Answered by:
New WD Adfanced Format Drives and WHS

Question
-
Hi all,
I have bought a new WD 10EARS drive. Unfortunately, I did not read about it before buying. It is an Advanced Format Drive (has 4k sectors instead of 512bytes).
On the drive and on the WD site, it says that if using the drive in XP, you have to use the WD align utility, and if you use another OS, you don't have to. But, in an article on AnandTech:
http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3691&p=2
it says that every OS with the 5.x kernel is affected, thus including WHS.
Does anyone know who is right? WD or AnandTech? Do I have to use the WD Align utility or not? The utility might not even run on WHS, it says that it runs on XP, Vista, Win7.
Thank you,
ChrisMonday, February 15, 2010 7:13 AM
Answers
-
U can read this
http://www.wegotserved.com/2010/01/31/forum-focus-western-digital-advanced-format-drives-and-windows-home-server/
and this
http://forum.wegotserved.com/index.php?/topic/11681-wd-green-2tb-drives-should-we-use-wd-align/page__st__20
u should resolve ur problems after getting corrected version of WD align Utility msi file, posted on second page (see links above) for main system drive and shortening 7-8 pins on advanced format WHS data pool drives.
Alternate way for main system drive - booting from burned afd utility iso file and align drive without booting WHS. Use this way for main drive only, use shortening pins 7-8 on data pool afd drives.
U can download iso file here - http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=805&lang=en use option 1 download section and burn it to cd disk, than boot ur WHS from CD and follow instructions.- Edited by Alec Muffett Monday, February 15, 2010 11:09 PM some minor changes and additional information
- Marked as answer by Chris_Ciu Tuesday, February 16, 2010 2:48 PM
Monday, February 15, 2010 10:56 PM -
Anandtech is correct.
I'm not on the WHS team, I just post a lot. :)- Marked as answer by Chris_Ciu Monday, February 15, 2010 5:58 PM
Monday, February 15, 2010 11:46 AMModerator
All replies
-
Anandtech is correct.
I'm not on the WHS team, I just post a lot. :)- Marked as answer by Chris_Ciu Monday, February 15, 2010 5:58 PM
Monday, February 15, 2010 11:46 AMModerator -
U can read this
http://www.wegotserved.com/2010/01/31/forum-focus-western-digital-advanced-format-drives-and-windows-home-server/
and this
http://forum.wegotserved.com/index.php?/topic/11681-wd-green-2tb-drives-should-we-use-wd-align/page__st__20
u should resolve ur problems after getting corrected version of WD align Utility msi file, posted on second page (see links above) for main system drive and shortening 7-8 pins on advanced format WHS data pool drives.
Alternate way for main system drive - booting from burned afd utility iso file and align drive without booting WHS. Use this way for main drive only, use shortening pins 7-8 on data pool afd drives.
U can download iso file here - http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=805&lang=en use option 1 download section and burn it to cd disk, than boot ur WHS from CD and follow instructions.- Edited by Alec Muffett Monday, February 15, 2010 11:09 PM some minor changes and additional information
- Marked as answer by Chris_Ciu Tuesday, February 16, 2010 2:48 PM
Monday, February 15, 2010 10:56 PM -
Thanks a lot!
I have used the WD10EARS as a DATA disk, but I did not use the jumper method. Instead, I have used the .iso Utility to realign the partition after adding the drive to WHS.
It seems to work perfectly.
Thank you for your advices.
ChrisTuesday, February 16, 2010 2:50 PM