From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Nov 13 14:40:37 2012 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 012CB8B3 for ; Tue, 13 Nov 2012 14:40:37 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com) Received: from wonkity.com (wonkity.com [67.158.26.137]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AFA778FC19 for ; Tue, 13 Nov 2012 14:40:36 +0000 (UTC) Received: from wonkity.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by wonkity.com (8.14.5/8.14.5) with ESMTP id qADEeaV5043675; Tue, 13 Nov 2012 07:40:36 -0700 (MST) (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com) Received: from localhost (wblock@localhost) by wonkity.com (8.14.5/8.14.5/Submit) with ESMTP id qADEeV7k043656; Tue, 13 Nov 2012 07:40:36 -0700 (MST) (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com) Date: Tue, 13 Nov 2012 07:40:31 -0700 (MST) From: Warren Block To: "Ronald F. Guilmette" Subject: Re: Advanced Format Drive ? In-Reply-To: <86166.1352787251@tristatelogic.com> Message-ID: References: <86166.1352787251@tristatelogic.com> User-Agent: Alpine 2.00 (BSF 1167 2008-08-23) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-4.2.7 (wonkity.com [127.0.0.1]); Tue, 13 Nov 2012 07:40:36 -0700 (MST) Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 13 Nov 2012 14:40:37 -0000 On Mon, 12 Nov 2012, Ronald F. Guilmette wrote: > > In message <20121113065602.ee2310d7.freebsd@edvax.de>, > Polytropon wrote: > >> On Mon, 12 Nov 2012 21:47:40 -0800, Ronald F. Guilmette wrote: >>> Is there _anything_ that I will have to do differently than I did for the >>> last 20 drives I've used with FreeBSD over the last 10+ years? >> >> As far as I know, the "old ways" still work as intended. >> I've been initalizing 1 TB and 1.5 TB disks the "old way", >> using sysinstall (to create a slice, then to create the >> partitions) and newfs (to format the 2nd data disk). So >> far, the disks are working for some years without trouble. >> Those are "normal" disks, not SSDs, purchased few years >> ago. >> >> The term "advanced format" is usually used for 4k-sectorized >> disks (in difference to "traditional" 512k sectors). >> >> You can find more here: >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Format >> >> The implication for FreeBSD is (and has been for some time) >> to align partitions "at a 4k border". If you create partition >> sizes as multiples of 4k, it should be fine. > > Thank you. > > Which "partitions" need to be aligned to the 4KB boundaries? > The FreeBSD ones, the MBR ones, or both? The ones you want to be fast instead of half-speed. The easy way to do it is to jettison the old MBR slice/partition stuff and use the simpler GPT. The first half of this document shows how to set it up: http://www.wonkity.com/~wblock/docs/html/disksetup.html