From owner-freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Dec 28 11:06:54 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CEA6D106566B for ; Mon, 28 Dec 2009 11:06:54 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from owner-bugmaster@FreeBSD.org) Received: from freefall.freebsd.org (freefall.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::28]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A4C148FC16 for ; Mon, 28 Dec 2009 11:06:54 +0000 (UTC) Received: from freefall.freebsd.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.14.3/8.14.3) with ESMTP id nBSB6spb079410 for ; Mon, 28 Dec 2009 11:06:54 GMT (envelope-from owner-bugmaster@FreeBSD.org) Received: (from gnats@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.14.3/8.14.3/Submit) id nBSB6sU4079408 for freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.org; Mon, 28 Dec 2009 11:06:54 GMT (envelope-from owner-bugmaster@FreeBSD.org) Date: Mon, 28 Dec 2009 11:06:54 GMT Message-Id: <200912281106.nBSB6sU4079408@freefall.freebsd.org> X-Authentication-Warning: freefall.freebsd.org: gnats set sender to owner-bugmaster@FreeBSD.org using -f From: FreeBSD bugmaster To: freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.org Cc: Subject: Current problem reports assigned to freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.org X-BeenThere: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussion related to FreeBSD architecture List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 28 Dec 2009 11:06:54 -0000 Note: to view an individual PR, use: http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=(number). The following is a listing of current problems submitted by FreeBSD users. These represent problem reports covering all versions including experimental development code and obsolete releases. S Tracker Resp. Description -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- o kern/120749 arch [request] Suggest upping the default kern.ps_arg_cache 1 problem total. From owner-freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Dec 28 11:58:29 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 96A8B1065670; Mon, 28 Dec 2009 11:58:29 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from 000.fbsd@quip.cz) Received: from elsa.codelab.cz (elsa.codelab.cz [94.124.105.4]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 51A1C8FC1C; Mon, 28 Dec 2009 11:58:29 +0000 (UTC) Received: from localhost (localhost.codelab.cz [127.0.0.1]) by elsa.codelab.cz (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7DC9F19E045; Mon, 28 Dec 2009 12:58:27 +0100 (CET) Received: from [192.168.1.2] (r5bb235.net.upc.cz [86.49.61.235]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by elsa.codelab.cz (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 0FFCE19E044; Mon, 28 Dec 2009 12:58:25 +0100 (CET) Message-ID: <4B389D60.7000005@quip.cz> Date: Mon, 28 Dec 2009 12:58:24 +0100 From: Miroslav Lachman <000.fbsd@quip.cz> User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.9.1.6) Gecko/20091206 SeaMonkey/2.0.1 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Alexander Motin References: <4B349ABF.2070800@FreeBSD.org> <469FFFC8-514B-41B9-AEEC-E4B7AB6CB886@exscape.org> <4B34A183.7000909@FreeBSD.org> In-Reply-To: <4B34A183.7000909@FreeBSD.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: FreeBSD-Current , Thomas Backman , freebsd-arch@freebsd.org Subject: Re: File system blocks alignment X-BeenThere: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussion related to FreeBSD architecture List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 28 Dec 2009 11:58:29 -0000 Alexander Motin wrote: > Thomas Backman wrote: >> On Dec 25, 2009, at 11:58 AM, Alexander Motin wrote: > |>> Recently WD released first series of ATA disks with increased physical >>> sector size. It makes writes not matching with 4K blocks inefficient >>> there. >> They don't expose this to the OS, though (not by default, anyway), but chop it up into 8 512-byte sectors for compatibility reasons. >> Just thought I'd point that out - I'm not even sure if you can get them to *not* do the compatibility thing and expose 4k-sized