as partition #2
200 meg of ext3 for /boot as partition #3
rest of the drive for /home as partition #4

I'll keep /var and /data partitions on my HDD.

Glad to hear more comments about this so I can do it right the first time

Last edited by graysky (2009-08-14 21:35:29)

Malstrond · 2009-08-14 21:49:27

I have a OCZ Vertex in my EEE and I adjusted the alignment, it wasn't difficult as I have just one partition. I followed this guide. My FS is ext4.
It does boost maximum write throughput by a noticable amount, but it doesn't change anything about an SSD's main weakness: writing and reading lots of small files. But using the scheduler=noop option improved that a bit.

Last edited by Malstrond (2009-08-14 21:56:48)

Arch Linux

#1 2009-08-14 19:26:51

anyone using an SSD? did you align partitions to erase blocks?

#2 2009-08-14 20:03:59

Re: anyone using an SSD? did you align partitions to erase blocks?

#3 2009-08-14 21:33:43

Re: anyone using an SSD? did you align partitions to erase blocks?

#4 2009-08-14 21:49:27

Re: anyone using an SSD? did you align partitions to erase blocks?

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