Re: ATA support for 4k sector size

[Martin K. Petersen]

>>>>> "hpa" == H Peter Anvin <hpa@xxxxxxxxx> 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
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