sectors. > > Latest ATA-8 specification allows drive to report both logical (512B) > and physical (4KB) sector sizes. ada driver able to fetch and report > that info to GEOM. If these drives not reporting it yet (are you really > sure?), it is only question of their firmware. There is an article about 4k sectors http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3691 It is completely hidden to OS in first versions. Miroslav Lachman From owner-freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Dec 28 12:30:32 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A5A181065692; Mon, 28 Dec 2009 12:30:32 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from mavbsd@gmail.com) Received: from mail-fx0-f227.google.com (mail-fx0-f227.google.com [209.85.220.227]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0D1AB8FC14; Mon, 28 Dec 2009 12:30:31 +0000 (UTC) Received: by fxm27 with SMTP id 27so10076550fxm.3 for ; Mon, 28 Dec 2009 04:30:23 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:sender:message-id:date:from :user-agent:mime-version:to:cc:subject:references:in-reply-to :x-enigmail-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding; bh=+OLKWjj4qgLd/S1Z1u4QMOeSvD5YY0zJdOI2nisPEms=; b=GHghsrtRePJqszgA9ss1iFqgUoNlRM5DQY7w/uj/dd7WEUuz88eNTScEZPUpIJP/7w lkvE+I1pTlQ0mw4c3zPdj9LkKUFNUkj+9mR20X1r/iE17YcfNBF0xB+WsOSDirMGL76U 4lZrJvUIef/xdDBIyM3tiF2UkMtMSAVRi5W2U= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=sender:message-id:date:from:user-agent:mime-version:to:cc:subject :references:in-reply-to:x-enigmail-version:content-type :content-transfer-encoding; b=COHzGtq8KjZwg/otv8RkKl8cvlSlOjfUQ4kQoaLL6A8ZYv9HVM2lhYILDpmSv8AtXo Fkx14cJBiZTdMmNQ/ebO0s7c7Q2ZQYT/W4iomv+Wd5wj+9GtRHR3iWmGNF9wIyzLiT0L +JQUXcAluZWUN2qwYtT5DhKkjEM+ACc9Jq/Sc= Received: by 10.223.5.90 with SMTP id 26mr5461861fau.59.1262003423615; Mon, 28 Dec 2009 04:30:23 -0800 (PST) Received: from mavbook.mavhome.dp.ua (pc.mavhome.dp.ua [212.86.226.226]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id 16sm3972064fxm.0.2009.12.28.04.30.22 (version=SSLv3 cipher=RC4-MD5); Mon, 28 Dec 2009 04:30:23 -0800 (PST) Sender: Alexander Motin Message-ID: <4B38A4DE.2040507@FreeBSD.org> Date: Mon, 28 Dec 2009 14:30:22 +0200 From: Alexander Motin User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.23 (X11/20091212) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Miroslav Lachman <000.fbsd@quip.cz> References: <4B349ABF.2070800@FreeBSD.org> <469FFFC8-514B-41B9-AEEC-E4B7AB6CB886@exscape.org> <4B34A183.7000909@FreeBSD.org> <4B389D60.7000005@quip.cz> In-Reply-To: <4B389D60.7000005@quip.cz> X-Enigmail-Version: 0.96.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Cc: FreeBSD-Current , Thomas Backman , freebsd-arch@freebsd.org Subject: Re: File system blocks alignment X-BeenThere: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussion related to FreeBSD architecture List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 28 Dec 2009 12:30:32 -0000 Miroslav Lachman wrote: > Alexander Motin wrote: >> Thomas Backman wrote: >>> On Dec 25, 2009, at 11:58 AM, Alexander Motin wrote: >> |>> Recently WD released first series of ATA disks with increased >> physical >>>> sector size. It makes writes not matching with 4K blocks inefficient >>>> there. >>> They don't expose this to the OS, though (not by default, anyway), >>> but chop it up into 8 512-byte sectors for compatibility reasons. >>> Just thought I'd point that out - I'm not even sure if you can get >>> them to *not* do the compatibility thing and expose 4k-sized sectors. >> >> Latest ATA-8 specification allows drive to report both logical (512B) >> and physical (4KB) sector sizes. ada driver able to fetch and report >> that info to GEOM. If these drives not reporting it yet (are you really >> sure?), it is only question of their firmware. > > There is an article about 4k sectors > http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3691 > > It is completely hidden to OS in first versions. Thanks for the link, but all I see there is "but at this point there’s no such tool". IMHO it doesn't meet it is not reported. We just need somebody with that drive to run on it `camcontrol