How to make sure 2TB Western Digital is good for Windows XP + pick the best one

[c627627]

Useful Western Digital links:

• Advanced Format Technology pdf:
http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/?id=216&type=87

• Advanced Format Hard Drive Download Utility:
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=120#tab10

• Advanced Format Software
http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=805

• WD Align Chart:


• How to install a WD Advanced Format Drive on a non-Windows Operating System:
http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5655



Thank you mrpete of AnandTech for clear GParted instructions above.

mrpete also suggests:

If you want to test the disk then ...

Unaligned partitions on advanced format disks will only perform at ~50% speed on random 4 KB writes when the total amount of random write exceeds 4 times the amount of cache on the disk drive and no 4 KB write is to the same location. If you can implement such a test yourself then you are pretty good. Maybe one of the disk test suites could do this?

If you want to do a really useful test then here's a suggestion. Gather advanced format disks from WD, Seagate, Samsung and Hitachi. Format them in the default way by XP. Do NOT jumper the WD disk. You now have 4 advanced format disks that have unaligned partitions (all start at LBA 63). The firmware on all the disks can handle this situation to a greater or lesser extent. Seagate claims that their firmware handles this situation by far the best and indeed that the performance of their advanced format disks in this situation will be quite close to that of a properly aligned partition. Test the performance of the group of disks while writing 25 KB (tiny Word doc) and 100 MB files.

The writing/rewriting of the 25 KB files should be done in such a way as to ensure that (1) each subsequently rewritten file is in a different track from the previously rewritten file and (2) the disk cache will be overflowed before the rewriting starts. The 25 KB test could be done in a butterfly fashion ... write files 1 - 5000 ... then rewrite 1, then 2000, then 2, then 1999, then 3, then 1998 ... etc. The time to watch is the rewrite time for files 1 through 2000. The cache will have been effectively voided by writing files 2001 through 5000 and you'll also get the effect of jumping from track to track. The controller might take the track jump as a signal to write out the cache.

All the unaligned partition disks should be able to handle the 100 MB file writes reasonably well by simply caching the disk writes and mostly avoiding the read/modify/write penalty of writing to an unaligned partition. If any of the disks give 50% speed performance on that test then that would be HUGE news. A comparison of the speed between the different disks would be interesting and will indicate the skill of the folks producing the firmware.

The random 25 KB file rewrites are a much more difficult test for the unaligned partition disks. On a percentage basis the firmware will not be able use caching nearly as much. Seagate is so confident their disks will perform well that they do not even offer an alignment tool.

Of course, in order to compare the results of the above tests you need to also repartition the above disks in a properly aligned way and then rerun the tests.

properly aligned = start LBA is evenly divisible by 8 [if WD has a jumper then (start LBA+1)/8]

 

[Psykoikonov]

Good advice to run the manufacturer's diagnostics on a new drive before using it. Especially with failure rates as high as they've been reported on some of the bigger drives.

 

[deathman20]

Question, how long does it take to run an extended test on these 2TB drives?

 

[c627627]

I simply let it go overnight but depending on your system, several hours on mine. I would absolutely not start using a 2TB drive before doing a long format and doing an extended test following that.

The format itself may take 5, 6 hours.


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[deathman20]

Ok wasn't sure when it showed 87 hours on that image above. Been probably close to a decade since I did a long format.

 

[pc8200]

Advanced Format Software

After multiple EDITS:


Friendly advice, unless you want to get a headache - maybe skip reading posts 2-98


• Advanced Format Software
http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=805

.

I try to download "Advanced Format Software" but I go around cannot be able to download it. Can you tell me if it is really something wromg with the web page or I need to do somethig extra. I did register with WD and I need to format a 2TB drive
Thank you

 

[c627627]

Welcome to the forums. To answer your question, you are correct, this issue should be emailed to Western Digital so they can fix it.
This problem is now at least three months old, look:
http://community.wdc.com/t5/Desktop...OT-OBTAINABLE-How-do-I-get/td-p/409920/page/1


If you can connect your drive to a Windows 7 or Vista machine, you can simply format/partition it under Win7/Vista then take the drive to a WinXP machine. As long as you don't format it under Windows XP after that, it will be aligned without the need to use any software or jumpers.

If you have no access to a Windows 7/ Vista machine then

For single partition Advanced Format WD drives under Windows XP, if you place a jumper on pins 7-8 and boot into Windows XP > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Storage > Disk Management >

A Wizard will pop-up in Windows XP to initialize the disk. CHECK the disk to be initialized but UNCHECK the disk when asked to convert it to a dynamic disk. Then right click on the Disk > New Partition... > Next > Next > Next > Next > UNCHECK: Perform a quick format > Next > Finish

 

[c627627]

I try to download "Advanced Format Software" but I go around cannot be able to download it. Can you tell me if it is really something wromg with the web page or I need to do somethig extra. I did register with WD and I need to format a 2TB drive
Thank you

I asked them and here is what they told me:
"To download the file, please log in to your account first and then go to the product registration tab. Next to the warranty expiration date of your device, you will see the "Downloads" option. Just click on it to go to your device's download page. You should be able to download any file you see here."

