disk alignment for HDD & SSD

  • Hi,

    Many people talk about "disk alignment" for Windows Server 2008 and its effect on SQL Server performance.

    I have a new PC and I am going to install Server 2008 on it. But I do not know how to align its HDD.

    The HDD has not been partitioned yet.

    So, what should I do when partitioning and formatting this HDD?

    What should I do when installing Server 2008?

    And is it necessary to do "disk alignment" on a SSD?

    Thanx

  • please read http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd758814(SQL.100).aspx for more info.

    ps

    AFAIK SSDs no longer use read/write heads, so they won't have to be aligned ...:w00t:

    Johan

    Learn to play, play to learn !

    Dont drive faster than your guardian angel can fly ...
    but keeping both feet on the ground wont get you anywhere :w00t:

    - How to post Performance Problems
    - How to post data/code to get the best help[/url]

    - How to prevent a sore throat after hours of presenting ppt

    press F1 for solution, press shift+F1 for urgent solution 😀

    Need a bit of Powershell? How about this

    Who am I ? Sometimes this is me but most of the time this is me

  • xbarf (12/19/2010)


    Hi,

    Many people talk about "disk alignment" for Windows Server 2008 and its effect on SQL Server performance.

    I have a new PC and I am going to install Server 2008 on it. But I do not know how to align its HDD.

    The HDD has not been partitioned yet.

    So, what should I do when partitioning and formatting this HDD?

    What should I do when installing Server 2008?

    And is it necessary to do "disk alignment" on a SSD?

    Thanx

    This may be overkill for installing on your pc! Windows 2008 automatically aligns the partition to 1024KB, its just a default!

    How many physical disks and what RAID level are you implementing?

    What stripe size are you using for the array?

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    "Ya can't make an omelette without breaking just a few eggs" 😉

  • Unfortunately I do not have RAID driver.

    Only a simple hard disk drive.

    As far as I understand, I should first partition my HDD and then install Windows 2008. If so, how does windows aligns the already created partitions?

  • Windows 2008 setup creates the first partition (boot) and automatically aligns the partition when creating it.

    For windows 2003 you have to manually align using diskpart.

    At the end of the day it's purely academic unless you're utilising a multi disk array for the partition\logical drive.

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    "Ya can't make an omelette without breaking just a few eggs" 😉

  • ALZDBA (12/19/2010)


    AFAIK SSDs no longer use read/write heads, so they won't have to be aligned ...:w00t:

    True and false, respectively (certainly for MLC SSD's; I haven't investigated comparative benchmarks on SLC SSD's). Many SSD's are even more sensitive to alignment than spindle disks are; see OCZ Forums for many discussions, or do a Google search; terms like page and "erase block" may help.

  • Thank you for correcting that !

    There is indeed nice info at e.g. http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/content.php?306-SSD-ABC-Guide

    ( it also points to Alignment in its do's and don't section )

    Johan

    Learn to play, play to learn !

    Dont drive faster than your guardian angel can fly ...
    but keeping both feet on the ground wont get you anywhere :w00t:

    - How to post Performance Problems
    - How to post data/code to get the best help[/url]

    - How to prevent a sore throat after hours of presenting ppt

    press F1 for solution, press shift+F1 for urgent solution 😀

    Need a bit of Powershell? How about this

    Who am I ? Sometimes this is me but most of the time this is me

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