I have read many advanced format descriptions but still there is no answers ...

1. Is Seagate 2TB better for lower described archiving purpose, because it doesn't require external advanced format as WD or Samsung require?
2. When using WD or Samsung, how to prepare (format) 2TB disks for "external" bulk usage?
3. Does USB disks benefit of advanced format at all?
4. Are there special disk like audio and TV for such tasks?
4. What about Linux based digital TV - PVR solutions, can these use normal 2TB PC hard disks with advanced formatting?

I use external SATA bulk hard disks for data (photo) storage. Until now all disks have been below 1TB and without advanced formatting option.
Hard disks are used occasionally in one of 3 ways:
1. connected through USB dock
2. attached directly to computer SATA connector.
3. Using external SATA connector

Op. systems are Windows XP and Windows 7.
Until now all 1TB hard disks are single partitioned using common ntfs extended partition.

I don't think it is clear what you mean by advanced formatting. Regarless, the there is no difference between manufacturers regarding their ability to format based on 2 identically sized drives. Here's the rule of thumb:

MBR, and GUID can be used on any drive by any manufacturer for any size up to and including 2 TB. Above 2 TB any drive by any manufacturer will require GUID to make full use of all available space. Also, Windows XP will not see any drive as being larger than 2 TB. Additionally, XP may not work with GUID though I am unsure of that.

Near as I can figure the answers to your questions are:

1. No difference, buy whatever you want.
2. There is no preparation necessary. You never need to do a full format on a new drive. That's really just to erase an old drive somewhat safely. Disk Management in Windows 7 can be used on any drive by any manufacturer to apply a "quick" NTFS format. Formatting should not take longer than a minute or so on a new drive.
3. No
4. Not really. Manufacturers can tune drives for different markets but in reality, the difference is mostly marketing spin.
5. They can use normal drives. It's unclear what you are talking about with advanced formatting, but if you are talking about GUID, most current flavors of linux support that.

I hope that was helpful.

I think he is referring to the new drives employing 4K sector size (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Format)

As far as I am aware all currently available consumer drives with 4K sectors still emulate 512-byte sectors to the interface. This means that your computer should not even be able to tell a difference. There will be performance penalties vs. a genuinely 512-byte sector drive if for example NTFS cluster boundaries are not aligned to 4K-sector boundaries on the hard drive, or if you are for whatever reason doing a large number of very small writes.

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Ah, 4 K sectors. That makes sense. Thanks drc. I have always just called it 4 K sectors. I didn't know they had an official name for it now. Yes, all manufacturers still use emulation for the time being. As long as they are aligned or in windows 7, performance should be identical because no current OS to my knowledge can read block sizes smaller than 4 KB anyway.

The answers to your questions then are:
1. As long as it is aligned, no preference one way or the other. And I believe that only matters in XP
2. I believe WD at least ships an alignment tool for use with XP.
3. No
4. Same answer, manufacturers market for specific purpose, but basically the same drive, slightly tuned for larger file size writes or whatever the case may be.
5. Yes

Just to throw a spanner in the works, Seagate ships a 3TB FreeAgent GoFlex drive that is specified to work with Windows XP out of the box.

The way they do this is to get the USB-SATA bridge chip to report that the mass storage device has 4KB LBAs, even though the hard drive emulates 512-byte LBAs.

Western Digital appears to have a similar 3TB external product.

See these threads:
http://forums.seagate.com/t5/GoFlex-GoF ... m-p/109486

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.sys ... 73dc9cfa3d

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A backup a day keeps DR away.