identify` from the fresh system and report what he sees. -- Alexander Motin From owner-freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Dec 28 20:45:21 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 860E71065695 for ; Mon, 28 Dec 2009 20:45:21 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from pieter@degoeje.nl) Received: from mx.utwente.nl (mx3.utsp.utwente.nl [130.89.2.14]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C65A08FC0A for ; Mon, 28 Dec 2009 20:45:20 +0000 (UTC) Received: from nox.student.utwente.nl (nox.student.utwente.nl [130.89.165.91]) by mx.utwente.nl (8.12.10/SuSE Linux 0.7) with ESMTP id nBSGfRHH001304; Mon, 28 Dec 2009 17:41:27 +0100 From: Pieter de Goeje To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Date: Mon, 28 Dec 2009 17:41:26 +0100 User-Agent: KMail/1.9.10 References: <4B349ABF.2070800@FreeBSD.org> <4B389D60.7000005@quip.cz> <4B38A4DE.2040507@FreeBSD.org> In-Reply-To: <4B38A4DE.2040507@FreeBSD.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Disposition: inline Message-Id: <200912281741.27179.pieter@degoeje.nl> X-UTwente-MailScanner-Information: Scanned by MailScanner. Contact icts.servicedesk@utwente.nl for more information. X-UTwente-MailScanner: Found to be clean X-UTwente-MailScanner-From: pieter@degoeje.nl X-Spam-Status: No Cc: Alexander Motin , Miroslav Lachman <000.fbsd@quip.cz>, Thomas Backman , freebsd-arch@freebsd.org Subject: Re: File system blocks alignment X-BeenThere: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussion related to FreeBSD architecture List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 28 Dec 2009 20:45:21 -0000 On Monday 28 December 2009 13:30:22 Alexander Motin wrote: > Miroslav Lachman wrote: > > Alexander Motin wrote: > >> Thomas Backman wrote: > >>> On Dec 25, 2009, at 11:58 AM, Alexander Motin wrote: > >> |>> Recently WD released first series of ATA disks with increased > >> > >> physical > >> > >>>> sector size. It makes writes not matching with 4K blocks inefficient > >>>> there. > >>> > >>> They don't expose this to the OS, though (not by default, anyway), > >>> but chop it up into 8 512-byte sectors for compatibility reasons. > >>> Just thought I'd point that out - I'm not even sure if you can get > >>> them to *not* do the compatibility thing and expose 4k-sized sectors. > >> > >> Latest ATA-8 specification allows drive to report both logical (512B) > >> and physical (4KB) sector sizes. ada driver able to fetch and report > >> that info to GEOM. If these drives not reporting it yet (are you really > >> sure?), it is only question of their firmware. > > > > There is an article about 4k sectors > > http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3D3691 > > > > It is completely hidden to OS in first versions. > > Thanks for the link, but all I see there is "but at this point there=92s > no such tool". IMHO it doesn't meet it is not reported. > > We just need somebody with that drive to run on it `camcontrol identify` > from the fresh system and report what he sees. I've just ordered one of these disks. I expect it to arrive in a couple of= =20 days. Will let you know what it says when I have it :) =2D Pieter From owner-freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Dec 29 12:03:11 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 831151065692 for ; Tue, 29 Dec 2009 12:03:11 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from james-freebsd-current@jrv.org) Received: from mail.jrv.org (rrcs-24-73-246-106.sw.biz.rr.com [24.73.246.106]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 40A558FC1A for ; Tue, 29 Dec 2009 12:03:11 +0000 (UTC) Received: from kremvax.housenet.jrv (kremvax.housenet.jrv [192.168.3.124]) by mail.jrv.org (8.14.3/8.14.3) with ESMTP id nBTBQ1qf039865; Tue, 29 Dec 2009 05:26:01 -0600 (CST) (envelope-from james-freebsd-current@jrv.org) Authentication-Results: mail.jrv.org; domainkeys=pass (testing) header.from=james-freebsd-current@jrv.org DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; s=enigma; d=jrv.org; c=nofws; q=dns; h=message-id:date:from:user-agent:mime-version:to:cc:subject: references:in-reply-to:content-type:content-transfer-encoding; b=lPlE3ahH5wujdHoULCtOl2oO3qh9bhGSod6ABE3VKAEbHSdm8BHX7r5i9Rh1QBYpz TA6Femat8LYU0GspPXss1rUb9aYYqBLGM+nbiCee1USZZsU4tR3aV78fEHpO/r1gr9h jyWg9rOzaewu/EfDg1pj1BeguJNZu1wDqS+0vUs= Message-ID: <4B39E749.6020502@jrv.org> Date: Tue, 29 Dec 2009 05:26:01 -0600 From: "James R. Van Artsdalen" User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.23 (Macintosh/20090812) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Alexander Motin References: <4B349ABF.2070800@FreeBSD.org> In-Reply-To: <4B349ABF.2070800@FreeBSD.