Wow, they really restrict these downloads to ONLY owners of drives still under warranty. Forcing people to look for and download the software from questionable sources.

 

[tehinternet]

Sorry to go all necro-thread on you.

I have a bunch of 2 TB Western Digital WD20EARS HD's that are on my current XP system. I'm planning on upgrading to Win7. Since they're advanced format drives I had to run the WD Align software to make them work properly in XP. These are non-OS drives with only 1 NTFS partition on each of them for file storage. I am not current using the jumper across pins 7&8 in XP.

I am worried how these will respond in Win7. Everything I find on the internet is about new installs, but nothing seems to mention upgrading OS's with these drives. Everything says the drives work fine out of the box on Win7 and that WD Align doesn't need to be run on Win7, but I can't find anything about upgrading to Win7 after the WD Align software has already been run in XP and what to do in Win7.

Any ideas if I would need to reformat them in Win7, install and run the WD Align software again. If I do run the WD Align in Win7, will I lost data? Or will they detect correctly like normal drives in Win7? My main concern is data loss or data being unaccessible in Win7.

Thanks.

 

[c627627]

The storage drives you are using will be fully accessible under Windows 7.

You will not loose data. This is about performance - not data access/loss.


The best thing to do with these has always been to, without using any jumpers, format these drives under Windows 8/7/Vista then not format them under Windows XP after that.


Since you formatted these under Windows XP, for best performance, if you can move data away, format them under Windows 7 (no jumpers) then move data back, that would be the best option.

Otherwise this is about performance which you will have a chance to assess when you connect them to Windows 7. They will work just fine, but if you wanted to increase their performance then the quickest and easiest way is to move data away, nuke the drive by deleting the partition, then format from scratch under Windows 7 then move data back to it.

 

[tehinternet]

Thanks!

That makes a lot sense. I sort of remember something about when I set them up that it might work under win7 but I wasn't sure and couldn't find any info on it.

I think I have just enough free space to be able to shift my data around enough to free up one of the drives to be able to format it in Win7! (that's probably going to be almost 1 day per drive....)

What's the reason for the performance increase? Is it XP formatting the drive as 512 MB sectors/blocks/whatnot as opposed to 4096 MB ones in Win7?

 

[c627627]

In short, when Windows XP creates a primary disk partition -- it is not evenly divisible by eight. This is not a problem when it comes to read speeds and sequential write speeds but this kills small and random writes. [Advanced Format technology hard drives use sectors with 4,096 bytes of user data.]


The problem is with initial formatting. The solution is to simply format the drive under Windows 8/7/Vista - then you can use it on any Windows XP machine after that without performance hits... as long as you do not use Windows XP to format or create partitions on these drives after that.

 

[tehinternet]

Thanks!

 

[Audioaficionado]

I use Parted Magic as part of a bootable CD/USB iso. Just did all the partitions and formatting prior to installing XP.

 

[mcoomer]

I'll preface this by saying that I didn't read the previous 114 posts. Skimmed some but anyway...

I've just installed a WD Green 2.5TB (WD25EZRX) drive in Win 7 64-bit but in My Computer it shows as 1.99TB. When I go into disk management I can see that one partition is 2.2TB or so and there is unallocated space of 230GB or so (I'm at work so numbers are approximate). I did a simple partition and quick format setup with no jumpers but after reading a few posts in this thread it sounds like I should do a long format on the drive. I would appreciate it if someone could spell out the best way to install this drive and maximize the space it provides and tell me if the large unallocated space is normal. This drive will be used for storage so I want to squeeze every bit I can out of it.

Thanks,
Mike

 

[c627627]

I'll preface this by saying that I didn't read the previous 114 posts.
Thanks,
Mike

That's OK Mike, just ask q's and we'll help you.

The long format is an investment of time you make initially to make sure that the drive is OK. Sometimes people do it overnight because it may take a long time. It doesn't effect the problem you are having.


Jumpers are only for Windows XP and then only if you do not have access to Windows Vista/7/8 computer, so good thing you are not using them.


230GB of unallocated space is not normal. You will probably get more responses by starting your own thread in the storage section but,

Be sure to UNCHECK the disk when asked to convert it to a dynamic disk.

and try deleting all partitions and formatting again like this:





Otherwise use this freeware to combine the partitions.
http://www.partition-tool.com/download.htm

Data loss can occur on the 2.5 TB drive, so be very careful if you do not have backups.