Thinkpads Forum

I tried to install a large 750GB disk with 4k/ sector in my T510 as the boot disk and got a failure of Windows update.

Turns out Windows does not support 4k/ sector disks. No fixes worked for me.

see-
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... 5b8619adb7

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/982018

Anyone got one of these working as a boot disk/ what did you do?

john1in2 wrote:I tried to install a large 750GB disk with 4k/ sector in my T510 as the boot disk and got a failure of Windows update.

Turns out Windows does not support 4k/ sector disks. No fixes worked for me.

see-
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... 5b8619adb7

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/982018

Anyone got one of these working as a boot disk/ what did you do?

Which windows version are you using?

And what brand of disk? I believe the Seagate 750 GB supposedly doesn't need any alignment utility like other 4k sector disks need for older operating systems.

Some disks that use 4K sectors will present themselves as using 512-byte sectors so as to be compatible with legacy OSs that don't support 4K sectors (i.e. Windows.)

If what you're asking is "Is there any hardware incompatibility between the T[45][10]0 series and 4K sector disks?", the answer is no. It's strictly a software issue, and even then only one that affects certain operating systems.

The link he posted seemed to indicate even Win 7 having a problem with 4k sectors. Very possible there was some other issue involved there though since there wasn't a lot of detail given.

Sorry guys.

This is for Windows 7 Pro 64 bit and the drive was a Seagate Momentus ST9750420AS.

http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?n ... ntOverview

If you look at this .pdf data sheet on that link-
http://www.seagate.com/docs/pdf/en-GB/d ... us_fam.pdf

you see the 4k/ sector info.

I don't think this drive emulates 512b/sector for backwards compatibility.

It seems odd to me that neither NewEgg or the manufacturer will tell you that this will not be compatible with Windows?

Is there something in the T510 BIOS to set?

john1in2 wrote: It seems odd to me that neither NewEgg or the manufacturer will tell you that this will not be compatible with Windows?

Everything I've read about the 4k sector issue up to now has said that neither Vista nor Windows 7 should have any problem with it. Only XP and older OS should need any sort of compatibility helper, either software or within the disk firmware. That Seagate drive does have the automatic alignment feature ('SmartAlign'). The issue may not be the 4k sectors but the capacity of the drive or the size of the partitions being created.

EDIT: Based on the KB article you linked to it sounds like there isn't really any 'compatibility' issue, just some bugs in Windows. That's not really something that hardware manufacturers and retailers are responsible for notifying you about.

Based on the KB article you linked to it sounds like there isn't really any 'compatibility' issue, just some bugs in Windows.

Which is why I have posted this topic, as I am wondering if anyone else succeeded in using a drive of this size and sector arrangement with Win7 on a T410/510. If there are bugs in Windows then why don't the manufacturers tell you that they will not work in Windows instead of implying that things are rosy.

It seems to me that such drives are doomed to failure as boot drives in Win7, they work fine in the ultrabay or externally however.

Anyone got one working in Win7 as a boot drive?

Also according to that KB article, the problems addressed by that hotfix are fixed in Service Pack 1. If you don't want to install SP1 then request the hotfix and see if that works.

I tried the hotfix and sp1 and a lot of other things. Note that the hotfix link is the one I posted so yes I knew about it. Also the hotfix is said to work on drives that emulate 512b/sector and says it does NOT work with true native 4k/sector drives. But this thread is not really about that.

This thread is just asking if anyone actually has a working system with this kind of drive.

Given that the hotfix notes that true 4k sector drives are not supported in any version of Windows I strongly suspect that all generally available drives are in fact doing 512 byte emulation. If any drive manufacturer sold a drive that was not supported by Windows at all I'm sure it would be noted in the description.

Did you try a fresh install of Win 7 with SP1 integrated (including destroying and re-creating all partitions)?

I may order one of these drives to test. I almost bought one last year but went with a 500GB hybrid drive instead.