SSD partition alignment in Windows Server 2003 can be realized by MiniTool Partition Wizard.

SSD Partition Align

SSD, short for Solid State Disk, is an emerging hard disk that adopts solid state electronic memory chip array as storage medium, consisting of control module and storage module (Flash Chip). Compared with traditional HDD, SSD is of faster data transmission speed, lower power dissipation, noise-free feature, high seismic resistance, producing little heat, small size and larger range of working temperature, so SSD has got a lot of attention as soon as it was released. However, in the process of using SSD, some users many encounter problems. When SSD is mounted to Windows Server 2003 or Windows XP, its performance is debased greatly. That is because some old Windows operating systems, like Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP, can not manage SSD directly, which make partition not aligned, thereby influencing the properties of SSD.
Reasons for unaligned SSD partition
Most of the flash memories existing in the market are composed of 512 KB blocks and each block is composed of many 4KB pages. When we perform wipe operating in a flash memory, it takes block as a unit, but page is taken as a unit when data are written in. The size of a page, 4KB, is just the same as the size of the smallest default allocation unit of NTFS file system. It is supposed to be a good thing. But when we partition SSD in Windows Server 2003, the operation is not started from its head and there is a deviant that causes mismatch between the smallest allocation units and the pages of SSD, which means partition is not aligned. In this situation, when a 4KB data is written in, it will be written on different two pages. This kind of situation about writing data in twice, compared with the ideal condition (the smallest allocation units are corresponding to pages of a flash memory, so we can write the 4KB data into one page all at once), has great limitation. Seen from this, SSD partition alignment is of prime importance if we want to use SSD better in Windows Server 2003.
How to align partition on SSD?
Since Windows Server 2003 doesn't provide users with a solution to SSD partition alignment, we have to resort to the third-party partition magic to align partition on SSD in a bid to improve SSD performance in Windows Server 2003. We suggest users apply the free partition magic MiniTool Partition Wizard to carry out SSD partition alignment. In the process, partition data won't be influenced and operations are simple as well.

Firstly, run MiniTool Partition Wizard and then select the SSD partition that will be aligned. Then click "Align Partition" on the left, shown as follows.



Secondly, click "Apply" to perform the operation of aligning SSD partition, as follows.



After the free partition magic stops operating, SSD partition alignment is finished successfully.

Are you still being annoyed by low performance of SSD in Windows Server 2003 because SSD partition is not aligned? If you are, MiniTool Partition Wizard will be the best solution to SSD partition alignment. Please visit its official website http://www.partitionwizard.com/ to download it and then align partition on SSD.