On Mar 5, 2012 11:04 PM, "Alex Schuster" <wo...@wonkology.org> wrote: > > Grant writes: > > > > The performance is only impacted if the sector size is something other > > > than 512 bytes. The newer 4K sector size used by some higher density > > > drives requires that you start partitions on a sector boundary or they > > > will perform badly. There isn't an actually performance need to > > > actually start on 2048 but the fdisk-type developer folks are doing > > > that to be more compatible with newer Windows installations. > > > > All my drives says this from fdisk: > > > > Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes > > Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes > > I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes > > Neither fdisk nor hdparm seem to get the correct sector size, at least > not always. That's what I read somewhere (and not only once), and it's > true for my own 2TB drive which I know to have a 4K sector size. I'd say > you have to look up the specs on the vendor's web size to be sure. > > > So it doesn't matter where the first partition starts? > > If you have 4K sectors (and not a Seagate drive with SmartAlign [*]), it > does. > > BTW, here's some benchmarks I just stumbled upon: > http://hothardware.com/Articles/WDs-1TB-Caviar-Green-w-Advanced-Format-Windows-XP-Users-Pay-Attention/?page=2 > > [*] I don't want to sound like I'm advertising for Seagate here, but at > least it seems that with SmartAlign the performance impact will be > much less, so it might not be worth the trouble of re-partitioning drives > that are already being used. > > Wonko >
The problem with SmartAlign is that..*.* it's magic... once you run out of mana, you can kiss your data goodbye. In other words, I tried to find how it works, but Seagate seems to be mum; and that is ungood. Without knowing how exactly the technology works, how can we be sure that it won't blow up when encountering edge/corner cases? So, albeit nice (in the sense that one does not have to experience the headache in ensuring that partitions are properly aligned), I personally will stay away from magical things. Rgds,
