fwiw, I asked Western Digital, and they replied: "Doing this will not align the drive for use with Windows XP. Advance Format are optimized for Windows Vista and Windows 7, so they work great these operating systems. If you format the drive in Windows 7, it will still keep the advance format and may have performance issues with when used with Windows XP."
So I'm a bit confused -- is there a particular question I should follow up with? On Thu, Mar 22, 2012 at 1:52 PM, Alex Austin <[email protected]> wrote: > It may already be formatted as such, but Win7 can make sure. > > - Alex > -- > Smart is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wise is knowing better than to > put one in a fruit salad. > > > On Thu, Mar 22, 2012 at 12:44 PM, Scott Matthews <[email protected]> > wrote: >> >> Thank you! This seems almost too simple, so forgive me for trying to >> make sure I do have it all right... >> >> So all I have to do is pop the 4k sector drive (2TB) into a USB >> enclosure, attach that to my Win7 box, and perform a Quick Format -- >> then I'm done, and it can be moved back over to the XP box? >> >> (Why wouldn't it just come pre-formatted this way?) >> >> Is there any downside to using this sort of 4k drive on XP (assuming I >> follow the procedure outlined above)? >> >> fwiw, I'm leaning toward a Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB -- also >> thinking about getting a Thermaltake BlacX Duet, which seems like a >> nifty idea (the didn't exist the last time I did this). >> >> >> >> On Thu, Mar 22, 2012 at 1:00 PM, Alex Austin <[email protected]> >> wrote: >> > The only important point to the drive, performance wise, is that the >> > main >> > partition begin on a 4k boundary. Windows 7 will make sure that happens, >> > and >> > format the filesystem with 4K block sizes, leaving it safe for Windows >> > XP to >> > use. Even if XP addresses the drive in 512-byte sectors, it will still >> > be >> > doing so in 4K chunks, and the drive will do the translation itself. >> > >> > - Alex >> > -- >> > Smart is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wise is knowing better than >> > to >> > put one in a fruit salad. >> > >> > >> > On Thu, Mar 22, 2012 at 11:57 AM, Scott Matthews <[email protected]> >> > wrote: >> >> >> >> > You could attach the USB drive to a Windows 7 machine, format >> >> > (initialize?) it there, then move it for use next to your XP machine. >> >> >> >> Out of curiosity, why doesn't it then "just work" (don't they come >> >> formatted)? ie, is formatting it on Windows 7 somehow changing it from >> >> 4k to 512 sectors? >> >> >> >> So all I have to do is attach a 4k sector drive via a USB enclosure to >> >> a Win7 box, Quick Format it there, and then it'll be fine back over on >> >> the XP box? >> >> _______________________________________________ >> >> Thinkpad mailing list >> >> [email protected] >> >> http://stderr.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/thinkpad >> > >> > > > _______________________________________________ Thinkpad mailing list [email protected] http://stderr.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/thinkpad
