From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: "H. Peter Anvin" Subject: Re: ATA support for 4k sector size Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2009 16:10:31 -0800 Message-ID: <49A5DDF7.9070301@zytor.com> References: <1235600698-6446-1-git-send-email-matthew@wil.cx> <49A5CBF7.9000501@zytor.com> <49A5D76A.3010301@zytor.com> <49A5DAE7.3060409@zytor.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Return-path: Received: from terminus.zytor.com ([198.137.202.10]:55306 "EHLO terminus.zytor.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1753691AbZBZAKw (ORCPT ); Wed, 25 Feb 2009 19:10:52 -0500 In-Reply-To: Sender: linux-ide-owner@vger.kernel.org List-Id: linux-ide@vger.kernel.org To: "Martin K. Petersen" Cc: Matthew Wilcox , linux-ide@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, sandeen@redhat.com Martin K. Petersen wrote: > > hpa> Why one-time? > > It's a compromise to avoid hours of low-level formatting before you can > use a drive. New drives will come from the factory formatted in a > special way that can be switched instantaneously. But once you start > writing you're stuck with it. > That's ridiculously stupid. All you need is an offset parameter, which can be flipped at will. Now, flipping it will obviously scramble all data, but there is absolutely no reason why it shouldn't be possible to instantaneously flip it back and forth. -hpa