Guide for Win Xp installation with Diskpar (alignment), nLite, Ramdrive, Page file Tweaks, Browser Tweaks, My Doc folder move and Print Spooler on Vertex
This guide is for the not so technical who want an ssd as their boot drive, Windows XP Pro 32 Bit and are not sure exactly how to set it up. If you do not understand a term in here, I suggest using the search function in the forums or Wikipedia.com . In case any of the links for software or firmware do not work, go to the following site, as I have downloaded and hosted these files for download on my own web space.
http://members.dslextreme.com/users/ocz
Any members want to add to or correct something I did wrong to this feel free as I have been doing this only late at night and have been a little punchy.
This guide has been made possible by the constant posting of findings and information by people such as Tony, therookie, Tyr, HDChopper, RyderOCZ, FZ1, rhys, and especially John333 for information and ideas, thanks man!.I know I am leaving people out here who have posted and added to my understanding of SSD�s, so I am sorry if I didn�t mention you. I have taken all they have posted, read through it, experimented with it, and tried to condense it into this guide.
I have included all of my own pics to help in the guide. This is a specific guide, and I would suggest reading through the forum as much as possible and getting more knowledge so you understand why things are suggested and how they help, and how your own setup might require a different approach.
I have been working on my system and after format after format and flash after flash, I have finally got down the best way to set up a desktop machine with a Vertex as a boot drive and Win XP 32-bit. I have a Vertex 120Gb that I use as my boot drive, and it�s on a an EVGA X58 with an Intel ICH10R with an Intel 920. It�s fast, snappy and runs solid with no BSOD�s or crashes and no stutters. This guide has turned into a book practically, and is long, but I have tried to go into as much detail as possible, so you can start with the guide and go all the way through, and end up with a fully functioning bootable Vertex SSD. I do not recommend imaging the drive as it will probably not save the partition offset, and a fresh new install just can�t be beat.:thumbs:
This is a little advice here before we start, and hopefully you can follow it, so in the end, your system will be something you are happy with.
The one thing that is a big boost to your system and SSD performance in the long run is RAM. With more memory, technically, your drive will last longer with the setup I will outline for you. Memory is cheap, and since you have already made the leap to an SSD drive, a little more money spent will hopefully not be too much of a burden. Get as much extra memory as you can afford.
In Windows XP 32 Bit, the maximum amount of memory the system can see is 3.25 Gb. Anything over that amount, we can use to make the system faster and also create less wear on your SSD.
DDR2 is cheap�. Below is an example of cheap memory (DDR2 PC6400) that can serve as a baseline for pricing on most systems, unless you need triple channel. The price kicks up a bit.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227199
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227284
For a little over $80, you can have 8Gb of memory, that is fast and will ultimately help you get a fast system and extend the life of your SSD.
Secondly, I am using SuperSpeed Ramdisk Plus, which is $49.95. I recommend using this software.
http://www.superspeed.com/desktop/ramdisk.php
This is used in conjunction with your RAM to give you a snappy and long lasting system. It is a decent price for the product. There are other Ramdisk products, but this particular one, can use the memory that is left over, that the OS cannot see. Since the OS can only see 3.25 Gb, the remaining 4.75 Gb can be used by SuperSpeed Ramdisk. I will get into this later in the guide.
ALIGNING THE PARTITION AND FORMATTING
You now have a raw drive with no partitions and no file structure. We need to align it and format it. Aligning the drive to an offset of 64 seems to cure stuttering and slow performance. It sets up your drive for 4 kilobyte writes, so you maximize the performance of your Vertex. Windows XP, by default, aligns the drive to an offset of 63, which fragments the data on your dive, making for problems.
As we are still booting off of the HDD in Win XP for this, and the Vertex is showing up as a secondary spare drive, we need to run a small software application called Diskpar to align the drive. You need to do this with the Vertex as a 2nd drive, with a working system so that you can run all these programs to prep your vertex for installation.Also make sure the vertex is plugged in SATA0 or SATA1.
