NASLite Network Attached Storage

I have just purchased in error one of the new generation western digital advanced format hard drives ( 4Kb sector size ) which i found runs like a dog in windows xp.

I know that there is a ultillaty that you can download for xp to see the drive but don't really want to do this

http://support.wdc.com/product/download ... 18&lang=en

Will naslite be able to see this drive ok and be able to use it ?

I cannot take the drive back as i have opened the packaging

steve

Steve:

In the link you posted ... if you follow the Advanced Format Utility link on that page, it shows how you can make the drive work with XP by using jumpers, plus other instructions.

If you still want to use it with NL -- and maybe someone else can comment to confirm -- but I am pretty certain the formatting with ext3 should wipe out the existing format and no troubles should result (disclaimer: I can't be responsible for any data loss you may incur). But NL may use more than one partition, depending on your use of the drive ... so this "WD Align" could become confusing. As a double check, I filled in "Other' under O/S on the right-hand side of the link above and it tells me:


I wonder if there are any performance benefits with these new "Advanced Format" drives under NL. Probably not, other than that they also have larger buffers.

The 4kiB sector size is the size of the hard sectors on the disk - in the same way as current drives have 512 byte sectors (dating back to the days of the floppy disk....). I believe that there is a compatibility mode - but it is nothing to do with just reformatting, more to do with how the disk presents itself to an operating system.

According to western digital site the new "Advanced Format" drives are more efficent than the current ones, as each individual sector has been physically altered to hold a greater capacity, 4096 bytes to be extact.

They also say that using drive alaign utillaty the drive is able to emulate the 512 byte sectors but they will be a performance drain, as the 512 byte sectors may not alaign correctley with the 4k ones.


Not looking good is it ?

steve

now i am making no suggestions - but if you take a faulty drive back then maybe they will give you a credit note

if they insist on changing it like for like then you have lost nothing - how to make it faulty is down to you to work out

Hello Steve,

Before taking a faulty drive back, it should be no problem to throw it into your NASLite-2/M2 server for a test. You may find it works just fine.

Just a suggestion.

Thanks for your help on this guys, a mate at work has windows 7 and he is going to buy it of me

steve

Once the file systems catch up this will be a good thing but for now it is a pain in the ARSE!

Mike

Aparantly Windows Vista, Windows 7 and linux kernels relesed after september 2009 have all been developed to work with advanced format drives and therfore be able to benifit from the new 4K sector standard. Not so with windows XP.
Maybe Tony / Raph can confirm on the kernels used

Steve