Which 2TB Hard Drive?

Ok guys i went for the WD caviar green.

Can someone tell me what i have to do to get this 100% working; does the firmware need updating or it is just that idle-time thing?
 
You can run the idle timer program so you don't have to worry about too many load/unload cycles. I set mine to 5 minutes and it's projected for ~4,000 a year, which is well within acceptable limits.

The only other thing is to make sure it's 4k aligned - Windows won't do this since the drive reports (emulates) 512k sectors and unfortunately there's no way to change this. I use "Paragon Alignment Tool" - it works great.
 
Thanks that is exactly what i was after. Though i was under the impression that as long as you are using win7 and not XP the align work automatically?

Also where do i get the programs you suggested; for the paragon it seems there is only a pay-version? Thanks
 
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SoildSnake said:
Thanks that is exactly what i was after. Though i was under the impression that as long as you are using win7 and not XP the align work automatically?

Also where do i get the programs you suggested; for the paragon it seems there is only a pay-version? Thanks
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Windows 7 aligns drives with 4k sectors correctly if they actually tell Windows they have 4k sectors (like SSDs). If the drive is telling Windows it has 512k sectors (like the WD Greens) then it obviously won't know align it correctly.

The program I use isn't free but I'm sure if you searched for alignment programs you could find some free ones.
 
Just got the drive and spoke to WD support he said i don't need to do anything for use in win7; just normal format; with normal settings; i'm doing full to check the disk to be safe.

He also recommended that i don't use any other programs or tweaks. Since i am using this part time in a caddy Ill leave it like that for now and see how it goes. Also i'm hoping that since the "publish" date on the drive is Feb/2011 that should mean it has the latest improvements/firmware etc
 
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No offence but that guy is wrong (or simplifying things). My WD Green wasn't aligned automatically. It'll work but performance will take a significant hit.
 
It was my understanding that you were also right; it would need tweaking. However i did a full format and i get 80MBPS writes to it from a Samsung 1.5TB F2 and it seems to work fine; but is there a way to be sure or is simply coping to see read/write speeds okay?

May be it has something to do with the very new production date; or perhaps windows has updated since other people installed theirs? Id be interested hearing people's experiences with very recent purchases
 
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