How to format AF Hard Disk on XP? (external storage only)

[we3fan]

Hi guys,

I bought a 2TB WD2003FZEX, it is AF (advanced format), I have only Win XP SP2, I put the HD in External Enclosure, and I intend to use this HD for external storage only with 1 partition, I will not install any OS on this HD.

All is ready now to initialize and format the HD for the first time, but I have never formatted an AF HD before.

Because it will be used for external storage only, should I format the HD normally to NTFS allocation size default 4KB?
Or I need to do something else?


Thanks in advance.

[fzabkar]

Make sure that the partition begins on a 4KB boundary, eg sector 64. The standard partition offset for Win XP is sector 63 which is not aligned. You will need a third party partition manager for this.

Note that some enclosures are configured with 4Kn sector sizes rather than 512e, in which case they are already aligned. IIUC, the downside is that Windows XP's Disk Management cannot partition and format 4Kn drives but Windows can work with them once they are setup by a third party tool. That said, I would avoid these 4Kn enclosures if you don't intend to exceed 2TB.

[we3fan]

Thanks for replying fzabkar.

I am curious, what will happen if I don't use a third party partition manager and I don't align the sectors and go straight to do a normal full format to this HD?
1. Will the format process start or it will give some error?
2. If full format finishes after around 4 hours, will this partition be corrupted or I can still copy and keep files on it?
3. Will copying files to this partition be slower than usual?
4. What are all the bad things that could happen if I go straight to do a normal full format to this HD without aligning the sectors first with a third party partition manager?

Sorry for so many questions, I was just wondering how it works in practice because I have never done this before.

[fzabkar]

The normal XP partition and format process will result in a functional file system -- it just won't have optimal write performance due to the "Read-Modify-Write" cycle.

Advanced Format Technology Brief:
https://www.hgst.com/sites/default/files/resources/AFtechbrief.pdf

[rogfanther]

It will be slower than if you format it with a 4k-aware application.

[we3fan]

Thanks guys.