1. Go to control panel and click Administrative Tools.
2. Click Computer Management.
3. Click Disk Management.
4. Your Vertex is showing up as a drive and is has a Disk Number. Jot down the disk number as we will need it in a sec.
1. Download Diskpar from the following location
https://kb.wisc.edu/images/group14/4556/diskpar.exe
2. Put it directly in the root of your C: drive on your HDD.
3. Click START>RUN and type in cmd and hit Ok.
4. Type cd(space)C:\ and hit Enter.
5. Type diskpar.exe(space)-s(space)Drive number. Hit Enter
6. You will get a message stating
7. Press Y and press Enter.
8. Another message will come up
9. Type in Y and hit Enter.
**Update 4/25/09
I am reconsidering the offset as windows vista and win 7 make an offset of 2048 Sectors by default or 1024k. Also with the Vertex, it has 512k erase blocks so with the offset the vertex set to 1024 sectors,or 512k, it would in my mind, would set up the vertex for matching size erase block/sector. There does not appear to be definitive answers to this particular question. Any number of (K) the offset that is dividable by 4, would work. 64,128,512.1024, They all seem to work, for now I am sticking with either 512K or 1024k for a single disk. People smarter than myself have been recommending an offset of 1024K, so take your pick. Do more reading about this in the forums and decide for yourself.
http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/fo...ad.php?t=56047
10. You need to specify the offset. Type in whatever you choose for an offset and hit Enter. The 128 you see in the screenshot refers to sectors which in reality is a 64k offset. The sectors value you put in diskpar is always double of the offset size. If I chose 1024, the offset would be 512K.
Diskpar | Size(K)
--------------
64 | 32k
128 | 64k
512 | 256k
1024 | 512k
2048 | 1024k
UPDATE 6/18/09
If you are still confused about alignment and why it helps, I found a great explanation from Ian an OCZ forum member and his post with the single picture explains it better than I have. http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/fo...22&postcount=7
11. Now at this point I created 2 partitions in my Vertex. One was strictly for the Windows XP operating system and the other was for programs I will install. I choose to give the operating system an 8 Gb partition and leave the rest for programs and wear leveling. (120 gig Vertex for example) At this point I typed in 8000 so it set up a partition of 8 gigs at an offset of 128 (64 really). In retrospect, I probably should have made the first partition 18000 as I only have 2.37 Gb free after loading on 5.43 Gb of operating system. I will probably go back and redo the system with a 18 Gb partition for the operating system. This would allow for space for the OS to write to if needed, such like a scratch area in Photoshop. The remainder of the drive will be set at the 64 offset, so when I format both the partitions, they are both at 64 offsets and ready to go. You can choose the entire drive, but if you choose to use EWF, it makes EWF unusable. Your choice.
12. Hit Enter.
13. I got the following returned:
14. Shut down the command window.
15. Click START>SETTINGS>CONTROL PANEL.
16. Click Administrative Tools.
17. Click Computer Management.
18. Click Disk Management.
19. You will now see under the disk number for Vertex, 2 partitions. Right click on the 7.81 and choose QUICK FORMAT.
20. Choose NTFS as the File System and 4096 as the Allocation Unit Size, and hit �Ok�.
21. After it finishes formatting, Right click on the drive and select �Mark Partition As Active�.
22. Now for for the 2nd partition on the Vertex, you need to format it. (Shows up on mine as the 111.43 Gb drive)
23. Right click on the 111.43 partition, ans select New Partition.
The New partition Wizard comes up, click Next.
Select Primary Partition, and click Next.
Choose the partition size (Maximum size) and click Next.
No need to assign a drive letter as your new install will do this for you.Click Next.
As before, you need to choose File System, and Allocation Unit Size. and choose a name for the partition. Click Next.
Click Finish.
23. At this point your Vertex is ready for you to load on Win XP. You will need to prep your Windows Installation disk for the install using the Nlite program if you want to streamline your installation.
24. If you were to go back into a command window for diskpar and type in
Diskpar.exe(space)-i(space)0 you can check on the 2 partitions and see that they are set for 128 and that there are 2 partitions.
nLite and Slipstreaming your Windows XP Disk
My EVGA did not have a floppy disk connector on the motherboard, so I had to include the raid drivers in the Win XP installation disk. HD Chopper also reported that when he loaded Service Pack 2 and also Service Pack 3 on AFTER loading on Win XP SP1 to his solid SSD�s, he experienced a big performance hit. I decided to slipstream my Win XP SP1 original disk to include RAID Drivers and also SP2, making the install easier.
Slipstreaming just takes your original Win XP installation disk and adds or removes whatever you choose. You can add Service Packs, Drivers, hotfixes, etc. It is surprisingly easy to use and all you need is a cd burner and burning software. You can download the nLite program at http://www.nliteos.com/download.html
.
