Windows XP and Advance Format drives

[smiley]

Hi

Can I use to a partition manager (for example Gparted) to align partitions on an Advance Format Iomega 1TB Prestige USB 3.0 or Verbatim 1TB Store 'n' Go USB 3.0 portable hard drives so that they will work on a Windows XP Home system with no speed loss?

Thanks

[crank]

Originally Posted by smiley

Hi

Can I use to a partition manager (for example Gparted) to align partitions on an Advance Format Iomega 1TB Prestige USB 3.0 or Verbatim 1TB Store 'n' Go USB 3.0 portable hard drives so that they will work on a Windows XP Home system with no speed loss?

Thanks

I can't address your particular disk, the ones I have actually gotten my hands on, the manufacturer supplied a tool, or the capability was built into the disk. I have tested 3 different disks and the results are perplexing to say the least. I saw significant speed degradation on one, and on another found it to be faster if 'misaligned'. Gparted will align partitions on aligned sector boundaries, one of the few that does that properly, but I would hazard a guess that you would notice little difference in real world performance one way or the other.

[Anupam]

I looked at the sites of both the products, and did not find anything related to advanced format. So, advanced formatting might not be required, even on Windows XP.

I have seen advanced formatting being offered by Western Digital desktop drives, and for that, they provide their own software.

In case of the two products, they are not providing any software for such purpose, nor it is anywhere mentioned in their manual, or on the product page. So, my thinking is that, its not required.