Barracuda XT, Barracuda, Barracuda Green, DiamondMax and other desktop SATA and IDE drives

[MaxH]

I just bought this disc. Initially I thought it 'd be a 512 bytes sector size disc, but now that I had done some more research and after asking in the store (where they had no idea!) it turns out most sheets and stores descriptions says that this drive is shipped as 512 or 4K sector sizes. So how I'm able to tell if this hard drive that I bought has a sector size of 512 or 4K, without opening it (in case is 4K and I want to get 512 bytes sector for better compatibility and performance in XP?

[Cantbecanit]

http://www.seagate.com/docs/pdf/datasheet/disc/barracuda-data-sheet-ds1737.1-1111us.pdf

[MaxH]

Thanks for the answer, unfortunately that leaves me with the same question. Here's a quote from the Datasheet: "Seagate ships this drive in both 4K- and 512-byte sectors. SmartAlign technology is included on 4K sector drives. Both drives are functionally and physically equivalent." How can I figure out what's the sector size of this drive? I can provide any detail present in the bag.

[fzabkar]

What are the first three characters of the serial number? That should tell us whether the drive has a 500GB or 1TB platter. I suspect that the former would have 512-byte sectors whereas the latter would have 4KB sectors. But that's only speculation.

[quasar]

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MaxH wrote:
...So how I'm able to tell if this hard drive that I bought has a sector size of 512 or 4K, without opening it ...

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I also have the same problem.

Is there nobody at Seagate who can provide a definitive answer?

Surely there must be a way to identify whether the drive has a 512-byte or 4k sector by looking at the sticker/carton.

The spec sheet says the 500GB drive is shipped in "...both 4K- and 512-byte sectors...".

Here's hoping someone can clear this vexing issue once and for all.

Thanks in advance.

[fzabkar]

Could we see the drive's label?

[quasar]

Hope the resolution is good enough.

[fzabkar]

Let me first say that if your primary aim is to ensure that your partitions are aligned under Windows XP, then you could use a utility such as GParted which is able to create partitions on megabyte boundaries (in the same way as Vista and Windows 7). This circumvents any AF issues.

As for the labels, I can't see any definitive way to be sure whether your drive is an AF model.

What is certain, though, is that the presence of an "AF" logo signifies Advanced Format:
http://kom-planet.ru/images/p_images/2088.jpg

But does this necessarily mean that a drive without an AF logo is not an AF drive?

Your drive has KC43 firmware, so I wondered if it was possible for AF and non-AF versions of the same model to have the same firmware revision. My intuition says no, but I can't be certain.

Anyway, I found the following URLs:
http://www.digipedia.pl/usenet/thread/19509/7894/
http://forum.ixbt.com/topic.cgi?id=11:39083-99

Here are the pertinent data:

Device Model: ST500DM002-1BD142
Serial Number: Z2Axxxxx
Firmware Version: KC43
Sector Sizes: 512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical

Hard Disk Model ID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : ST320DM000-1BD14C
Firmware Revision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : KC43
Hard Disk Serial Number . . . . . . . . . . . . : Z2Axxxxx
Bytes Per Sector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 4096 [Advanced Format]

The above data would suggest that KC43 firmware is an AF version, but it's by no means conclusive.

KC44 and KC45 drives appear to bear the AF logo:
http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTM4N1g5NTc=/$(KGrHqJHJC4E914wku6yBPv!BQ1TEg~~60_3.JPG
http://img.zol-img.com/zol_tuan/tuan_contents/13/2e/e5/img_201203072003462245.jpg
http://i.ebayimg.com/t/NEW-Seagate-Baracuda-500-GB-Internal-7200-RPM-3-5-ST500DM002-Hard-Drive-/00/s...

However, I haven't yet found any KC43 drives with the AF logo:
http://www.komport.kz/images/500Gb.jpg
http://www.esl-shop.net/ImgSrv/750/750//A%5Ca9bs95.jpg
http://www.ktc-ua.com/sites/default/files/styles/ktc_900x660/public/product_img/hdd/0170102_3.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/05/Seagate_ST500DM002_2011-07.jpg/360px-Seagat...
http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/5775/120524114046.jpg

I also investigated the serial numbers. The first three characters are significant. I believe that the first character denotes the manufacturing location, while the third character denotes the number of heads or platters. I suspect that the second character may reflect the platter type.

The current generation of drives appear to have serial number prefixes of W2A (Wuxi, China), S2A (Suzhou, China), or Z2A (Thailand). The earlier generation has prefixes such as 5VM (Wuxi, China), 6VM (Suzhou, China), and 9VM (Thailand).

Here is an ST500DM002 model, with KC43 firmware and a S/N of 5VMxxxxx:
http://img2.icson.com/IcsonPic/mpic/19-139-079-02.jpg

I have also encountered the ST3500413AS model with serials of Z2A, 6VM, and 5VM.

This begs the question, do serial numbers of the form x2A denote recent AF models, and do serials of the form xVM denote the earlier non-AF models?

[quasar]

@ fzabkar

Thanks a lot for your detailed reply.

It is greatly appreciated.

So it seems there is no definite way to ascertain the AF status before unpacking the drive.

It would have saved customers a lot of hassle if drive vendors used the AF logo consistently from the very beginning.