Bad News for Win XP Users, New HDD Format Coming Soon

gaurang · #1 11-03-10, 10:19 AM

Come January 2011, hard drives will be formatted with 4K sectors instead of the current 512 byte sectors.

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Rastalovich · #2 11-03-10, 10:34 AM

This leaves me a little confused as to what this bbc guy is on about.

Under NTFS (3.1 for XP), I'm almost certain you can use up to 64k.

mayhem · #3 11-03-10, 10:55 AM

i thought the same as Rasta. Mayhe hes talking about Fat , fat 16 , fat 32 not NTFS.

How ever if this was the case then why cannot makers of the hard drive simple put a jumper on there hard drive that shift between the new format and old format. Same as they did when hard drive whent over the 3.5 gb mark when older dos systems couldnt see it under FAT.

alexhull24 · #4 13-03-10, 01:22 AM

I also find the article a little vague and confusing with respect to the technical details. This does not seem uncommon for BBC tech reporting though. It's often misinformed (on IT) and generalises a bit too much.

Besides, anyone using XP in 2011 is way behind the times. There's no excuse really. Enthusiasts want the best performance, Win 7 will most likely be the only route by then (DX10/11 for example), and your average joe will most likely have bought a new PC with Vista/ 7 on since XP was stopped being sold. If not, buying a new HDD is a good time to make the transition. I don't see this being a problem.

Rastalovich · #5 13-03-10, 08:15 AM

In fairness, businesses in particular, are still very dependent on XP due to the contractual software they incorporate for their everyday work. Not that they don't want Vista/7, but the software won't work on it.

In a similar breath that windows 2000 and NT frameworks still exist out there.

Apart from that tho, storage areas wouldn't be effected as any remote server could effectively use any filesystem you like as long as the network to the individual pc(s) is happy.

alexhull24 · #6 13-03-10, 12:30 PM

Businesses still on XP should have upgraded by 2011 however. I've noticed they often completely upgrade every 3 or so years. It's up to the developers of software that doesn't run on XP to cater for the new need once systems are updated.

lasher · #7 13-03-10, 01:07 PM

I work for a massive construction company and national grid. In contact also with siemens global. All run xp and have no intentions of changing to an unproven OS such as 7.

Smaller or new start busisness I could understand but it would be a huge change for larger organisations.

Remember when we upgraded to office latest offerings and the utter devestation that caused!