Home / ubuntu / Questions / 18900
Accepted
Uli
Asked: 2010-12-27 04:07:59 +0800 CST

Should I align partitions on an SSD, if so how do I do it at install time?

  • 772

I just bought a new SSD (OCZ Vertex 2) and plan to do a clean install of Maverick on it (/home is on a separate HDD). I read that it is wise to align SSD partitions.

What advantages does it truly bring to have an aligned partition on a SSD?

And how do I create an aligned Ext4 partition for the new SSD during the installation of Ubuntu 10.10?

10.10 ssd partitioning

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    What advantages does it truly bring to have an aligned partition on a SSD?

    Basically it's all about better performance. If it's really such a big deal with current generation SSDs - who knows, but aligning the partition won't hurt.

    Anyways, Ubuntu's installer automatically aligns the partitions correctly. The first partition starts at sector 2048, that is after 2048 sectors á 512 Bytes = 1 MiB, and 1 MiB is evenly dividable by all common SSD block sizes.

    • 15

  2. Boot the LiveCD version with the default option "try" and do partitioning first using gparted and you will be all right - just make sure "Align to:" is properly set to "MiB" (by default it is since 2010 or so, but it's crucial, so better to check it).

    After partitioning is done, install the GNU/Linux distro (usually there is desktop icon prepared).

    If you want to be extra sure the alignment is correct, you might do additional checking: https://askubuntu.com/a/1061235/208566

    I've been always using gparted not only because of this, but also because some installers use MB units instead of MiB (I prefer MiB, and so does gparted)

    • 0