Win XP needs some TLC to use next-gen hard drives

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http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2010/03/3-12-2010-wdgreenearsadvancedformat200.jpg (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8557144.stm)Solid state drives (http://www.engadget.com/tag/ssd) may be the fast-moving wave of the future in PC storage, but the technology for bigger and better magnetic media keeps on trucking. Only recently, that truck hit something of a pothole: the 4096-byte sector size that will allow advanced format drives (http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/11/western-digital-advanced-format-promises-slight-boost-in-usabl/) to have more usable space (and surpass the current 2TB capacity limit) doesn't play nice with the world's most popular OS -- Windows XP. While manufacturers like Western Digital have already introduced software that successfully combats the problem, the new drives perform poorly in Win XP without it (http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/27/wds-advanced-format-caviar-green-hdd-gets-benchmarked-minor/), and rival manufacturer Seagate told the BBC that even with software tricks, XP users should expect the occasional 5ms delay, or 10% speed reduction, during write times. Is this the end of Windows XP? Hardly (http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/19/microsoft-extends-xp-downgrade-availability-to-2011-when-will-i/). Should you make sure to install the software that comes with your next hard drive? Absolutely.Win XP needs some TLC to use next-gen hard drives (http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/12/win-xp-needs-some-tlc-to-use-next-gen-hard-drives/) originally appeared on Engadget (http://www.engadget.com) on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds (http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/).


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