"Disk Utility" - WARNING: The partition is misaligned by 1024 bytes....

[scruffyeagle]

My 2 cents:

Start by creating a little chart of how you want your partitioning to be when you've finished. This chart should show how many partitions, their approximate size, the types (primary, extended, or logical), the intended final format, and intended usage of each.

Begin by using Gparted from a Live session, to wipe the entire drive's partition table. Then, create just one partition for the Windows OS. Install Windows there, then check the partition's boundaries. If & only if the inspection finds no misalignment, then proceed to creating the next partition. If a misalignment is found, then start over and do it differently.

Proceed going each Windows partition separately for the sake of inspection, only proceeding after that newest partition has been verified as not having any boundary errors. If errors are found, then go back and do ONLY that one partition over.

Once you've finished the Windows installation, use Gparted from a Live session to create all the Ubuntu partitions in one fell swoop. And, proceed to installing Ubuntu.

NOTE: The partitioning of space for the Ubuntu installation can be done from within the installation procedure by selecting the custom partitioning option instead of "side by side", etc.

Installation of Grub for the sake of dual-booting will be done automatically by the Ubuntu installation script.

[srs5694]

Disk /dev/sda: 2000.4 GB, 2000398934016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders, total 3907029168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 3907029167 1953514583+ ee GPT
Partition 1 does not start on physical sector boundary.


sigh just installed natty on my new wd hdd

i want an xp partition too

It's generally best to begin your own thread rather than "hijack" an existing one, since two interleaved discussions can be very difficult to follow. Since this thread is so old, though, I'll reply here:

The Ubuntu installer, for reasons I don't know, defaults to create a GUID Partition Table (GPT) on disks over a certain size. (The cutoff is in the 1 TB to 2 TB range, but I don't know its precise value.) This is what you're seeing. The "does not start on physical sector boundary" message is unimportant in this case, and you're not seeing the actual GPT disks.

The most important problem with this is that Windows XP cannot read GPT disks; it reads only Master Boot Record (MBR; aka "MSDOS" and various other names) disks. If you were installing Windows Vista or 7 64-bit, and if your computer is a new one with UEFI firmware, you might be able to install them using UEFI mode; but with XP, this isn't an option.

Your best option, short of installing XP to another physical disk, is to convert to MBR form. There are several ways to do this, the simplest two being:

• Use GParted, parted, or some other libparted-based tool to create a fresh MBR partition table on the disk. (These tools call this an "msdos disklabel.") In GParted, you'd select Device->Create Partition Table; in parted, you'd type "mklabel msdos". Either method will erase your current partitions, so you'll need to re-install Linux. If you go this route, I recommend creating all your partitions (for Windows and Linux) in parted or GParted with 1 MiB alignment, since Windows XP will create its partitions with cylinder alignment, which will degrade performance.
• Use gdisk to convert the disk from GPT to MBR form, as described here. This will preserve your existing Ubuntu installation, although it will be rendered unbootable until you re-install your boot loader. Also, it's not clear how your partitions are aligned, so you might end up having to re-align them. If you've just installed, it might be easier to re-install with properly-aligned partitions than to re-align your partitions. Post the output of "sudo parted /dev/sda print", between [code] and [/code] tags, if you want to know if your current GPT partitions are properly aligned.

No matter how you do this, be aware that Windows XP overwrites the MBR's boot loader with its own boot loader. This will render Linux unbootable until you re-install GRUB to the MBR.

[Blindekinder]

Hi,
I have a new WD AF hard disk, and the same problem. Don't know if this is correct:

~$ sudo parted /dev/sda print
Modèle: ATA WDC WD7500BPKT-6 (scsi)
Disque /dev/sda : 750GB
Taille des secteurs (logique/physique) : 512o/4096o
Table de partitions : msdos

Numéro  Début   Fin    Taille  Type      Système de fichiers  Fanions
 1      32,3kB  236GB  236GB   extended
 5      64,5kB  117GB  117GB   logical   ext4
 6      117GB   236GB  119GB   logical   ext4
 2      236GB   361GB  126GB   primary   ext4
 3      361GB   746GB  385GB   primary   ext4
 4      746GB   750GB  3891MB  primary   linux-swap(v1)

Thank you

[Blindekinder]

maybe this helps too:

sudo fdisk -lu

Disque /dev/sda: 750.2 Go, 750156374016 octets
255 têtes, 63 secteurs/piste, 91201 cylindres, total 1465149168 secteurs
Unités = secteurs de 1 * 512 = 512 octets
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Identifiant de disque : 0x000af5d8

Périphérique Amorce  Début        Fin      Blocs     Id  Système
/dev/sda1              63   460053404   230026671    5  Etendue
Partition 1 does not start on physical sector boundary.
/dev/sda2       460053405   705301694   122624145   83  Linux
Partition 2 does not start on physical sector boundary.
/dev/sda3       705301695  1457545319   376121812+  83  Linux
Partition 3 does not start on physical sector boundary.
/dev/sda4      1457545320  1465144064     3799372+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda5             126   228187259   114093567   83  Linux
Partition 5 does not start on physical sector boundary.
/dev/sda6       228187323   460053404   115933041   83  Linux
Partition 6 does not start on physical sector boundary.

