I suspect that WD Align “erroneously” reports that non-aligned partitions are aligned because it has determined that your drive is a non-AF model. That said, if this is indeed the case, then a better message would be something like “your drive is not an Advanced Format model and does not require alignment”.
In fact here is a recent thread where two apparently identical AF drives are identifying themselves differently, one as AF, the other as non-AF:
http://community.wdc.com/t5/Desktop-Portable-Drives/WD20EARS-differences-why/m-p/544451#M12562
The problem is that certain aspects of AF reporting are optional, so an AF drive may not identify itself as such.
I am sorry I didn’t mention this before. WD Align DOES RECOGNIZE the WD10EZEX as an Advanced Format drive. It is just not able to see the unaligned partitions. The Disk Alignment Test program is detecting the AF drive AND the unaligned partitions too. System Information is reporting the partition start offset as 32,256 bytes (i.e. 63 sectors… meaning unaligned). And there is NO JUMPER on pins 7-8. Also, I used the Windows XP Disk Management tool to partition the drive. So, the partitions HAVE TO BE unaligned.
Even I saw that thread about the two WD20EARS AF models. The drive label on those drives indicate BOTH are AF drives. But, they are different ‘internally’. One AF drive is reporting 512-byte physical sectors. After reading such wierd experiences, I am not quite sure what is going on with WD drives.
