Is a WD Blue drive a 512e drive? Confused!

NeilF

NeilF

NeilF

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About to setup a new Dell machine with a new WD 1TD Blue (WD10EZEX).

A warning note in the Dell box says special steps are required froa 512e hard drive?

The industry is transitioning to Advanced Format on 3.5” drives beginning January 2012.

Use Intel Rapid Storage Technology (RST) driver console to verify whether the drive is Advanced Format or not. The Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver must be revision 9.6.0.1014 or later and all the latest updates for the Windows Operating System must be installed from Windows Updates.

Click Start, Programs, Intel, then Intel Rapid Storage Technology.
Click the Manage icon.
Click Advanced and then click the desired drive.
If the physical sector size is 4096 bytes, it is a 4K hard drive.
If the physical sector size is 512 bytes, it is a regular hard drive.
If both the physical sector size and logical sector size are 4096 bytes, the drive is a native 4K drive.
Click to expand...

It then goes on to suggest if it is a 512e drive special drivers need to be installed yada yada.


Anyone able to clear this up/comment?
 
No you are misleading it, it is telling you all that song and dance is so you can verify not use ta drive that is the old 512.

You can do it in CMD without all that hassle.

Windows will work regardless but newer OS will the 4k drive natively while older OS will fall back to 512 using emulation AFAIR.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Format (half way down page 512e).
 
jh30uk said:
No you are misleading it, it is telling you all that song and dance is so you can verify not use ta drive that is the old 512.

You can do it in CMD without all that hassle.

Windows will work regardless but newer OS will the 4k drive natively while older OS will fall back to 512 using emulation AFAIR.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Format (half way down page 512e).
Click to expand...

So if I just ensure the drive is formatted to 4k after installing the OS? Job done?
 
Depending on the HDD the more modern OS should make it 4k by default or on older OS 512e (emulation).

I am sure my WD Raptor (latest Gen) is 4k/512e as its 1 couple of years old tech now but the newer drives like my WD My Book's Green drive are native 4k.

WD have an alignment tool that does it for you, formatting by other methods may mess it up and I do not get all my 3TB on the My Book.

I am not 100% on it and would need to Google same as you can.

I use this to test:


Quote:

"If you are using Windows, you can use the command:

fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo C:


It will show you the field byte per sectors, cluster size and other info.

If it shows that your sector size as 4k bytes then you are good to go, but there is a concept of "512-Byte Sector Emulation" that fools the OS into believing the sectors size is still 512 bytes (to prevent compatibility issues)."

Notice my WD Raptor (V drive) is 4k but fooling Windows into seeing it as 512e for backwards compatibly but my ext HDD My Book Green (Z drive) is native 4k.


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OK.. I've tried that command on two XP 32bit machines (to hand) and they both respond:-
Bytes Per Sector: 512
Bytes Per Cluster: 4096
Bytes Per FileRecord Segment: 1024

note: I don't get "Bytes Per Physical Sector".

So if I set up this brand new WD Blue disk on the Dell PC with Windows 7 64bit, what would I expect to see? ie: How will I know if it's setup best/right? Something like your V drive?
 
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I assume XP is the reason (old).

My V drive is an old install of Vista 64 and now a slave as all my games are on it.

I have Win 8.1 on a SSD, the V drive may change if I formatted it in Win 8.1, I am not 100% sure (hope you follow me).
 
^^ Sorry, I've very confused then by your comments.

When I setup this WD Blue drive with Windows 7 Pro 64bit, what would I (ideally) expect to see when I issue your command? Your V drive or Z drive's settings??
 
I am assuming my V drive will be all 4096 if I now formatted it in Win 8.1, it still has an old vista 64 install and all my games and some Programs on it so I simply boot to SSD and use it as a slave.

Though as its a 4k/512e HDD I am not 100% sure.

I would expect your new HDD to be same as my Z drive and pure 4096 in the above CMD in Win 7.
 
EDIT: Just done a fresh install on the WD Blue (Windows 7 64bit):-
Bytes Per Sector: 512
Bytes Per Cluster: 4096
Bytes Per FileRecord Segment: 1024
Clusters Per FileRecord Segment: 0


Good or not?
 
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