Create a new folder on your desktop as this will be used to hold the modified copy of windows after adding all drivers and service packs. I called mine nLite Temp. After you install the program, run the program. Click NEXT. Here is the start screen.
Insert your Windows CD into your drive and click the browse button.
Select the windows cd and click OK.
It pops up a dialog box telling you it needs to copy the entire windows cd to a folder.
Then it will prompt you to point it towards the new folder you created. As you remember I called mine nLite Temp.
At this point nLite will copy the entire disk to that folder.
When the text �To continue, click Next� appears, click Next.
It will look to see if you have run nLite before and see if you had any previous sessions where you created a slipstreamed disk. This is the Presets page. Click Next.
Here you see the page where you can add service packs, drivers and even create an .iso file which you can burn to make a bootable windows installation cd. As you click on each one, it will turn green to let you know it is doing that task.
As I mentioned earlier, the original cd I have is a Win XP with service pack 1. I wanted at least service pack 2 and I also needed RAID drivers integrated with the windows cd as I did not have a usb floppy drive for the raid drivers. So when I integrated the RAID drivers into the nLite�d cd, I did NOT have to press F6 when windows started to install. This disk can have drivers, hotfixes and even make it an unattended install, which is kind of nice. Pop the install cd in and it will enter all the choices for me, when prompted by the windows install program.
Press Next.
Now hopefully you have the service pack you want to integrate as well as any drivers you want to include. Press Select and direct the program to where you have the service pack saved. It will then slipstream the service pack into the folder and when it is done will inform you that it has done it. Press Next.
Now this is where it got a little tricky for me as I did not know which drivers to select from the download from the EVGA site, so I tried something that worked fine. I selected Multiple driver folder. I had to direct it towards the folder that had the drivers for the ICH10R.
When I did that a screen popped up making sure I wanted these drivers and that they were for the correct version of windows (32bit or 64bit). I clicked on the location of the folder and highlighted it, and then clicked Ok.
Now I was not sure which driver to add to the install cd, so I decided to select ALL of them, by holding down the CTRL button and clicking on each driver. The one very important part here is to make sure the Textmode driver check box is selected or it will not work. Click Ok.
This page just confirms that the drivers you selected are the ones you want to add�..Click Next.
Now it will prompt you to start the process of adding the drivers. Press Yes.
After it finished the driver integration it showed the install size. Press Next.
You can label the disk with whatever name you want and click the Make ISO button to create a disk image. It will prompt you where it should save the .iso file. I chose My Desktop. Now at this point after it completed the .iso file I clicked Next and then Finish.
At this point you need to burn the .iso file to a cd so you have a bootable Windows XP installation disk. If you don�t understand how to burn a disk from an .iso file, then go here� http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm
Wootage, a user in the forum pointed out that you can burn the slipstreamed Win XP directly to a disk without creating an .iso file. I passed by this without even knowing...thanks man!
Change the Mode to DIRECT BURN Select the burner and label your disk.
Hit NEXT and burn the disk. Thanks wootage!
Installing WIN XP
I entered BIOS and selected the SATA mode and chose RAID. This way I have a vertex as my boot disk, a Raptor with a fully bootable copy of XP on it as a spare drive, and also my two 500gig drives in mirror for critical data and documents and Outlook database.
I installed the operating system as I usually do but when it came to selecting where to install it, I chose the 8Gb partition and did a quick format. If you do not choose quick format and choose regular format, you will potentially wipe the offset and it will format the partition with an offset of 63 not 64. Since the other partition would still be intact, it probably would keep the offset at 64 if you chose a regular format, but I didn�t want to take the chance.
After the installation I loaded my motherboard drivers, network drivers, and RAID utility. At this point I have a decently functioning system that I could start tweaking and continuing. I would suggest loading on all drivers, software and applications in the appropriate partition (the leftover 111 Gb) before running any registry tweaks or even running the OCZ Tweaker tool for AUTO CONFIG as I have had weird problems which I believe were associated with removing my paging file and not having a ramdrive to move my paging file to.
RAMDRIVE INSTALL
In case someone does not know what a ramdrive is or why it should be used I will try and give a brief and amateur explanation.
