New Hard Drives Could Spell Trouble for XP Users

switched. ^ | Mar 12th | Terrence O'Brien

[JoeProBono]

By the end of January 2011, almost all new hard drives sold will have switched to a new format that will increase their size and efficiency, but will leave those clinging to Windows XP frustrated.

Traditionally, data on hard disks has been broken up into 512 byte chunks. Each broken-up sector requires additional space on a physical disk to mark the beginning and the end of each piece. Extra space is also needed for error correction, and there needs to be a bit of room to separate it from the next chunk. This wasn't much of a problem when the format debuted in the '80s when hard drives were measured in megabytes. Now that we have entered the terabyte era, the extra room required for each sector leads to wasted space on the surface of a disk.

A new format, which all disk manufacturers have agreed to migrate to by the end of January of next year, increases these sectors to 4 kilobytes, or eight times the size. This reduces waste and increases disk size, but an operating system must be able to recognize the new format. Vista and Windows 7 users are in the clear, as are Mac users with OS X 10.4 or higher and Linux users with a kernel released after September of 2009... XP users, on the other hand, may encounter some problems.

Windows XP must use an emulation layer that makes the 4KB sectors appear to be several 512 byte ones. This won't have much of an impact when reading from the disk, but could lead to slowdowns of as much as 10-percent when writing data. That could be a particularly big problem for those performing media intensive tasks like video editing.

We know this is some pretty techy stuff, but what it boils down to is, if you plan to build a new Windows XP computer in the future, you might want buy your hard drive now. Otherwise, it might be time to consider that upgrade to Windows 7.

[JoeProBono]

Microsoft Pledges Windows XP Support Through 2014

[Ingtar]

From what I have seen, this is driven as much or more from the hardware side as from Microsoft. They want to be able to keep offering larger drive capacities and the old format limits them. If you noticed in the article, they will work with XP, albeit slower on the writes. I’m not sure the older versions of the other OS will have the option. They may have to upgrade. At least it is free with Linux.

[altoinprogress]

ping

[saundby]

I was programming NOVRAMs on my trusty old 486DX2-75 under DOS 6.22 today myself. I do use a new Atom system with a USB to serial converter for programming AVRs, however.

Obsolescence? I fear nothing.

After all, the system I was programming chips for today is my new built from scratch 8085:
http://saundby.com/electronics/8085/

The permanent version is much farther along than the site shows. The main circuit card is complete (tested the last bits, user I/O ports, today) and I’m about to cut metal on the enclosure. Time for a website update, I guess.

[BP2]

I can't see this being much of a problem at all, as NTSF has been around
for XP users to use for nearly 10 years now.

Just keep formatting your hard drive in NTSF format (4K clusters), break
up the partitions so they are less than 2TB, or simply stay under 2TB when
you buy a new physical drive.

Your system may have lower limitations anyway. I have backup 5-year-old
laptop that can't see anything above 136 GB because of the BIOS and chipset.

Criteria	NTFS5	NTFS	exFAT/FAT64	FAT32	FAT16	FAT12
Operating System	Windows 2000 Windows XP Windows 2003 Server Windows Vista Windows 7	Windows NT Windows 2000 Windows XP Windows 2003 Server Windows Vista Windows 7	Windows CE 6.0 Windows Vista SP1 Windows 7 WinXP+KB955704	DOS v7 and higher Windows 98 Windows ME Windows 2000 Windows XP Windows 2003 Server Windows Vista Windows 7	DOS All versions of Microsoft Windows	DOS All versions of Microsoft Windows
Limitations
Max Volume Size	2TB	2TB	64ZB	32GB for all OS. 2TB for some OS	2GB for all OS. 4GB for some OS	16MB
Max Files on Volume	Nearly Unlimited	Nearly Unlimited	Nearly Unlimited	4194304	65536
Max File Size	Limit Only by Volume Size	Limit Only by Volume Size	16ZB	4GB minus 2 Bytes	2GB (Limit Only by Volume Size)	16MB (Limit Only by Volume Size)
Max Clusters Number	Nearly Unlimited	Nearly Unlimited	4294967295	4177918	65520	4080
Max File Name Length	Up to 255	Up to 255	Up to 255	Up to 255	Standard - 8.3 Extended - up to 255	Up to 254

[GloriaJane]

I just followed the link I posted and downloaded the program to make sure it was there and it downloaded ok.

[srmorton]

I was thinking the same thing. I bought the laptop I am using to type this message on Ebay last year from someone who had purchased a brand new computer and replaced Vista (which I hate) with XP (which I love). XP users should be able to fins anything they need at a reasonable price on Ebay.

[djf]

One word:

FDISK

[djf]

What they need to support is IE7 for W2K

[JoeProBono]

Cool

[Lancey Howard]

Well, it may have been longer than that...it’s a Dell PC using Windows XP.

That's exactly what I have. Circa 2004?

[Lancey Howard]

I got Webroot’s Window Washer years ago and it’s terrific.

[J Edgar]

You maybe right - but I don’t think Apple is going to let HW screw their loyal customer base by not providing an easy and expensive solution.
My point is that MS could do this as well with XP customers, but they are not doing it because they want to ‘motive’ their ‘customer/victim’ base to upgrade to Vista/Win 7 by coming up with some more money!

[Ingtar]

They are providing a solution, if you look in the article. It just will be slower. As will those for the other OS, I expect. They are simply taking advantage of it to try to get more people to upgrade.

[J Edgar]

If MS can make Vista and Win 7 operate effectively, they could also provide a patch for XP!
This is my point. MS doesn’t want to do this because they are a predatory company, trying to force payment for upgrade.
The real story here is the huge number of corporate XP computers that are being targeted by MS!

[SmokingJoe]

Maybe I’m wrong, but I thought that was the point of the article under discussion -XP users are are of luck - left in the cold by MS for not upgrading to vista or win 7

The new had drives are not out till January next year. Microsoft is still selling Windows XP on netbooks. How do you suppose Microsoft is going to keep selling XP netbooks and not put in a fix to allow XP users to benefit fully from the new hard drives?

[SmokingJoe]

Win 7 is the way to go yes, but like someone else said earlier in the thread, even if someone is still using XP by next year, and they want to get a bigger hard drive, ebay will be flooded with literally millions of the older technology hard drives, at very cheap prices, which the XP user can just snap up. In addition, since Microsoft is still selling XP netbooks, they will have no alternative but to provide a fix for XP for the new hard drives. so their OEM’s can be able to install the new hard drives in their netbooks.

[J Edgar]

Good question SmokingJoe - time will tell!
My bet is that MS will screw the end users.

[ROTB]

Let’s see, older versions of Mac OS, Linux and Windows are affected. Only Windows rates a mention in the headline.

****************************

Windows XP is still sold, unlike the older versions aforementioned.

[RayChuang88]

Given how good Windows 7 is anyway, not an issue for me! One of my machines at home runs Windows 7 and I like it for its FAST bootup and shutdown times.