>> [snip] >>>> 1. fdisk won't let me specify a start block before 2048 even though I >>>> deleted all partitions. >>>> >>> >>> That's normal. It's a long story, but Windows Vista and Windows 7 expects >>> the first partition to start at sector 2048. >>> >>> You can force a lower number by toggling "DOS compatibility"; this should >>> let you start the first partition as low as sector 63. >>> >>> HOWEVER, make sure that all partitions begin at multiples of 8 (e.g., 64, >>> 72, 80, and so on); this will save you a lot of grief if it happens that the >>> hard disk you're using has 4KiB-sectors. >> >> I just looked up the start block for my other systems and they're all >> on 63. Is performance impacted on all of these systems since they >> aren't started on 64? >> >> - Grant >> > > The performance is only impacted if the sector size is something other > than 512 bytes. The newer 4K sector size used by some higher density > drives requires that you start partitions on a sector boundary or they > will perform badly. There isn't an actually performance need to > actually start on 2048 but the fdisk-type developer folks are doing > that to be more compatible with newer Windows installations.
All my drives says this from fdisk: Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes So it doesn't matter where the first partition starts? - Grant
