Hard disks with sector size 4096 bytes may cause performance problems if misaligned

MrBrian · Jan 19, 2011

From http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/advanced-format-4k-sector-size-hard-drive,2759-12.html:

Be this as it may, the IDEMA hard drive makers (International Disk Drive Equipment and Materials Association) decided that all new hard drive platforms available in channel markets shall be based on the Advanced Format (4 KB) by January 2011, meaning that the question of whether or not we like this will soon be irrelevant--unless you want to be a rebel and buy an older hard drive model.

The application performance issues we've shown remain. But if you’re using a modern operating system like Windows Vista with SP1, Windows 7, Mac OS 10.4 or up, then you are usually safe. However, you will still have to look for alignment tools if partitions are created by an imaging utility instead of the operating system, or if you run multi-boot environments. In those cases, you’ll have to dig into sector alignment whether you want it or not, or you will face more substantial performance drops.
Click to expand...

Some resources:
Hard drive evolution could hit Microsoft XP users
Disk sector
Compatibility problems
Exploring WD's Advanced Format HD Technology (benchmarks on page 2)
Vista's New Partitioning Rules

Newer versions of GParted allow the user to choose between three different partition alignment boundaries - MiB, Cylinder, or None.

To find out what sector size a given hard disk uses, look at the specs from the hard disk manufacturer.

Log in or Sign up

Hard disks with sector size 4096 bytes may cause performance problems if misaligned

MrBrian Registered Member

Log in or Sign up

Hard disks with sector size 4096 bytes may cause performance problems if misaligned

MrBrian Registered Member

Useful Searches