Partition Alignment?

Hey guys, so I just bought an Intel X25 120 GB SSD ($145) and was hoping the community could dispense some knowledge.

1. Planning to use Acronis to clone existing hard drive. Will this cause any conflicts going from HDD to SSD? or
2. Should I do fresh install?
3. Have been reading forums and came across something called partition alignment - what exactly is that and is it strictly for SSD or should I have done this to my current HDD?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Clone it or make an image and go that route. I did that with my SSD this morning (benchmarking SSD) and the alignment was fine. And I normally advocate a clean install. Use this to check alignment.
SSD Alignment Calculator

It worked for my benching 40GB SSD, so I think cloning may work. I'm just having issues imaging a raid array at the moment. If it doesn't work, just secure erase and start anew

 

Thanks for the info DR650SE. So alignment is only for SSDs?

 

Alignment is for anything, but SSD's are susceptible to poor performance if they aren't aligned properly (divisible by 64). I would do a fresh install on an SSD, only unless you do an image backup from the same SSD.

You can align it manually but it takes a few apps and some knowhow to know what you're doing.

 

Thanks, I think I'll take your advice htwingnut, besides, should be a good learning experience.

 

Someone here convinced me that I needed to redo my partition on my Acronis cloned XT. Crystal Disk benches were better beforehand by a smidge.

 

Depends on the SSD and the benchmark too. But SSD's are susceptible to degredation immediately and over time with a misaligned partition.