Partition alignment explained

Partition alignment is the proper alignment of partitions to the boundaries available in a data storage device.

Examples include the following:

• 4 KB sector alignment with hard disk drives supporting Advanced Format (AF)
• Track partition alignment, partitions starting on track boundaries on hard disk drives
• Cylinder partition alignment, partitions starting on logical or physical cylinder boundaries on hard disk drives
• SSD partition alignment, partitions starting on NVM boundaries (with typically 4 KB to 1 MB in LBAs size) on SSDs and other flash-based memory devices
• RAID stripe alignment, partition alignment based on stripe boundaries

See also

• Advanced Format
• Data striping