[OPLINTECH] New hard drive technology FYI

[Chad Neeper]

With Western Digital having developed Advanced Format Technology and now 
beginning to introduce it into their drives, I hope that this is now 
going to be the new standard adopted by ALL drive manufacturers. I 
haven't yet seen any other drive manufacturers that have specifically 
stated that they are going to use the AFT technology WD developed. 
(Granted, I haven't looked very hard!)

It sounds like it could be enough of a pain as it is to ensure that we 
run WD's special formatting software on drives we want to use older 
operating systems on or that we want to clone. As the new drives are 
being introduced, we'll need to know which computers have the WD AFT 
drives in them...and which don't. If the other drive manufacturers 
either don't adopt AFT, or worse, don't adopt it exactly as WD 
specs...things could get even more confusing, with each manufacture 
having their own version of the special software required to be run to 
clone drives or install older operating systems.

I hope I'm off base here and everything works just fine without any 
transitional headaches. We all have enough to do already without needing 
to know the manufacturer and model of each hard drive in each computer!

But, still...it's something to think about...


-----------------------
Chad Neeper
Senior Systems Engineer

Level 9 Networks
740-548-8070 (voice)
866-214-6607 (fax)

--   Full LAN/WAN consulting services   --
-- Specialized in libraries and schools --



Ed Liddle wrote:
> http://www.wdc.com/en/products/advancedformat/
>
> Western digital has a new technology called advanced format. It allows
> for more storage space on a hard drive. It is designed for windows
> vista/7 and mac OS. If a drive with this technology is used to install
> windows XP you have to set a jumper prior to installing the OS on a 1
> partition. If you plan on using multiple partitions with XP or use disk
> cloning/imaging software on windows XP, vista, or windows 7, they
> recommend using their WD Align utility on the drive.
>
> What models utilize Advance Format technology?
> Some models of the WD Caviar Green are built using Advanced Format. Over
> time more models and capacities will be added. WD drives with Advanced
> Format include special installation information on the drive label so be
> sure to read the label on your drive before installing it.
>
> Computer world also has an article about it here
> http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9142261/New_Western_Digital_format_squeezes_11_more_capacity_from_drives
>
> This may be something to keep in mind when replacing hard drives in an
> out of warranty machine with drives utilizing this technology.
>
>  
>   
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: smime.p7s
Type: application/x-pkcs7-signature
Size: 3286 bytes
Desc: S/MIME Cryptographic Signature
Url : http://mail.oplin.org/pipermail/oplintech/attachments/20091217/18e90455/smime.bin