[ale] If you own (almost) ANY HDD, repartition with 4k boundaries
Ron Frazier (ALE)
atllinuxenthinfo at techstarship.com
Thu Jan 17 16:38:29 EST 2013
Hi Phil,
Gulp. Well. It looks like you might have possibly conceivably ... won
the bet. I must say I'm a bit surprised.
I think the Seagate SmartAlign technology might be cheating for you. 8-)
From their website:
"Seagate® Barracuda® Green desktop hard drives feature Seagate
SmartAlign technology, which automatically does the work of AF migration
in the background. The drive’s performance is not affected, and there is
no need for time-consuming utilities required by other AF-enabled drives."
http://www.seagate.com/files/docs/pdf/whitepaper/mb_smartalign_technology_faq.pdf
However, that's OK, since this IS an advanced format drive per our criteria.
So, assuming you're using the Windows boot loader, I guess, well, er, I
guess I'll have to pay up.
Just kidding, you beat me fair and square, so I'll have your $5 tonight.
Been wanting to meet you anyway, since, from your posts, you seem quite
knowledgeable.
I have marked several spots in your message below with a * ???. These
are places where the diagnostics you ran indicate a physical sector size
of 512 bytes. This is curious, and may be a result of the SmartAlign
function. The specs clearly document this as an advanced format drive,
though, so it doesn't affect the bet.
Having said all that, I would be hesitant to trust the reliability of
the installation without some testing. I posted an important update to
this thread here on ALE on Jan 12.
http://www.ale.org/pipermail/ale/2013-January/139797.html
I had data corruption on my Windows 7 installation on my new 4K drive
and Windows Update started failing until I updated my SATA controller
driver. It was very strange since the system seemed to be booting and
working fine at first. I spent an hour on the phone with a MS tech and
they couldn't help, because we were chasing configuration issues, not
data corruption issues. I ended up having to restore the HDD from a
backup which I, fortunately, had. Also, MS has been very insistent that
they don't support 4K drives on XP. Again, maybe the SmartAlign system
eliminates those problems. It would be interesting to see if you can do
that fsutil command documented in my post and see what the physical
sector size is reported as while Windows is running.
I'm actually amazed that the Windows XP bootloader didn't croak with a
partition starting at sector 2048.
Well, good show and good work. See you tonight.
Sincerely,
Ron
On 1/17/2013 3:13 PM, Phil Turmel wrote:
> Hi Ron,
>
> I got my Mini-ITX mobo and parts yesterday. I found time this afternoon
> to play with XP on the AF drive (so I can claim my beverage tonight...)
>
> On 01/07/2013 04:50 PM, Phil Turmel wrote:
>
>> Hi Ron,
>>
>> On 01/07/2013 01:04 PM, Ron Frazier (ALE) wrote:
>>
>>> Hi Phil,
>>>
>>> OK, I guess I left myself open for that.
>>>
>> :-)
>>
>>
>>> I'll make the bet under the following criteria. I have to clarify
>>> some things so we're on the same page. Here's what you have to do to
>>> win.
>>>
>>> You must get Windows XP running on bare metal on an advanced format
>>> HDD , partitioned on 1 MiB boundaries, with XP's own bootloader as
>>> follows:
>>>
>>> * This bet is between Ron Frazier and Phil Turmel only. No other
>>> participants can claim the prize. Helpers are allowed.
>>>
> No Help needed.
>
>
>>> * Windows XP must be running on bare metal, no virtual machines.
>>>
> Bare metal on a new mobo, an Asus C60M1-I.
>
>
>>> * The storage medium must be a hard drive, not an ssd or a hybrid
>>> drive.
>>>
>>
>>> * The hard drive must have 4 KB physical sectors. This must be
>>> documented on the hard drive maker's site. Please provide a link.
>>>
>> Seagate Barracuda Green:
>> http://www.seagate.com/internal-hard-drives/desktop-hard-drives/barracuda-green/
>>
>> # smartctl -i /dev/sdf
>> smartctl 5.42 2011-10-20 r3458 [x86_64-linux-3.6.2] (local build)
>> Copyright (C) 2002-11 by Bruce Allen, http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net
>>
>> === START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
>> Model Family: Seagate Barracuda Green (Adv. Format)
>> Device Model: ST2000DL003-9VT166
>> Serial Number: 5YD2EZNB
>> LU WWN Device Id: 5 000c50 032ffff5b
>> Firmware Version: CC32
>> User Capacity: 2,000,398,934,016 bytes [2.00 TB]
>> Sector Size: 512 bytes logical/physical
>>
* ???
>> Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
>> ATA Version is: 8
>> ATA Standard is: ATA-8-ACS revision 4
>> Local Time is: Mon Jan 7 16:10:20 2013 EST
>> SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
>> SMART support is: Enabled
>>
>>
>>> * You may NOT use the jumper on some drives that lies to the pc and
>>> claims sector 64 is 63.
>>>
>> Not applicable for a partition starting at 2048, but no, no such
>> twiddling on my part.
>>
> I used the drive above. Before installing XP, I performed the following
> steps:
>
> 1) Booted a USB thumb drive containing SystemRescueCD
> 2) Partitioned with plain old "fdisk" to achieve the following:
>
>
>> fdisk -l /dev/sda
>>
>> Disk /dev/sda: 2000.4 GB, 2000398934016 bytes
>> 81 heads, 63 sectors/track, 765633 cylinders, total 3907029168 sectors
>> Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
>> Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
>>
* ???
>> I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
>> Disk identifier: 0x8f248134
>>
>> Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
>> /dev/sda1 * 2048 3907029167 1953513560 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
>>
> 3) Formatted the partition with "mkfs.ntfs -Q -L WinXP2048 /dev/sda"
> 4) Captured the above fdisk output to the thumb drive.
> 5) Powered off to remove the thumb drive and set up my USB CD drive.
> 6) Installed Windows XP OEM SP3 from an original CD, no extra drivers
> supplied.
> 7) When prompted, instructed the Windows installer to use the existing
> partition, and to not re-format it.
>
>
>>> * AFTER the XP installation. The first partition of the hard drive
>>> must begin on sector 2048 according to gparted. A screenshot of the
>>> gparted information screen for that partition will act as proof. If
>>> Windows XP repartitions the drive during installation and changes
>>> the beginning sector, it must be repartitioned again to put the
>>> beginning sector at 2048. The hard should use MBR format.
>>>
>> If XP repartitions during install when I tell it to use the partition I
>> prepared for it, I'll concede the bet.
>>
> Windows did not re-partition or re-format. Post install and screen
> capture, I repeated the "fdisk -l":
>
>
>> Disk /dev/sda: 2000.4 GB, 2000398934016 bytes
>> 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders, total 3907029168 sectors
>> Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
>> Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
>>
* ???
>> I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
>> Disk identifier: 0x8f248134
>>
>> Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
>> /dev/sda1 * 2048 3907029167 1953513560 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
>>
> Unchanged.
>
>
>>> * Windows XP must be installed on the first partition.
>>>
> Yup.
>
>
>>> * Once the installation is done, Windows XP must boot and load
>>> properly on the above referenced hard drive.. A screenshot of the
>>> my computer properties screen will act as proof.
>>>
> Screenshot available here:
>
> http://www.turmel.org/wp-uploads/2013/WinXPonAFdrive.png
>
>
>>> * Windows XP must boot with its own native bootloader. If you have
>>> to repair a failed boot sequence, you may use only the Windows XP
>>> install disk, not Windows Vista or 7 or 8. If you use a Linux tool
>>> to repair a broken boot sequence, you cannot replace the Windows XP
>>> bootloader. Booting to Grub, for example, is not allowed.
>>>
>> I expect no repair required.
>>
> No repair or other intervention required.
>
>
>>> * Results of the testing should be published here to ALE with
>>> screenshots linked to in a publicly accessible place.
>>>
>>
>>> * If you get it working, you have to tell the rest of us how you did
>>> it.
>>>
>> Of course.
>>
> As above.
>
>
>>> If you get it working under these conditions, I will buy you a drink
>>> up to $ 5. If you try and fail, I get the $ 5.
>>>
>>> Let me know what you think. 8-)
>>>
>> You're on. And I'll buy Jim a drink anyways.
>>
> See you all this evening.
>
> Phil
>
>
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--
(To whom it may concern. My email address has changed. Replying to former
messages prior to 03/31/12 with my personal address will go to the wrong
address. Please send all personal correspondence to the new address.)
(PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might want to
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Ron Frazier
770-205-9422 (O) Leave a message.
linuxdude AT techstarship.com
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