PAT tool,please clarify some questions

just got two samsung 2tb drives.
apparently there is a firmware issue, i started reading on it, and it took me into the world of alignment, etc, just what I need, something else to add to the chronic updates, patches, maintenance,etc; i'm ready to go back to paper and rocks, and i've been doing this stuff for 30+ years.

anyway
WHAT is required of PAT?
I have win xp machine, windows 7 machines.
can PAT run on either one?
if run on either one, does it do the same thing to the drive, despite the operating system?

can it run on USB-attached drives?

does it have to run all the time, or does it just tweak the drive one time?

can a PAT'ed drive be hooked to another machine (example, usb port) and still run OK?

I have HD 2011 suite, and it has alignment tool, but not ability to actually DO alignment unless it is copying, etc (I don't havethe professional version)

any help appreciated

 

PAT allows to align misaligned partitions on any Hard Drive you have. Do you have any issues with PAT?

You can use PAT in one machine but not in 2 simultaneously by License Agreement. So you can install PAT to any system you like. It is compatible with Win7 and WinXP.

Yes. It works the same way.

Yes, you can.

PAT should be used only once to align misaligned partitions. Once alignment is completed, there is no need to run PAT all the time.

Yes, there should be no issues as Win7 and WinXP successfully recognize aligned drives.

HDM11 Suite doesn't have alignment tool included. It just supports auto-alignment. To align already created partitions you should use stand-alone PAT.

 

thanks very much for reply. It's starting to make sense.

1. re: issues with PAT, I currently don't hvae it, but have been looking to get it, because of the info i started to find related to the samsung 2tb drives

2. hd suite 2011, wit auto alignment -
how is this different from PAT? What triggers auto-alignment to run?

3. re: hd suite - if an INITIAL alignment was never run, does the auto-alignment run; does this then accomplish the same thing as a full run of the PAT program? or is it partial? this is confusing

 

2. Auto-alignment means that all new created \copied via HDM partitions will be already aligned (w\o any actions from your side). But it doesn't mean that HDM 2011 Suite allows to align existing partitions.

The only way to align existing partitions is to use stand-alone PAT.

3. HDM creates already aligned partitions with corresponding offset. That's all. Alignment as separate operation doesn't exist there.

Please have a look at stand-alone PAT product http://www.paragon-software.com/technologies/components/partition-alignment/

 

i thnink your post cleard up my confusion.

to clarify for me, HD suite does NOT ALIGN partitions during normal copy (make image of c: drive, destination is d: drive on external USB port, NO alignment occurs)

with HD suite 2011, alignment would occur if I repartition an existing drive, either main drive or external drive (and tha would thus delete data on the drive)

Is that correct?


WHAT if I copy a PARTITION from man drive, to the external drive (clone the partition), or more accurately, copy image of main drive to another site, and then reload tht image to an already partitioned attached USB drive?

I do really appreciate your help
nick

 

@aoz

Please do not confuse "copy' and 'backup'. They are completely different operations.

Backup operation creates image of existing partition which is stored somewhere as compressed file.
Backup doesn't change anything on target or source HDD.

Copy operation creates clone of existing partition on the free\unallocated space on another HDD. it means that copied partitions are re-created on the target drive.

Please have a look at this article http://kb.paragon-software.com/para...atId=2124&objId=2605&statId=1624002&foLang=en

When automatic alignment is used (with default settings):
• Move partition
• Move and Resize partition
• Copy Hard Disk\Partition with resize
• Restore HDD \ Partition with resize

When auto-alignment is not used:
• Resize partition (only left partition border is changing)
• Copy HDD w\o resize
• Restore HDD w\o resize
+ all copy operations in RAW mode.


So to align existing partitions you should move or copy them with resize using new HDM. But is is not fully correct operation. All partitioning operations are potentially dangerous and using PAT is more safe than multiple operations on existing partitions to make them aligned.

By the way, if your HDDs were partitioned by standard Vista and Windows 7 tool (Windows Disk Management) they are already aligned. New Windows versions create aligned partitions be themselves.

 

Mech-an

thanks for reply.
your description clarified most items for me.

re: copy/backup -sorry, I understand it pretty well, but did not do a good job in my description, of defining what i was doing.

re: partitioning drives with windows - i never really have done that. I have Paragon, and have used that almost exclusively to partition, resize, etc, all my drives (great program, easier interface)

re: PAT, I am probably going to buy it

One other QUESTION
re: auto alignment, when move/resize partition -
what happens to the rest of the drive, if there are multi8ple partitions, and you only resize one partition (and you did not alter the other partitinos?

The main reason I ask is that I do realize it is better to use the PAT to do this, but I want to know what is happening to my drive, if an operation is done to it, and this automatic alignment would occur

thanks