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=KOI8-R Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: FreeBSD-Current , freebsd-arch@freebsd.org Subject: Re: File system blocks alignment X-BeenThere: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussion related to FreeBSD architecture List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 29 Dec 2009 12:03:11 -0000 Alexander Motin wrote: > As we have now mechanism for reporting stripe size and offset for any > partition to user-level, it should be easy to make disk partitioning and > file system creation tools to use it automatically. Currently all operating systems I know of allocate 128 partition slot into GPT by default, or 32 blocks. With the dummy MBR and GPT header added this means that the first partition starts on block 34... If FreeBSD is changed to allocate only 120 GPT partition slots by default then the first partition would begin at block 32. From owner-freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Dec 30 20:47:53 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 60F2A10656A4; Wed, 30 Dec 2009 20:47:53 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from xcllnt@mac.com) Received: from asmtpout026.mac.com (asmtpout026.mac.com [17.148.16.101]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4C37A8FC1F; Wed, 30 Dec 2009 20:47:53 +0000 (UTC) MIME-version: 1.0 Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Received: from macbook-pro.jnpr.net (natint3.juniper.net [66.129.224.36]) by asmtp026.mac.com (Sun Java(tm) System Messaging Server 6.3-8.01 (built Dec 16 2008; 32bit)) with ESMTPSA id <0KVH00GU5GFRR070@asmtp026.mac.com>; Wed, 30 Dec 2009 12:47:53 -0800 (PST) From: Marcel Moolenaar In-reply-to: <4B39E749.6020502@jrv.org> Date: Wed, 30 Dec 2009 12:47:51 -0800 Message-id: References: <4B349ABF.2070800@FreeBSD.org> <4B39E749.6020502@jrv.org> To: "James R. Van Artsdalen" X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.1077) Cc: Alexander Motin , FreeBSD-Current , freebsd-arch@freebsd.org Subject: Re: File system blocks alignment X-BeenThere: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussion related to FreeBSD architecture List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 30 Dec 2009 20:47:53 -0000 On Dec 29, 2009, at 3:26 AM, James R. Van Artsdalen wrote: > Alexander Motin wrote: >> As we have now mechanism for reporting stripe size and offset for any >> partition to user-level, it should be easy to make disk partitioning and >> file system creation tools to use it automatically. > > Currently all operating systems I know of allocate 128 partition slot > into GPT by default, or 32 blocks. With the dummy MBR and GPT header > added this means that the first partition starts on block 34... > > If FreeBSD is changed to allocate only 120 GPT partition slots by > default then the first partition would begin at block 32. The minimum is 128 partitions as per the EFI/GPT specification. There's no requirement that the partitioned area on the disk follows the GPT header/table in a packed fashion. You can leave a gap. Thus you can have the partitioned area start at sector 64. Note that gpart does not (yet) allow you to do this, but it does respect these parameters when found in the GPT header and won't count the sectors in this gap towards free space. See also the hdr_lba_start & hdr_lba_end fields in struct gpt_hdr. FYI, -- Marcel Moolenaar xcllnt@mac.com From owner-freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Dec 31 16:13:37 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 74632106568B; Thu, 31 Dec 2009 16:13:37 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from