[Triumf-linux-managers] WD20EARS Advanced Format Drive

[Konstantin Olchanski]

On Thu, Jun 17, 2010 at 11:44:39AM -0700, Konstantin Olchanski wrote:
> 
> There appears to be a problem with the latest "Advanced format drives" and
> SL-5.4 Linux. These disks use 4kbyte blocks internally and most
> web sites mumble about minor performance loss because standard Linux
> does not align the filesystems on these 4k boundaries, etc.
> 
> ... use ... "fdisk -H 224 -S 56" ...


Hello. I received another batch of WDC WD20EARS 2TB disks and they do
not exhibit the problem described in my previous message. SL5.5 kickstart
installed on these disks in about 30 minutes and runs without notable
problems.

The previous disks that had the problem have "WD-WCA..." serial numbers,
the new disks that do NOT have the problem have "WD-WMA..." serial numbers.

To repeat, as reported by "smartctl -a /dev/sda",

BAD DISK:
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Device Model:     WDC WD20EARS-00J2GB0
Serial Number:    WD-WCAYY0048783
Firmware Version: 80.00A80
User Capacity:    2,000,398,934,016 bytes


GOOD DISK:
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Device Model:     WDC WD20EARS-00MVWB0
Serial Number:    WD-WMAZ20202480
Firmware Version: 50.0AB50
User Capacity:    2,000,398,934,016 bytes


The new disks also seem to be a little bit faster. Aparently
they use 3 platters instead of 4 on the older disks. There
was some discussion of this here:
http://community.wdc.com/t5/Desktop/WD20EARS-Firmware-issue/td-p/30674


-- 
Konstantin Olchanski
Data Acquisition Systems: The Bytes Must Flow!
Email: olchansk-at-triumf-dot-ca
Snail mail: 4004 Wesbrook Mall, TRIUMF, Vancouver, B.C., V6T 2A3, Canada