I bought a new hare drive on New Year days of 2012. I don't know the hard drive I bought is made in 4K native format and I don't know Microsoft Windows OSs don't fully support the new format hard drive until I got a virtual hard drive disk-related error…..
Here comes my story (if you want to know the answer as quick as possible, please scroll down this page to all of the blue color printed words as well)......
On Jan 1st, 2012, I bought a new hard drive, Seagate GoFlex Desk 3TB (USB 3.0). I immediately tested it by using CrystalDiskMark. For me, the result is stunning:
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CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1 x64 (C) 2007-2010 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
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* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]Sequential Read : 170.141 MB/s
Sequential Write : 159.503 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 52.821 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 94.050 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 0.629 MB/s [ 153.5 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 1.276 MB/s [ 311.4 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 0.658 MB/s [ 160.7 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 1.264 MB/s [ 308.6 IOPS]Test : 1000 MB [G: 0.0% (0.4/2794.5 GB)] (x5)
Date : 2012/01/05 11:55:11
OS : Windows 7 SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)
In contrast with my the other Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex 1.5TB (USB 3.0)
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CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1 x64 (C) 2007-2010 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
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* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]Sequential Read : 95.928 MB/s
Sequential Write : 93.836 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 46.565 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 26.529 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 0.701 MB/s [ 171.2 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 0.291 MB/s [ 71.2 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 0.724 MB/s [ 176.8 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 0.286 MB/s [ 69.7 IOPS]Test : 1000 MB [F: 3.8% (53.2/1397.3 GB)] (x5)
Date : 2011/08/22 10:37:03
OS : Windows 7 SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)
and my laptop's internal hard drive Toshiba MK6461GSY 650GB (SATA 3):
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CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1 x64 (C) 2007-2010 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
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* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]Sequential Read : 98.304 MB/s
Sequential Write : 101.475 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 47.810 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 51.841 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 0.707 MB/s [ 172.5 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 2.025 MB/s [ 494.3 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 1.409 MB/s [ 344.1 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 1.928 MB/s [ 470.8 IOPS]Test : 1000 MB [D: 57.5% (242.6/421.6 GB)] (x5)
Date : 2011/05/23 12:02:13
OS : Windows 7 SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)
it was incredibly great. There is no doubt that if I have a SSD hard disk, I won't have such impressive feeling on my new one (Seagate GoFlex Desk 3TB). Thus, I decide to move my Microsoft Windows Virtual PC's VHD files to this new disk. After I moved it, I revised the settings and started the Virtual PC that will runs on my new buying hard disk. For a second, I got an error message said:
"could not be started because virtual hard drive disk-related error occurred. This could be due to insufficient free space in the virtual hard disk file, lack of write access to the directory that contains the virtual machine configuration file or missing parent disc for a differencing virtual hard disc."
It was frustrating. Then, I try to create a new Virtual PC on the new buying hard disk. I got another error which means I don't have the write privilege on my new buying hard disk. However, the truth is I could create folders and files on my new buying hard disk using my account, which is in the administrators group.
I decide to search online to get help. After a while, a long long time of searching, I got a number of answers and they are all wrong. Until I found these two articles:
- Cannot create vhd on RAID array Error "Unable to write to file"
- Problem with Windows Server Backup 2008 R2 with Advanced Format (4K) drive.
They all point to a problem which is disk sector. One of them even almost pointed out the truth answer. In compare with the wrong error message that spent me so much time to find the cause. And, Although, a lot of people in their comments claimed that Microsoft should fix the message by adding an "a" between "because" and "virtual", so that the message will go like this "could not be started because a virtual hard drive ......", this is still not the right error message I need.
After I read these two articles, I restarted to search online to the right direction and I got this information from official Microsoft Support site:
- An update that improves the compatibility of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 with Advanced Format Disks is available
- Information about Microsoft support policy for large-sector drives in Windows
In first article said Microsoft had provide an update to solve the problem with Advanced Format (512E) Disks. In the second article said Microsoft does not support 4k Native Format Disks right now.
Hence, I realized. My Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex 1.5TB is supported because it is an Advance Format Disk. My new buying hard disk is not supported because it is a 4K Native Format Disk.
So...... Who is to blame? Me? NO! Microsoft? I don't know, yet. Seagate (or other hard disk manufactures)? I am not quite sure, either. Though I may believe that Microsoft has not thing to so since they came earlier, there is a tag on the box claim that this product is Microsoft Windows 7 compatible......
Will I return it? No~ Although it couldn't run my Microsoft Virtual PC on it and some claim it couldn't run Windows Backup to backup their system on it, this hard disk still works great and fast than my laptop's internal hard disk and Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex 1.5TB. I would like to give it a try!
What if someone need to buy a new hard drive that is made in 4K Native Format and want to run Windows Backup or Microsoft Virtual PC on it? My advice is please not now. Otherwise, there is not a question not to buy this type of new hard drive. My newly bought hard disk's manufacture, Seagate, did provide a bunch of grate tools for system backup and disk management. So, it still has the ability to backup your system as it claims. Please, try it yourself. I don't know how well it works. I haven't tried it yet and I am not going to try since system backup is not my purpose of buying it.
I hope someday that Microsoft will solve this problem even though it doesn't have the responsibility to do it. Do you think it will happen? I truly hope so.
Today is Jan. 10th, 2012. This remains unsolved yet. Please, read the official Microsoft Support articles thoroughly before you decide to do anything. My article is just a temp status until now day today. Do not rely on mine.
Thank you for your reading!
OH! Another thing that is interesting me is Vika Ranjan a MSFT in this thread "Problem with Windows Server Backup 2008 R2 with Advanced Format (4K) drive." said,
We have enabled 4k Sector size Disk support in Windows 8 backup solution. In Win8 Server you can take backup to > 2 TB disks with 4k sector size.
I am not quite sure that it means 4K Native Format Disk support may go on others (Windows OS). But it does a good think.
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