pieter@degoeje.nl) Received: from mx.utwente.nl (mx1.utsp.utwente.nl [130.89.2.12]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E95618FC1E; Thu, 31 Dec 2009 16:13:36 +0000 (UTC) Received: from nox.student.utwente.nl (nox.student.utwente.nl [130.89.165.91]) by mx.utwente.nl (8.12.10/SuSE Linux 0.7) with ESMTP id nBVGCIpo025776; Thu, 31 Dec 2009 17:12:18 +0100 From: Pieter de Goeje To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Date: Thu, 31 Dec 2009 17:12:17 +0100 User-Agent: KMail/1.9.10 References: <4B349ABF.2070800@FreeBSD.org> <4B38A4DE.2040507@FreeBSD.org> <200912281741.27179.pieter@degoeje.nl> In-Reply-To: <200912281741.27179.pieter@degoeje.nl> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Disposition: inline Message-Id: <200912311712.18347.pieter@degoeje.nl> X-UTwente-MailScanner-Information: Scanned by MailScanner. Contact icts.servicedesk@utwente.nl for more information. X-UTwente-MailScanner: Found to be clean X-UTwente-MailScanner-From: pieter@degoeje.nl X-Spam-Status: No Cc: Alexander Motin , Miroslav Lachman <000.fbsd@quip.cz>, Thomas Backman , freebsd-arch@freebsd.org Subject: Re: File system blocks alignment X-BeenThere: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussion related to FreeBSD architecture List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 31 Dec 2009 16:13:37 -0000 On Monday 28 December 2009 17:41:26 Pieter de Goeje wrote: > On Monday 28 December 2009 13:30:22 Alexander Motin wrote: > > Miroslav Lachman wrote: > > > Alexander Motin wrote: > > >> Thomas Backman wrote: > > >>> On Dec 25, 2009, at 11:58 AM, Alexander Motin wrote: > > >> |>> Recently WD released first series of ATA disks with increased > > >> > > >> physical > > >> > > >>>> sector size. It makes writes not matching with 4K blocks inefficie= nt > > >>>> there. > > >>> > > >>> They don't expose this to the OS, though (not by default, anyway), > > >>> but chop it up into 8 512-byte sectors for compatibility reasons. > > >>> Just thought I'd point that out - I'm not even sure if you can get > > >>> them to *not* do the compatibility thing and expose 4k-sized sector= s. > > >> > > >> Latest ATA-8 specification allows drive to report both logical (512B) > > >> and physical (4KB) sector sizes. ada driver able to fetch and report > > >> that info to GEOM. If these drives not reporting it yet (are you > > >> really sure?), it is only question of their firmware. > > > > > > There is an article about 4k sectors > > > http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3D3691 > > > > > > It is completely hidden to OS in first versions. > > > > Thanks for the link, but all I see there is "but at this point there=92s > > no such tool". IMHO it doesn't meet it is not reported. > > > > We just need somebody with that drive to run on it `camcontrol identify` > > from the fresh system and report what he sees. > > I've just ordered one of these disks. I expect it to arrive in a couple of > days. Will let you know what it says when I have it :) Ok, as Miroslav wrote, it does not report 4k sectors: # camcontrol identify ada0 pass0: ATA-8 SATA 2.x device pass0: 300.000MB/s transfers (SATA 2.x, UDMA6, PIO size 8192bytes) protocol ATA/ATAPI-8 SATA 2.x device model WDC WD10EARS-00Y5B1 firmware revision 80.00A80 serial number WD-WCAV55072095 WWN 50014ee2ae6664fd cylinders 16383 heads 16 sectors/track 63 sector size logical 512, physical 512, offset 0 LBA supported 268435455 sectors LBA48 supported 1953525168 sectors PIO supported PIO4 DMA supported WDMA2 UDMA6 overlap not supported =46eature Support Enable Value Vendor read ahead yes yes write cache yes yes flush cache yes yes Native Command Queuing (NCQ) yes 31/0x1F Tagged Command Queuing (TCQ) no no 31/0x1F SMART yes yes microcode download yes yes security yes no power management yes yes advanced power management no no 0/0x00 automatic acoustic management yes no 254/0xFE 128/0x80 media status notification no no power-up in Standby yes no write-read-verify no no 0/0x0 unload no no free-fall no no According to the anandtech article, this is because Windows XP does not wor= k=20 with sectorsize !=3D 512 bytes. =2D Pieter