From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: "Martin K. Petersen" Subject: Re: ATA support for 4k sector size Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2009 19:07:49 -0500 Message-ID: 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=us-ascii Return-path: Received: from acsinet12.oracle.com ([141.146.126.234]:31598 "EHLO acsinet12.oracle.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751677AbZBZAIO (ORCPT ); Wed, 25 Feb 2009 19:08:14 -0500 In-Reply-To: <49A5DAE7.3060409@zytor.com> (H. Peter Anvin's message of "Wed\, 25 Feb 2009 15\:57\:27 -0800") Sender: linux-ide-owner@vger.kernel.org List-Id: linux-ide@vger.kernel.org To: "H. Peter Anvin" Cc: "Martin K. Petersen" , Matthew Wilcox , linux-ide@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, sandeen@redhat.com >>>>> "hpa" == H Peter Anvin writes: hpa> Martin K. Petersen wrote: >> >> Modern Windows aligns the first partition on a 1 MB boundary. >> >> As far as disks go, initially the plan was to have "legacy" branded >> drives with 63-sector alignment. But I think that has been abandoned >> in favor of instant one-time formatting. I.e. you can pick your >> poison *once* and that formatting will be done in constant time. Any >> subsequent changes to blocking and alignment will require a real >> low-level format. >> 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. -- Martin K. Petersen Oracle Linux Engineering