SSD drives can only be written to so many times (10,000 writes per cell) before they die. Most programs do some sort of writing to the hard drive. Firefox and Internet Explorer with their temporary internet folder data (cookies, content, pictures, etc) are easy examples of hard drive writers. You keep doing this heavy writing to the drive over and over, your drive will suffer for it. A ramdrive is a software program that takes some of your RAM and turns it into a �hard drive� that can be written to and erased without any wear on your SSD. It is faster than a regular hard drive and when it shuts down, it can save a copy of the entire contents of the ramdrive to a regular hard drive, or it can wipe the entire contents on shutdown. This provides for an area that programs can write to and a fast very rate, and the wear will not affect your RAM or your SSD.
As I mentioned earlier, I suggested SuperSpeed Ramdrive Plus as it can see unused memory. I have 12 gigs of RAM. I know 3.25 Gb is used for the operating system, and the remainder 8.75 Gb could be used by the ramdrive. The software is relatively cheap and worth it in my opinion.
First start the program and choose FILE>MEMORY
Click on the Unmanaged tab.
Click on the Configure tab.
Checkmark the box Enable the use of unmanaged memory then click OK.
Then a confirmation box pops up and then click OK.
You will notice the amount of Installed memory will show the total amount of installed memory. Click Close.
Now you can see the amount of memory windows uses and how much you have and also how much is left over. You can now create a ramdrive with all that leftover unmanaged memory.
After loading on the software, I ran the ramdrive and started to set up the drive.
I then set up the wizard to be on advanced mode. Click FILE and choose OPTIONS.
Then select USE ADVANCED MODE.
Then select ADD under the ACTION button to start building your ramdrive.
The adding ramdrive box will open. Click NEXT.
Click NEXT
Now as I said earlier I have 8.75 Gb of RAM that is not used so I chose 8 Gb of RAM for my ramdrive. I selected the �Zero Memory when removed� option as this will clear out the contents of my ramdrive every time I shut the computer down. If you want to save the contents of the drive for downloads or temp internet files which go to this folder, then do not check this box. Click NEXT.
I left the checkbox for �Partitionable� so windows sees it as an actual drive. Click NEXT.
Click NEXT.
I selected R as my drive letter and formatted the drive with the NTFS file system. Click NEXT.
One important item is to check �Use associated image file� as it will save the makeup of the drive (Drive letter, partition size, and file system) so that every time windows boots up, it will see the image file and load the appropriate settings so that you have a ramdrive. You can save this to your vertex or another drive if you wish, but choose the �Location of associated image file� at this point. If you chose to save the contents of the ramdrive earlier, then check the �Save at system shutdown� box. Also I chose to have it create a �Temp� directory that would remain after the system shuts down. The contents of the �Temp� directory will be cleared out, but it is a handy folder for print spooler and other things.Click NEXT.
Here is the final screen�.Click NEXT.
That�s it. You will have a drive in your system which consists of RAM only but you can write to it, save the contents if you wish and it will be fast. I will go over page file tweaking and then tweaking firefox for the cache folder next.
PAGING FILE TWEAK
I decided to relocate my �Paging file� location so I could take advantage of my Ramdrive and offload more writing from my Vertex.
1. Go to Control Panel.
2. Double click SYSTEM tab.
Select the ADVANCED tab.
Select the SETTINGS under PERFORMANCE.
Click the ADVANCED tab.
Click the CHANGE tab under VIRTUAL MEMORY.
I cleared out the paging file under my Vertex C drive by selecting the �NO PAGING FILE� so no writes would be sent to my SSD drive and clicked �SET�
Then I chose my Ramdrive and selected �CUSTOM SIZE� and gave it 6 Gb for both MINIMUM and MAXIMUM and clicked �SET�.
Then I clicked OK and I had to restart.
Now I have 6 Gb of RAM allocated for a paging file and all on my Ramdrive.
FIREFOX CACHE TWEAK/INTERNET EXPLORER
You will need to add a single command string into firefox to make it store temporary internet files and all cache data to the ramdrive. Simple.
Open up firefox. In the address bar type about:config
Click the �I�ll be careful I promise� button.
Right click anywhere in the values in the lower portion of the screen and choose NEW>STRING.
Type in browser.cache.disk.parent_directory into the �Preference name�
Click NEXT.
Type in R: in the string value.
Click Ok.
That�s it. Now all browser cache from firefox will go to the ramdrive and save writing over and over to your Vertex saving the number of writes.
You can also do this in internet explorer, (I still have IE 6 so these are my settings) by clicking TOOLS>INTERNET OPTIONS then clicking the SETTINGS button under TEMPORARY INTERNET FILES section. Click MOVE FOLDER and direct it to your ramdrive. It will log you off and then log back on and that�s it.
