Advanced Format - Revision history

StrangeDOS: /* The Problem: Death of LBA 63 */

2011-06-16T00:26:59Z

‎The Problem: Death of LBA 63

2010-06-26T09:29:18Z

‎The Standard: + DENTIFY words 117-118

2010-03-27T13:16:38Z

Add ATA LPS/LLS feature set, add weblinks

2010-03-09T23:27:51Z

‎External Links

2010-03-09T23:26:48Z

‎Links

2010-03-09T23:26:28Z

‎The Technology

2010-03-09T23:25:53Z

‎The Problem: Death of LBA 63

2010-03-09T23:25:41Z

‎The Solution

2010-03-09T23:25:13Z

‎Links

2010-03-09T23:23:12Z

‎The Solution

← Older revision		Revision as of 00:26, 16 June 2011
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	The nutshell is that XP should not be used to format these drives, and some assumptions made by tools and users need to be corrected. For analysis purposes, note that you can't assume that an NTFS partition starts at LBA 63. If you are used to using, for example, the Sleuthkit command "fls -o 63 <image>", this may need to change. Hopefully more information about these drives will come forth as time progresses.		The nutshell is that XP should not be used to format these drives, and some assumptions made by tools and users need to be corrected. For analysis purposes, note that you can't assume that an NTFS partition starts at LBA 63. If you are used to using, for example, the Sleuthkit command "fls -o 63 <image>", this may need to change. Hopefully more information about these drives will come forth as time progresses.
		+
		+	LBA 63 was dying anyway. Windows Vista and Windows 7 both align to LBA 2048 by default. This change happened before the Advanced Format 512e drives hit the marketplace.

	=The Solution=		=The Solution=

@@ Line 3: / Line 3: @@
 =The Standard=
-ATA 7 (T13/D1532, INCITS 397-2005) introduced Long Physical Sector (LPS) and Long Logical Sector (LLS) feature sets. Drives with large sector sizes shall report the actual physical/logical size in word 106 of the ATA IDENTIFY data.
+ATA 7 (T13/D1532, INCITS 397-2005) introduced Long Physical Sector (LPS) and Long Logical Sector (LLS) feature sets. Drives with large sector sizes shall report the actual physical/logical size in words 106 and 117-118 of the ATA IDENTIFY data.
 Some Western Digital drives with "Advanced Format" reportedly do not provide the information about physical sector size (see [[#External_Links|External Links]]).

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 =The Technology=
 Hard drive manufacturers have moved to a new standard: 4KB (4,096 bytes) sectors, replacing 512B sectors. This is a good thing; it means that the signal-to-noise ratio improves, and less space is needed for error correction. Long-term improvements in speed, density, and overall capacity. Western Digital has started releasing drives with 4KB sectors under the name "Advanced Format" (not to be confused with the [[Advanced Forensics Format]]).
 =The Problem: Death of LBA 63=
@@ Line 10: / Line 15: @@
 To format one of these drives properly for Windows XP, use the following utility (this applies only to drives from Western Digital):
-[http://www.wdc.com/en/products/advancedformat/ Western Digital Advanced Forensic Drive Format Utility]
+[http://www.wdc.com/en/products/advancedformat/ Western Digital Advanced Drive Format Utility]
 =External Links=
@@ Line 16: / Line 21: @@
 *[http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/WhitePapers/ENG/2579-771430.pdf PDF White Paper]
 *[http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/green-terabyte-1tb,2078-2.html A Tom's Hardware Review of the WD Caviar Green Drives]

@@ Line 12: / Line 12: @@
 [http://www.wdc.com/en/products/advancedformat/ Western Digital Advanced Forensic Drive Format Utility]
-=Links=
+=External Links=
 *[http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3691 A Good Overview at AnandTech]
 *[http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/WhitePapers/ENG/2579-771430.pdf PDF White Paper]
 *[http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/green-terabyte-1tb,2078-2.html A Tom's Hardware Review of the WD Caviar Green Drives]

@@ Line 13: / Line 13: @@
 =Links=
-[http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3691 A Good Overview at AnandTech]
+*[http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3691 A Good Overview at AnandTech]
-[http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/WhitePapers/ENG/2579-771430.pdf PDF White Paper]
+*[http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/WhitePapers/ENG/2579-771430.pdf PDF White Paper]
-[http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/green-terabyte-1tb,2078-2.html A Tom's Hardware Review of the WD Caviar Green Drives]
+*[http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/green-terabyte-1tb,2078-2.html A Tom's Hardware Review of the WD Caviar Green Drives]

@@ Line 5: / Line 5: @@
 Operating systems written before the transition, particularly XP, have trouble with the new drives. XP makes an assumption about where the format should start (LBA 63), but this doesn't work well with the translation software that maps from logical 512B blocks to physical 4K blocks.
-The nutshell is that XP should not be used to format these drives, and some assumptions made by tools and users need to be corrected.
+The nutshell is that XP should not be used to format these drives, and some assumptions made by tools and users need to be corrected. For analysis purposes, note that you can't assume that an NTFS partition starts at LBA 63. If you are used to using, for example, the Sleuthkit command "fls -o 63 <image>", this may need to change. Hopefully more information about these drives will come forth as time progresses.
 =The Solution=

← Older revision		Revision as of 23:25, 9 March 2010
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	=Links=		=Links=
	[http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3691 A Good Overview at AnandTech]		[http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3691 A Good Overview at AnandTech]
		+	[http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/WhitePapers/ENG/2579-771430.pdf PDF White Paper]
		+	[http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/green-terabyte-1tb,2078-2.html A Tom's Hardware Review of the WD Caviar Green Drives]