SSD Partition Alignment Tool: Align Partitions Easily and Safely

To improve hard drive performance, especially of SSD, you can align partition under the help of AOMEI Partition Assistant. Refer to this article and get detailed steps.

Posted by @AOMEI December 17, 2024 Updated By @AOMEI June 22, 2024

Why do you need to align partition?

Align Partition, as it is generally understood, is to indicate the proper alignment of partition. This function is specially designed to accelerate the reading and writing speed for your hard disk, both Hard Disk Drive (HDD) and Solid State Drive (SSD). Thus, it greatly improves the operating speed of your disks and furthermore increases the efficiency of your computer. Therefore, it is of great importance to align partition.
One of my friends has a deep understanding of the benefits of aligning partitions. His work asks fast working step. Though he is a man of high operating speed, his computer always let him down and worked slow, especially when transfer data. He did try to find the reason but did not succeed. Once when we chat online, accidentally I knew that from him. Since I know what the exact reason can be, I told him the reason for the slow work of his PC and teach him how to realign partition. He did as I told him and it did work; his computer runs much faster than before. Now, he never worries about his work being affected by his computer anymore.

How to align the partition?

Then, how to align the partition? You can do it with the help of AOMEI Partition Assistant just as what I suggested to my friend. AOMEI Partition Assistant supports SSD partition alignment and it can help you to accomplish the operation. Then, how to align partition with the help of AOMEI Partition Assistant? Just follow this article.
Before you do
  • If there are other applications running on the partition which you are going to perform, AOMEI Partition Assistant will notice you to close those applications or to execute this operation in PreOS Mode. Therefore, if you are going to align this partition, you have to close these applications or you have to go into PreOS Mode to operate it.
  • This operation may change the original location of your data, to keep the safety of your data, we suggest you view the tutorial “How to Safely Partition” before you attempt aligning partition.
  • This tool is very useful to align partitons. If you would like to use this feature, please upgrade to a paid version of AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional, Server, or above versions.

To align partition
Step 1: Right click the specified partition and select "Advanced" -> "Partition Alignment". 

Step 2: In the pop-up window, you could set the sector of partition to align. We advise SSD users to align partition in 2048 sector. You also can use the default size.

Step 3: At this moment, you can preview the result. Then, just click "Apply" to execute partition alignment and finish this operation.

Notes:
  • If the partition is already aligned correctly, AOMEI Partition Assistant will give you information to notify you as "The current partition has aligned to the selected sector, and it does not need to align it again".
  • Before you perform the partition alignment task, we strongly recommend you to check if there are any errors on that partition. Follow these steps to check partition: AOMEI Partition Assistant -> Partition Menu -> Advanced -> Check Partition.
  • Aligning partition will readjust the location of the data on that partition. If your partition contains a large amount of data, then the aligning operation will take a longer time to work it out. Notice viewing the estimated time of operation after clicking "Apply ".
  • You can also align your partition after copying it by ticking the option "Optimize the performance for SSD" if your destination disk is SSD format.