I'm in big panic, as I crashed my HD and I have big troubles to reinstall: Oneiric is unusable (doesn't boot), Natty I don't want, Maverick .iso is corrupted, so I installed Lucid and the upgrade to maverick, which I had before crash and works pretty well. Then I noticed this warning in Disk Utility, and re-partitionated HD... I'm on live session now...
Thank you for your help

[Blindekinder]

Ok,
I started on live-oneiric, then I re-partitionated all with gparted, letting it choose the start point ('align on Mo'), which I changed in the first install...
On oneiric every partitions was clean in Disk Utilities, and now in Maverick, only the extended one seems wrong (same warning).

Disque /dev/sda: 750.2 Go, 750156374016 octets
255 têtes, 63 secteurs/piste, 91201 cylindres, total 1465149168 secteurs
Unités = secteurs de 1 * 512 = 512 octets
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Identifiant de disque : 0x00036fe4

Périphérique Amorce  Début        Fin      Blocs     Id  Système
/dev/sda1   *        4094   462989311   231492609    5  Etendue
Partition 1 does not start on physical sector boundary.
/dev/sda2       462989312   689477631   113244160   83  Linux
/dev/sda3       689477632  1455841279   383181824   83  Linux
/dev/sda4      1455841280  1465147391     4653056   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda5            4096   228720639   114358272   83  Linux
/dev/sda6       228722688   462989311   117133312   83  Linux

Disque /dev/sdb: 250.1 Go, 250059350016 octets
255 têtes, 63 secteurs/piste, 30401 cylindres, total 488397168 secteurs
Unités = secteurs de 1 * 512 = 512 octets
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Identifiant de disque : 0x000bf923

Périphérique Amorce  Début        Fin      Blocs     Id  Système
/dev/sdb1              63   488392064   244196001   83  Linux

Is that a problem?
Thank's

[jackhill99]

Hey everyone

I had problems formatting my new 2TB WD drive in Ubuntu 10.04. I kept on getting misaligned warnings but eventually found a working solution using parted

This is what I did to remove the alignment warnings and successfully format my drive

From the shell as root

parted -a opt /dev/sde (replace with your device)
(parted) u MiB
(parted) rm 1
(parted) mkpart primary 1 100%
(parted) quit

I then used the disk utility to format my drive, no errors!!

Hope this helps

[hardisty]

Sorry to revive this again, but I'm having the same problem and I find many of the comments to be confusing to my newbie brain.

Is this really damaging my performance significantly? I only use Ubuntu, I only have Windows on there as a backup. (Hey, I had to pay for the damn OS, might as well have it in case! )

hardisty@TARDIS:~$ sudo fdisk -lu
[sudo] password for hardisty: 

Disk /dev/sda: 640.1 GB, 640135028736 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 77825 cylinders, total 1250263728 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xd7ad165c

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *        2048      409599      203776    7  HPFS/NTFS
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2          411646  1217595391   608591873    5  Extended
Partition 2 does not start on physical sector boundary.
/dev/sda3      1217595392  1250050047    16227328    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4      1250050048  1250261679      105816    c  W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sda5          411648    23846911    11717632   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6        53145600  1217595391   582224896   83  Linux
/dev/sda7        23848960    53143881    14647461   83  Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order
hardisty@TARDIS:~$

Disk utility says /dev/sda2 is the one that is off by 1024

Thanks for all replies!

[flashback_rtk]

I had similar misalignment issues with a Werstern Digital drive over 1,5TB, though I didn't have to worry with any Windows partition. I got the solution by reading the article posted by user srs5694 (http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/li...r-disks/#tools) and using GParted. If anyone is facing a similar situation just be sure to leave 1MiB before the first partition (Works OK for Ubuntu I don't know if it does for Windows) and untick the "round to cylinders" option for every partition.

Thanks a lot to user srs5694 for sharing his/her knowledge

[growingneeds]

The problem with misalignment lies with the partition editor. The partition editor that Ubuntu uses during installation defaults to "Rounding off to nearest cylinder". Whereas for newer installers like LMDE 201109, it defaults to "Rounding off to nearest MB". After reinstalling Ubuntu for at least 10 times to verify this, I confirm that when using GPartEd Live CD to prepare the HDD for Ubuntu installation solves the misalignment issue.

Hope this helps.

[updatelee]

The problem with misalignment lies with the partition editor. The partition editor that Ubuntu uses during installation defaults to "Rounding off to nearest cylinder". Whereas for newer installers like LMDE 201109, it defaults to "Rounding off to nearest MB". After reinstalling Ubuntu for at least 10 times to verify this, I confirm that when using GPartEd Live CD to prepare the HDD for Ubuntu installation solves the misalignment issue.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the tip, got me past the install issue as well.

Chris Lee