Hard drive evolution could hit Microsoft XP users
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From: DevilsPGD on 12 Mar 2010 17:46 In message <4b9a44ff$0$10555$c3e8da3(a)news.astraweb.com> Ed Light <nobody(a)nobody.there> was claimed to have wrote: >WD has a utility to align for XP. That will work for the first generation 4KB drives that emulate 512byte sectors, but not once 4KB comes out in native mode.
From: Rod Speed on 12 Mar 2010 18:39 Andrew Hamilton wrote > Yousuf Khan<bbbl67(a)spammenot.yahoo.com> wrote >> BBC News - Hard drive evolution could hit Microsoft XP users >> "By early 2011 all hard drives will use an "advanced format" that >> changes how they go about saving the data people store on them. >> The move to the advanced format will make it easier for hard drive makers >> to produce bigger drives that use less power and are more reliable. >> However, it might mean problems for Windows XP users >> who swap an old drive for one using the changed format. " >> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8557144.stm No reason why it cant use standard 512 byte LBAs to the system its connected to. > Is there any way to do a low-level format on > an older drive so that it now has 4K sectors? Nope, not with standard ATA and SATA drives. > Way, way, way back when. Floppy diskette sectors started out at 128B, > the moved to 256B. IBM pioneered 512B sectors when they brought out > the PC in 1981. Of course, with the right parameters sent to the FD > 1765 controller chip, any system could read the 512B sector diskettes. There is no separate controller with hard drives, that functionality is on the drive itself.
From: Rod Speed on 12 Mar 2010 18:42 DevilsPGD wrote: > Ed Light <nobody(a)nobody.there> wrote >> WD has a utility to align for XP. > That will work for the first generation 4KB drives that emulate > 512byte sectors, but not once 4KB comes out in native mode. You dont know that they wont be able to appear to have 512 byte sectors but just have those as part of 4K sectors. Its perfectly possible for the drive to look like its got 512 byte sectors but actually has 4K sectors on the platters.
From: DevilsPGD on 17 Mar 2010 16:26 In message <8001rqFi5vU1(a)mid.individual.net> "Rod Speed" <rod.speed.aaa(a)gmail.com> was claimed to have wrote: >DevilsPGD wrote: >> Ed Light <nobody(a)nobody.there> wrote > >>> WD has a utility to align for XP. > >> That will work for the first generation 4KB drives that emulate >> 512byte sectors, but not once 4KB comes out in native mode. > >You dont know that they wont be able to appear to have >512 byte sectors but just have those as part of 4K sectors. > >Its perfectly possible for the drive to look like its got 512 byte >sectors but actually has 4K sectors on the platters. > Right -- I just said that, that's the "first generation 4KB drives that emulate 512byte sectors" XP apparently will not be able to cope with drives that present 4KB sectors to the OS. My guess is that we'll start out with drives that work only in emulation mode, then drives that work in either mode based on a jumper (similar to the -150 mode limiter for poorly designed SATA controllers), until finally we get 4KB-only drives.
From: Rod Speed on 17 Mar 2010 18:06 DevilsPGD wrote > Rod Speed <rod.speed.aaa(a)gmail.com> wrote >> DevilsPGD wrote >>> Ed Light <nobody(a)nobody.there> wrote >>>> WD has a utility to align for XP. >>> That will work for the first generation 4KB drives that emulate >>> 512byte sectors, but not once 4KB comes out in native mode. >> You dont know that they wont be able to appear to have >> 512 byte sectors but just have those as part of 4K sectors. >> Its perfectly possible for the drive to look like its got 512 >> byte sectors but actually has 4K sectors on the platters. > Right -- I just said that, No you didnt. > that's the "first generation 4KB drives that emulate 512byte sectors" No reason why drives cant optionally do that forever. > XP apparently will not be able to cope with drives that present 4KB sectors to the OS. So all thats necessary is drives that can do that emulation optionally and a ute to change that behaviour. > My guess is that we'll start out with drives that work only in emulation > mode, then drives that work in either mode based on a jumper Or do that electronically without using a jumper, like so many do with all sorts of other config stuff like AAM etc etc etc. > (similar to the -150 mode limiter for poorly designed SATA controllers), > until finally we get 4KB-only drives. Why would they remove that capability once its there ?
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