Advice on Western Digital "Advanced Format" hard drives under linux

telemeister · 03-01-2010, 02:50 PM

Recently I've set up a couple of Slackware-13 machines using Western Digital 'Green' drives, with software raiding based on the Slackware How-to. No real problems.

I'm setting up another, and just purchased 2 x 1-TB WD Green Drives, without realising that these newer drives are so-called 'Advanced Format', using 4K sector size.

There is a fair amount of comment regarding issues with this technology under linux, e.g:

http://community.wdc.com/t5/Desktop/...C04CB82C45B70E

AND

http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux....-linux-ng/2926

AND a reference given on this forum

http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3691

Apparently Western Digital have not expressed any desire to sort out problems with linux - they don't support it.

I haven't yet opened the packaging and am considering exchanging for another brand using more conventional technology.

My Questions:

1. Is anyone aware of a definitive solution enabling these 'advanced format' drives to be used efficiently under linux.

2. As an alternative, can anyone suggest an alternative large-capacity drive (e.g. hitachi, seagate...) which is well behaved (and perhaps even supported!) under linux.

Any advice would be much appreciated
Steve

smoker · 03-01-2010, 03:04 PM

Quote:

Notably, Linux and Mac OS X are not affected by this issue. Western Digital has tested both of these operating systems, and officially classifies them as not-affected. Ultimately we suspect that if you went back far enough you could find older versions of these OSes that are affected, but unlike Win 5.xx, there’s not a significant legacy user base to worry about. Along these lines, Linux and Mac OS X drive imaging products are similarly unaffected. In their testing, imaging tools such as SuperDuper didn’t run in to any alignment issues, so Linux and Mac OS X users are not affected in any way by 4K sectors. It’s only Windows and Windows imaging products that are affected.

http://www.anandtech.com/storage/sho...spx?i=3691&p=2

I couldn't follow the other 2 links, 404 on the first, and the 2nd timed out.

unSpawn · 03-01-2010, 03:21 PM

Please post your thread in only one forum. Posting a single thread in the most relevant forum will make it easier for members to help you and will keep the discussion in one place. This thread should be closed because it is a duplicate of http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...drives-792046/.

telemeister · 03-01-2010, 03:33 PM

Thanks Smoker

Yes WD claim they are OK under linux, but there is a lot of discussion indicating that may not be the case.

Sorry - I had accidently truncated the first link which discusses the problems:

Here is the full link

http://community.wdc.com/t5/Desktop/...INUX-WD15EARS/
td-p/6395;jsessionid=9DB46FDD640E162E34C04CB82C45B70E

Alternatively google "Problem with WD Advanced Format drive in LINUX" which returns the above.

You are right, the other link seems to be down right now.

Steve

telemeister · 03-01-2010, 03:40 PM

unSpawn

Re Multiple post..

Sorry - did previously post on the slackware-forum, but later realised this would be more appropriate.
I did notify the slackware forum that I was going to expand the discussion..

If only one is allowed, this one would probably get wider coverage. Is that OK?

Steve

unSpawn · 03-02-2010, 12:18 AM

If you find a better spot then you should not create a new thread but ask the forum moderators to move that thread using the "report" button on your starting post.