topic Formatting Intel SSD in Archive

Formatting Intel SSD

idata — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 16:07:48 GMT

I recently had to format my X-25M 160GB 34nm drive in Windows 7. I think I may have deleted one of the partitions which I think was called 'System Reserved.' If I go to the Windows Disk Management control panel it shows 148.95GB for the Intel SSD which I am running as my C drive. There is another partition showing as 101MB Unallocated. I wonder whether this should be formatted or renamed back to System Reserved or is it safe to leave it as unallocated?

Re: Formatting Intel SSD

RGiff — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 16:19:00 GMT

The 100MB is your SYS reserve rename it.

Re: Formatting Intel SSD

idata — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 16:35:52 GMT

I'm unclear whether it's best to format it in NTFS as it's currently unallocated. I was hoping for some guidance from Intel.

Re: Formatting Intel SSD

RGiff — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 16:44:19 GMT

Iff you did delete your sys partition you need to reinstall windows so your sys restore can work.

Re: Formatting Intel SSD

idata — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 17:14:02 GMT

Just to clarify. I reinstalled Windows 7 64 bit. As I was installing it i deleted both partitions, the previous install of Windows 7 and the 100MB partition which appears to have been set up on the drive by Intel before I received it. Reinstalling Windows will clearly not solve this. Perhaps Intel could give some advice on how exactly the 100 MB partition should be formatted and named or advice on whether this is necessary.

Re: Formatting Intel SSD

RGiff — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 17:26:32 GMT

the sys reserve is NTFS

Re: Formatting Intel SSD

RGiff — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 17:30:04 GMT

See post by james walker on Paragon alignment tool. Maybe running the tool will help.

Re: Formatting Intel SSD

idata — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 18:42:59 GMT

Thanks for taking the time to reply Robert. You have been the only person to give some help.

Re: Formatting Intel SSD

idata — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 12:13:14 GMT

I researched Windows 7 and found that the 100MB partition is installed when you first install the OS: The 100MB partition is a system partition and contains boot files. Disk Manager will not allow you to remove this partition because removing this partition could cause the system to not boot. You can however remove the old 100MB partition when doing a fresh install at the setup stage. A lesson learned that you should leave this partition alone when doing a fresh install of Windows.

Re: Formatting Intel SSD

RGiff — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 12:58:53 GMT

Did you try the Paragon alignmert tool, you should , and read the white paped , Just make sure you download the right file ( 32 bit ) or ( 64 bit ) I ran this software yesterday and I thought my drive was aligned right , but windows did not align it right. Makes big difference. And the software is free only for one more week. So try it.

Re: Formatting Intel SSD

idata — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 13:07:05 GMT

I'm not sure that running this Paragon tool is the best option. There are so many companies out there that claim to be able to improve hardware they do not make but claim their software will improve it somehow. I feel the support offered by Intel and the software they provide (Intel SSD toolbox) have been excellent. Thanks for your suggestion though.

Re: Formatting Intel SSD

RGiff — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 13:18:05 GMT

Yes but the intel box has no alignment tool. I ran this yesterday Thinking my drive was aligned right cause I had the 100 MB reserve but when I ran the program it found my drive was not align right So I let it do it's thing and my drive was 12% off Thats a big number when you are talking about alignment. After I ran ATTO for benchmark comparison my drive was ( 258650 , Read ) 108250 Write ) Now after alignment , ( 269850, read ) 112975 Write. pretty good increase.

Re: Formatting Intel SSD

idata — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 13:25:05 GMT

That's a fair increase in performance. I'm sure Intel will be interested in such a software based technique for improving their hardware. I'll download the tool and see what happens.

Re: Formatting Intel SSD

RGiff — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 13:35:52 GMT

Read the post buy James Walker In the SSD community support site. Thats where I read about , check it out I sure you won't be sorry .

Re: Formatting Intel SSD

idata — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 17:29:39 GMT

I received no benefit from this 'tool' another piece of software that is now in my recycle bin.

Re: Formatting Intel SSD

idata — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 04:08:51 GMT

I use "HDDErase" when i format and it places the ssd back to its orginal state and is very easy to use. Then i sinply let windows 7 installer do its thing after that and it wrks perfect.

http://cmrr.ucsd.edu/people/Hughes/HDDEraseWeb.zip

Re: Formatting Intel SSD

idata — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 15:13:22 GMT

Thanks for the suggestion of using HDD Erase Killer. The mistake I made was deleting both the data on my SSD, including the OS, and the 'System Reserved' partition as I was doing a fresh install of Windows 7. I'm still a little unsure whether this 'System Reserved' partition which is around 100MB should be deleted before doing a fresh install of Windows 7. It's something I should raise with Windows rather than Intel though.