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<div>For starters, are we talking about the possibility of 4 KB sector size instead of 512 bytes?</div>
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<div>I don't have Linux-specific (or even Unix-specific) knowledge on this, but I sure know about this topic overall and have strong thoughts.</div>
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<div>That asinine 512 byte sector size that we got from the original IBM PC-XT around 1982-1983 has been a huge space waster and efficiency killer ever since! It truly ought to be relegated to the trash heap (of history). In fact, the concept of a cluster in the DOS/Windows FAT file systems was only created for this reason, and it only partially offset the problem (it doesn't address the space wastage). Even with a perfect OS, many of the older hard disk controllers were themselves retricted to 512 byte sectors.</div>
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<div>Even the older versions of DOS and Windows had settable parameters for media sector size, but forums pointed out that these had never been properly tested. Interestingly, the Fujitsu magneto-optical drives that I handled in the 1990's and early 2000's used multi-KB sectors (as did all other magneto-optical drives), and came with drivers and/or software to "make them work" with DOS/Windows.</div>
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<div>So, I encourage larger sectors, and hope that the current Linux world handles them well. I should think that modern SATA and SCSI hardware controllers (especially the SATA controllers on the disks) can handle this.</div>
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<div>Hartmut Sager</div>
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<div class="gmail_quote">On 19 January 2013 17:54, Kevin McGregor <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:kevin.a.mcgregor@gmail.com" target="_blank">kevin.a.mcgregor@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
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<div dir="ltr">So... I picked up my lovely new WD Red 3 TB drives today and installed them in my home server.
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<div>Now what? :-) Specifically, I'm running Ubuntu Server 10.04 LTS (2.6.32-45-server #102-Ubuntu SMP Wed Jan 2 22:53:00 UTC 2013 x86_64 GNU/Linux), and I'm wondering if I should upgrade to Precise before I do anything with the drives, or use them as-is. I know I should align the partitions at (at least) 4 KB boundaries, and 10.04 by default uses 1 MB alignment, so I should be okay there.</div>
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<div>Should I worry that the drive reports</div>
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<div>fdisk -l /dev/sdc</div>
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<div>Disk /dev/sdc: 2199.0 GB, 2199023254528 bytes</div>
<div>255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 267349 cylinders</div>
<div>Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes</div>
<div>Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes</div>
<div>I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes</div>
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<div>...instead of 3 TB, and thinks the sector and I/O size is 512 bytes?</div>
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<div>Advice, please!</div><span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888">
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<div>Kevin</div></font></span></div></div><br>_______________________________________________<br>Roundtable mailing list<br><a href="mailto:Roundtable@muug.mb.ca">Roundtable@muug.mb.ca</a><br><a href="http://www.muug.mb.ca/mailman/listinfo/roundtable" target="_blank">http://www.muug.mb.ca/mailman/listinfo/roundtable</a><br>
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