What is advanced format?

rounakr94 · Jun 22, 2017

Can anyone please tell what is advanced format?
I am buying a WD Blue Model: WD10EZEX 7200 rpm as my PC backup drive for my movies and data. I am running Windows 8.1. Do I need any special steps?
And which sata port should I connect it to I have my primary Black 500Gb in slot 1 and Cd drive in 2

RealBeast · Jun 22, 2017

It is just a larger data block of 4K instead of 512 bytes that is more efficient and has other positive attributes. Most drives have been shipping with advanced format for quite a while now and simply use 512 byte emulation to remain compatible with older hardware and operating systems (pre-Win 8).

Many (if not most) of the advanced format drives are set to 512 emulation for compatibility, the 4K native drives are less common as they lack hardware support on older equipment (for example older Adaptec RAID cards like the 68xx series doesn't support them).

You can use an advanced format drive that is emulating 512 or native 4K with Windows 8 without issues, just initialize as a GPT drive and format as usual in NTFS. It doesn't matter what port that you attach it to.

edit: although I should mention that I have used 4K native drives on very old ASUS boards running Linux without any issue although there was no mention of such support. However, I would check my motherboard support page to insure 4K native compatibility just to be sure or do an Internet search on your board if you want to get a 4K native drive, with 512 emulation they all work.

rounakr94 · Jun 23, 2017

RealBeast :

It is just a larger data block of 4K instead of 512 bytes that is more efficient and has other positive attributes. Most drives have been shipping with advanced format for quite a while now and simply use 512 byte emulation to remain compatible with older hardware and operating systems (pre-Win 8).

Many (if not most) of the advanced format drives are set to 512 emulation for compatibility, the 4K native drives are less common as they lack hardware support on older equipment (for example older Adaptec RAID cards like the 68xx series doesn't support them).

You can use an advanced format drive that is emulating 512 or native 4K with Windows 8 without issues, just initialize as a GPT drive and format as usual in NTFS. It doesn't matter what port that you attach it to.

edit: although I should mention that I have used 4K native drives on very old ASUS boards running Linux without any issue although there was no mention of such support. However, I would check my motherboard support page to insure 4K native compatibility just to be sure or do an Internet search on your board if you want to get a 4K native drive, with 512 emulation they all work.

Thanks a bunch, i connected my new wd blue 10ezex and its working okay.

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What is advanced format?

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