Linux and hard disk sector size
in [UK Linux]
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From: jasee on 8 Apr 2010 02:57 Is the change to the basic sector size by disk manufacturers going to effect Linux systems?. It is said that it will effect Windows XP and earlier by about 10%. I'm just an occasional Linux user but I'm curious. -- Vista: the hd dvd player that thinks it's an operating system �JC 2009 Windows 7: a faster dvd player Hard disk important changes 2011: http://www.idema.org/_smartsite/external/bigsector/index.php
From: Gordon Henderson on 8 Apr 2010 03:31 In article <q7GdnWnjwv3b4yDWnZ2dnUVZ7vydnZ2d(a)bt.com>, jasee <jasee(a)btinternet.com> wrote: >Is the change to the basic sector size by disk manufacturers going to effect >Linux systems?. It is said that it will effect Windows XP and earlier by >about 10%. I'm just an occasional Linux user but I'm curious. > > >-- >Vista: the hd dvd player that thinks it's an operating system �JC 2009 >Windows 7: a faster dvd player >Hard disk important changes 2011: >http://www.idema.org/_smartsite/external/bigsector/index.php Well - these disks are already here - no need to wait until 2011. Linux itself is fine - what's not fine is the installation mechanisms that the various ditributions use - all you need to do is make sure the partitions are aligned correctly and off you go (maybe also make sure the filing system block size is 4K too - it's 1K on smaller partition sizes under mkfs -t ext3 for example) - fairly easy to do if you manually partition disks, but I suspect it might take until the next release of the various distributions until they get something in that makes it automatic. Gordon
From: jasee on 8 Apr 2010 04:31 Gordon Henderson wrote: > In article <q7GdnWnjwv3b4yDWnZ2dnUVZ7vydnZ2d(a)bt.com>, > jasee <jasee(a)btinternet.com> wrote: >> Is the change to the basic sector size by disk manufacturers going >> to effect Linux systems?. It is said that it will effect Windows XP >> and earlier by about 10%. I'm just an occasional Linux user but I'm >> curious. > > Well - these disks are already here - no need to wait until 2011. For some manufacturers it seems so, though the official date is 2011, it would have been helpful if they'd clearly identified the drives > > Linux itself is fine - what's not fine is the installation mechanisms > that the various ditributions use - all you need to do is make sure > the partitions are aligned correctly and off you go (maybe also make > sure > the filing system block size is 4K too - it's 1K on smaller partition > sizes under mkfs -t ext3 for example) - fairly easy to do if you > manually partition disks, but I suspect it might take until the next > release of the various distributions until they get something in that > makes it automatic. It seems that some distribultions for instance Gparted which are used specifically for partitioning should be used on these disks _if_ they produce the optimum alignments if you want to install Xp (or earlier) or earlier distibutions of Linux? At least you won't get the performance hit, though you won't get the performance advantage and the increased space. Although I've known xp not to recognise ntfs partitions created by these ultilities and insist on reformatting. -- Vista: the hd dvd player that thinks it's an operating system �JC 2009 Windows 7: a faster dvd player Hard disk important changes 2011: http://www.idema.org/_smartsite/external/bigsector/index.php
From: Gordon Henderson on 8 Apr 2010 05:24 In article <OYednSd5GIfuCSDWnZ2dnUVZ8tqdnZ2d(a)bt.com>, jasee <jasee(a)btinternet.com> wrote: >Gordon Henderson wrote: >> In article <q7GdnWnjwv3b4yDWnZ2dnUVZ7vydnZ2d(a)bt.com>, >> jasee <jasee(a)btinternet.com> wrote: >>> Is the change to the basic sector size by disk manufacturers going >>> to effect Linux systems?. It is said that it will effect Windows XP >>> and earlier by about 10%. I'm just an occasional Linux user but I'm >>> curious. > >> Well - these disks are already here - no need to wait until 2011. > >For some manufacturers it seems so, though the official date is 2011, it >would have been helpful if they'd clearly identified the drives For Western Digital, they're identified with the letters "EARS" in the product ID. So the 1.5TB drive is: WD15EARS Gordon
From: jasee on 8 Apr 2010 06:17
Gordon Henderson wrote: > In article <OYednSd5GIfuCSDWnZ2dnUVZ8tqdnZ2d(a)bt.com>, > jasee <jasee(a)btinternet.com> wrote: >> Gordon Henderson wrote: >>> In article <q7GdnWnjwv3b4yDWnZ2dnUVZ7vydnZ2d(a)bt.com>, >>> jasee <jasee(a)btinternet.com> wrote: >>>> Is the change to the basic sector size by disk manufacturers going >>>> to effect Linux systems?. It is said that it will effect Windows XP >>>> and earlier by about 10%. I'm just an occasional Linux user but I'm >>>> curious. >> >>> Well - these disks are already here - no need to wait until 2011. >> >> For some manufacturers it seems so, though the official date is >> 2011, it would have been helpful if they'd clearly identified the >> drives > > For Western Digital, they're identified with the letters "EARS" in the > product ID. So the 1.5TB drive is: WD15EARS > Yes, I read that article too :-) |