Google Chrome Tweak
I got this info from pill128, an ocz user, and set it up to have Chrome write to the ramdisk.
Go to both the shortcut, either in the quick start or on the desktop AND the executable in the START>PROGRAMS>CHROME and right click on it and select PROPERTIES
In the TARGET Box, click right after the " of the chrome.exe"
Right after the parenthesis of the chrome.exe" put in
(space)--user-data-dir=R:\Chrome The R:\ is my ramdrive which I just set up, so all temporary internet data is written to a folder called Chrome on my ramdrive.
Hit apply, then Ok.
If you look in your ramdrive, you will see a Chrome folder appear AFTER you start up chrome once. Chrome creates this folder every time you start it up the first time after a reboot.
Thanks for the info pill128, nice tweak find.
Moving your �My Documents� folder
I located my documents folder on the raptor hard drive so I can write and re-write to this drive without causing my SSD undo stress.
1. Right click on the icon on your desktop icon �My Documents�.
2. Select PROPERTIES.
3. Under the TARGET tab, click the MOVE� button.
4. Select the folder where your documents are located.
5. At this point do not move over the items in the existing �My Documents� as it is the default one set up by your new installation of windows XP.
Moving Temp and TMP Folder
This tweak was brought to my attention by Decide, an Ocz forum member. It takes the windows temp folder and also the TMP folder, and moves it to the ramdrive.
Go to CONTROL PANEL and select SYSTEM.
Select the ADVANCED tab and the click on the Environmental Variables tab.
Select The TEMP variable and then click EDIT.
The change the Variable Value to where the ramdrive is. I set up a temp folder on my R: drive. Then click OK. Repeat the same thing for the TMP folder and click OK.
That's it! Thanks Decide!
How to move the Windows XP Spool folder
Steps 1-4 are not really necessary as I created a �Temp� folder in my Ramdrive that will be there after each reboot.
1. Log on to the computer as Administrator.
2. Click Start, and then click My Computer.
3. Open the driver or folder in which you want to store the spool folder.
4. Under File and Folder Tasks, click Make a new folder. In the Name box, type the name that you want.
5. Click Start, then click Settings and then click Printers and Faxes.
6. On the File menu, click Server Properties.
7. Click the Advanced tab.
8. In the Spool folder box, type the complete path to the new folder that you created.
9. Click Apply. The following message appears:
The changes to the spool folder will occur immediately and any currently active documents will not print. It is recommended to allow all documents to complete printing before changing the spool folder. Are you sure you want to change the spool folder?
Ensure that all documents have finished being printed, and then click Yes.
10. Click OK, and then close the Printers and Faxes folder.
Moving Remote Desktop Cache Folder
When controlling a remote computer using remote desktop, massive writes are written to the controlling computer to speed up the remote experience. Desktop icon and all data shown on the remote screen are written to the controlling computer. After 10 short minutes I had over 20 megs written to my vertex. The following is a tweak to move the cache folder to the ramdrive.
1. Click START>RUN and type regedit.
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client
3. Right click and create a new STRING Value. Name it BitmapPersistCacheLocation. Right click on it and MODIFY it, so for example, to relocate the cache folder to the ramdrive "temp" folder R:\temp\RDPCache,
type R:\temp\RDPCache as the data.
4. Close regedit. All writes for remote desktop will be written to the ramdrive.
With the new TRIM tool, this makes the vertex last even longer with better performance. Download the tool and use it occasionally to help your drive. Basically when you erase data from within Windows XP, the controller on the Vertex sees the 512k block as "full" when in reality it is empty. Over time, the controller tags block after block as full, when it is not. The drive "fills up" to capcacity and slows down.
TRIM basically goes through all the blocks and resets empty blocks to zero so the Vertex controller really "sees" them as empty and can be written to.
Read about what it does in the forum so you know why you are doing it.
Trim tool post
That�s all for now. I am sure new and better tweaks will be out and hopefully this will help those who want a Vertex but are afraid how to set it up. With my experience of 4-5 second shutdowns, 29 second boot ups and almost an instantaneous computer for programs and applications, it is the fastest system, hands down, I have ever owned. All I can say is with the great support and tons of information on the forums here, try it, you won�t be sorry
If you have any additions or more tweaks or tweaks for specified applications, either post about it here, or drop me a message and I will try and experiment with it myself, and add it into this guide.
Thanks,
Chris
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