Dear all,
If you are not already aware, Western Digital have started to introduce new "Advanced Format" Caviar Green drives built to be partitioned with 4 kilobyte rather than 512 byte sectors. These drives are identified by the suffix "EARS" (rather than the older "EADS" - i.e. an R instead of a D) and 64MB cache (rather than the older 32MB). In the UK, the two-platter 1TB (WD10EARS) and the three-platter 1.5TB (WD15EARS) models are already on sale, with the four-platter 2TB (WD20EARS) model due to become available over the coming weeks.
Western Digital are rolling this technology out across their range and presumably the other manufacturers will soon follow suit with similar technologies. I recall that a Drobo spokesperson remarked recently that 3TB hard drives are expected to be released around April.
Here are some details:
http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/12/23/drobo-...-format-drives/
http://storagemojo.com/2009/12/21/why-we-need-4k-drives/
http://www.pcper.com/comments.php?nid=8113
http://anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3691
http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/whit...2579-771430.pdf
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/advancedformat/
A quote from the first link:
From the table listed, is this saying that Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Mac OS should automatically identify the drive as an "advanced format" model, removing the need for using WD Align? Where does this leave us for using loader-based or PC-based tools (on the various versions of Windows) for partitioning the drive into multiple partitions, including WBFS? ("> 1 Partition" as the table points out).
Incidentally, I am about to buy a Wii and my plan is to use an Antec MX-1 enclosure, turned on 24/7, with a brand new 2TB HDD. I intend to use GParted through Parted Magic running in RAM to create two partitions: a 1TB NTFS partition storing full-size Wii ISOs to be read by USB Loader GX / Configurable USB Loader; and a 1TB FAT32 partition storing all other ISOs and ROMs, including VC and WiiWare games, and also an emulated NAND ( http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=184...t&p=2501953 ).
Based on the replies to this thread, my 2TB drive will either be the AV-GP WD20EVDS, the brand new (not yet available in the UK) Samsung F3EG HD203WI - an "EcoGreen" model despite being an F3, when those properties are usually found in the F2 series, this new WD20EARS or the older WD20EADS (not listed in the USB Devices wiki but which apparently has some problems with drive "head parking", although presumably not according to this guy: http://www.ioffer.com/i/500-Wii-games-on-I...Drive-134036485 ).
Thanks for your time and a Happy New Year,
Nick
If you are not already aware, Western Digital have started to introduce new "Advanced Format" Caviar Green drives built to be partitioned with 4 kilobyte rather than 512 byte sectors. These drives are identified by the suffix "EARS" (rather than the older "EADS" - i.e. an R instead of a D) and 64MB cache (rather than the older 32MB). In the UK, the two-platter 1TB (WD10EARS) and the three-platter 1.5TB (WD15EARS) models are already on sale, with the four-platter 2TB (WD20EARS) model due to become available over the coming weeks.
Western Digital are rolling this technology out across their range and presumably the other manufacturers will soon follow suit with similar technologies. I recall that a Drobo spokesperson remarked recently that 3TB hard drives are expected to be released around April.
Here are some details:
http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/12/23/drobo-...-format-drives/
http://storagemojo.com/2009/12/21/why-we-need-4k-drives/
http://www.pcper.com/comments.php?nid=8113
http://anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3691
http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/whit...2579-771430.pdf
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/advancedformat/
A quote from the first link:
Stephen Foskett said:
From the table listed, is this saying that Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Mac OS should automatically identify the drive as an "advanced format" model, removing the need for using WD Align? Where does this leave us for using loader-based or PC-based tools (on the various versions of Windows) for partitioning the drive into multiple partitions, including WBFS? ("> 1 Partition" as the table points out).
Incidentally, I am about to buy a Wii and my plan is to use an Antec MX-1 enclosure, turned on 24/7, with a brand new 2TB HDD. I intend to use GParted through Parted Magic running in RAM to create two partitions: a 1TB NTFS partition storing full-size Wii ISOs to be read by USB Loader GX / Configurable USB Loader; and a 1TB FAT32 partition storing all other ISOs and ROMs, including VC and WiiWare games, and also an emulated NAND ( http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=184...t&p=2501953 ).
Based on the replies to this thread, my 2TB drive will either be the AV-GP WD20EVDS, the brand new (not yet available in the UK) Samsung F3EG HD203WI - an "EcoGreen" model despite being an F3, when those properties are usually found in the F2 series, this new WD20EARS or the older WD20EADS (not listed in the USB Devices wiki but which apparently has some problems with drive "head parking", although presumably not according to this guy: http://www.ioffer.com/i/500-Wii-games-on-I...Drive-134036485 ).
Thanks for your time and a Happy New Year,
Nick
