From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1763773AbZBZALK (ORCPT ); Wed, 25 Feb 2009 19:11:10 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1763423AbZBZAKx (ORCPT ); Wed, 25 Feb 2009 19:10:53 -0500 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 Message-ID: <49A5DDF7.9070301@zytor.com> Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2009 16:10:31 -0800 From: "H. Peter Anvin" User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.19 (X11/20090105) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: "Martin K. Petersen" CC: Matthew Wilcox , linux-ide@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, sandeen@redhat.com Subject: Re: ATA support for 4k sector size References: <1235600698-6446-1-git-send-email-matthew@wil.cx> <49A5CBF7.9000501@zytor.com> <49A5D76A.3010301@zytor.com> <49A5DAE7.3060409@zytor.com> In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org 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