Gather the Partition Information

• 1). Log on to your computer with an administrator-level account. Some user-level accounts may not have access to the information you need.
  
  
• 2). Open a text file on your computer. You will need to save the information you retrieve in the following steps.
  
  
• 3). Retrieve the partition offset information for your SSD. You can find this information in the MSInfo application in your operating system, under the heading "Partition Starting Offset." To access the MSinfo application, open the "Start" menu, click the "Run" button and enter "msinfo." Alternately, you can browse to the "c:\windows\system32" directory and double-click the "msinfo32.exe" file. Save this information in a text file.
  
  
• 4). Retrieve your file allocation unit size. You can find this value by opening a command prompt and entering the command "fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo C:" where "C" is the drive letter of your SSD. The "Bytes per Cluster" value listed from that output is the file allocation unit size. Save this information in a text file.
  
  
• 5). Retrieve the "NAND erase block size" information and the "NAND page size" from your SSD's manufacturer. Save this information in a text file.
  
  
• 6). Retrieve the "Stripe unit size" (for RAID partitions only). This is the value you used when you created the RAID.
  
  

Calculate the SSD Alignment

• 1). Open a calculator application. In Microsoft Windows, click the "Start" button and choose "All Programs," "Accessories" and "Calculator."
  
  
• 2). Divide the partition offset by the NAND page size. If this calculation results in an integer, your SSD's partition has passed the first test. If this calculation does not result in an integer, your SSD's partition is not properly aligned.
  
  
• 3). Divide the partition offset by the file allocation unit size. If this calculation results in an integer, your SSD's partition has passed the second test. If it does not result in an integer, your SSD's partition is not properly aligned.
  
  
• 4). Divide the partition offset by the NAND erase block size. If this calculation results in an integer, your SSD's partition has passed the third test. If it does not, your SSD's partition is not properly aligned.
  
  
• 5). For RAID users, divide the partition offset by the stripe unit size. Also calculate stripe size unit divided by file allocation unit size. If these calculations result in integers, your SSD's partition has passed the RAID test. If they do not, your SSD's RAID partition is not properly aligned.