Samsung F4 2TB drive question

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Zfrost

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Does anybody know if it work with WHS v1 without problem?(as boot drive with os partition/data) or do you have to allign it with a program after format/installing?

Bought 2 of them to use on ex470, but I am kind of afraid to put them in yet since it's 4k sector drives.

Please help!
 
After reading the F4 thread down there, it still doesn't state if there is any performance loss on using 4k drive as boot/os drive. IF anybody knows a response would be much appreciated!
 
F4s are fast almost. About as fast as WDC black drives in STR but lower seeks. However if your data is closer together this may not be a problem because seeks will be shorter.. That assumes your disk is well defragmented with the most used data close together.

www.mydefrag.com can help with that.
 
I know very little about WHS, but if it is based on pre-Vista technology (i.e., something like Windows XP), then the default partitioning will not be 4KB-aligned. That will hurt your write performance on a 4KB-sector drive.

You can get around that by using a different program to partition your drive, and then install WHS into the already aligned partition. Or you could use the partitioner in a Vista or Win7 installer.
 
I know very little about WHS, but if it is based on pre-Vista technology (i.e., something like Windows XP)
Click to expand...

I think it is Windows 2K3 server / workstation based
 
when WD came out with EARS line (4k format drives) WHS v1 users had to either install then use WDallign tool to allign the partition, or plug a jumper on the back so the OS thinks it's not 4k. I don't think the samsung F4 has the jumper function to do this.
I was worried about re-installing everything just to have data corruption.
 
Zfrost said:
or plug a jumper on the back so the OS thinks it's not 4k.
Click to expand...

No, that is not what the jumper does. All the jumper does is add 1 to all the LBAs, since the default 63 sector partition alignment is not 4KB aligned, but 63+1 = 64 is 4KB aligned.
 
The F4 does not need any alignment or special formatting. It uses emulation and appears to have 512 B sectors to the OS, so no issue when used with WHS v1 or XP.
 
Samsung F4 is a 4K sector disks with 512-byte emulation.

That means if you use it with misaligned partitions you will get lower performance due to the emulation kicking in. To use this drive normally, use properly aligned partitions such as Vista SP1 and later create. WHS uses MISaligned partitions (start at offset 63; the worst offset possible).

So you would want to:
- create proper partitions in Win7/GParted that align at 2048 sector offset
- disable use of the jumper on the F4s; it makes aligned partitions go misaligned again. DONT USE IT.
 
thank you for all the replies. that really cleared things up for me.

Last question, I understand it will just work as emulation mode on whs v1.

How much performance loss is there when using it in emulation mode, or is there none?
 
There is no "emulation mode". The HDD always presents 512B sectors to the OS.

Just make sure your partition(s) are 4KB aligned, as I already suggested. If you do that, the performance will be fine.
 
Thank you for all the replies.

I still have one question.

Since I will be using HP restore disk to install WHS v1 again, how do I make sure the partition is alligned? (or which program). Do I re-install and move the boot hard drive to another machine and then do it?
 
I do not know of this "HP restore disk". Whatever program you use to create the partition(s) on your new disk needs to get partition(s) aligned to 4KB boundaries.
 
I should have re-phrased the questions to HP media smart server (ex 470 to be exact) isntead of WHS v1. HP mediasmart servers come with restore disk(installation of whs v1 over network) So I would install the disk on my own computer, and it would detect the mss server on the network and install it. Unfortunately the box doesn't have video/keyboard output unless I buy seperate cords else where. I didn't see any of the advanced format option using the disk last time. Allign of the partition to 4kb has to be done before the install right?

Maybe I should just use one of the F3EG 2TB as boot drive and F4's as storage pool(after allign?)
 
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That trick works with XP, yes. Also if you use GParted/MagicParted which is free, so you don't really need Windows 7. You just need a tool that create the aligned partition, then let XP use that. Then you avoid XP creating misaligned partitions.

But i can't comment if WHS changes things; it does seem to be based on older XP code. So it may work.

Edit: disable the jumper BEFORE you create the partition, though! In fact, i don't recommend using the jumper at all. It transforms aligned partitions into misaligned partitions; while XPs misaligned partitions become aligned; very ugly solution.
 
sanvara said:
This person is saying you can format in Win7 and disable the use of the jumper so it doesn't go misaligned in WHS. I'm not sure how confident I am in this. Any other thoughts?

http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1036263370&postcount=9
Click to expand...

I partitioned my drive on Win7 and it was aligned properly. When I added it to the WHS storage pool, it was no longer aligned and looked like it just recreated its own partitions. I tried to then move that partition with Gparted as I read elsewhere, but that through an error like 10 hours into the process. I'm about to give that another try, but am curious if anyone has been able to successfully add the drive to WHS pool and maintain the proper alignment.
 
Did you make a GPT partition in Windows 7? I believe windows 7 asks if you want that and WHS will not use GPT partitions. Please correct me if I am wrong.. I have no experience with WHS. I do have w2k3 WS and Server though.
 
Nope, nothing fancy in Win7. Just a simple volume with the 2048 offset. I'm reinstalling my WHS tonight to move from an old WD Raptor system drive to a new F4 (the 7200rpm 320g variant). After which, I will try to format again in W7, but I don't think that really works.

I think getting gparted or some 3rd party tool to resize/move the partition is the best chance to get it right. I got that idea from here:
http://en.dogeno.us/2010/01/use-gpa...s-on-a-ssd-hard-drive-for-better-performance/
 
Just to confirm, if I am running Windows 2008 R2 and go into Computer Management > Disk Management and format HDD - this will align correctly to 4K?
 
Yes, but if you want to check whether your volume is aligned or not, simply download AS SSD and it will tell you with one word: GOOD or BAD. It also makes a good benchmark.
 
I hate to bump this old thread but I just bought myself a Samsung F4 2TB without knowing about this 4k sector jazz. I plan on using this drive for data storage only. I have another drive for a boot drive.

My question is will I be able to use my old copy of Windows 2000 pro? Or will I have issues trying to get the drive aligned? I see samsung released an Alignment Utility but Windows 2000 isnt listed as an OS thats supported. However I do have a copy of Windows Vista Ultimate that I was going to sell but if I cant get this drive to work properly in Windows 2000 Ill end up keeping Vista for the time being.
 
Format and partition it inside Linux or MagicParted Livecd; or a Windows Vista SP1+ system. I recommend using MagicParted.

Create your aligned partition, then install XP/2000 on that partition. So all you need to do is make sure XP/2000 does NOT create its own partition, as XP/2000 creates improper partitions.

I also think you should consider upgrading; why use an OS that is 10 years old? If you boot a linux livecd probably you can do more things with it and run more windows applications than Windows 2000 itself.

Not sure if Windows 2000 has any limitations; it may just support 32-bit LBA just like XP.
 
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