Hello,
I purchased four 2TB green WD20EARS drives with plans to use a backup and music playback mostly. But then I got the wild idea to use one as the boot drive in a new Dell.
So, I have a few questions to ask here (could not find the answers anywhere on the web after hours of searching).
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How do I determine if a WD20EARS is currently aliagned and using the advanced formatting? I tried Data Lifeguard Diagnostic but I could not see the alignment status. It reports NTFS, but I guess that’s what I would generally see for any Micosoft OS.
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I accidentally formatted one drive with Windows 7 before putting data on it. Did I mess up the advanced formatting/alignment for Windows 7?
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Regarding my boot decision, mentioned above, I installed Windows 7 on one green WD20EARS without partitioning first, thinking I could shrink and partition later (as I have done in other situations). But now I’m not sure if:
a) Did installing W7 affect the algnment and advanced formatting? (I dont’ think so, but I’m not sure)
b) What happens if I do shrink and create new partitions? How will that affect aignment and advanced formatting?
c) I have read reacently that green drives aren’t recommended as boot drives. So, if I take it out and delete my install,
do Ihave to simply delete/empty trash, etc.? Or, what’s the best way to wipe? Formatting software, or in W7 or OSX?
d) If I do keep the boot setup, what’s the best tool to repartition without losing the alignment/advanced formatting? Unfortunately, W7 limits how much I can shrink the volume, so that’s not the best solution anyway.
Thanks for your patience in reading this long first post. I’m short on time, and frustrated by not being able to find the answers, even by searching here so far.
Thanks,
-WinLInMac