I'm a little confused about preclearing.

 

Do I need to use -A if I am preclearing 3tb Seagate dirves? or is that only necessary for certain WD drives?

 

Thanks

I'm a little confused about preclearing.

 

Do I need to use -A if I am preclearing 3tb Seagate dirves? or is that only necessary for certain WD drives?

 

Thanks

It has absolutely no effect on ANY drive that is over 2.2TB, as they use a GPT partition.

 

So, you can use it, or not, as it is not involved at all unless you have a disk smaller than 2.2TB. (It is ignored on disks over 2.2TB)

 

There is only one model disk drive (the Western Digital EARS drive when equipped with a jumper) that should not be 4k aligned.  Every other drive out there, regardless of make or manufacturer can use a partition starting on sector 64 (MBR-4k-aligned) just fine. 

 

So, always use the "-A" option, unless you have one of those WD drives where you added a jumper to it.  If you have one of those drives with NO jumper, use the "-A" option.

 

Joe L.

 

So, always use the "-A" option, unless you have one of those WD drives where you added a jumper to it.  If you have one of those drives with NO jumper, use the "-A" option.

 

Joe L.

 

Thanks forth detailed explanation. But I am confused about this last sentence that you said. Did you mean to say to use it ONLY if you have one of those WD drives AND the drive is smaller than 2.2tbs?

 

Or did you mean to say to always use it just in case because it can't hurt and will be ignored anyway when not needed?

 

Basically I precleared my 3tb Seagates and did not use -A. Am I good to go?

Basically, I preceleared my 3tb without -A and want to know if I should re-do it with the -A.

 

Also, for my seagate 160gig, and 250 gig drives, I should use the -A because it is less then 2.2 tb correct?

 

There is one particular model of WD, called EARS, that requires -a if and only if it has a jumper installed. In all other cases, any drive, any size, any model, use -A.

There is one particular model of WD, called EARS, that requires -a if and only if it has a jumper installed. In all other cases, any drive, any size, any model, use -A.

Correct.  (the -A is silently ignored on drives > 2.2TB they use GPT partitions)

The "-a" or "-A"option only applies to MBR partitions used on drives <= 2.2TB. 

GPT partitions, used for drives > 2.2TB are handled differently, and the "-a" or "-A" is ignored if supplied... 

 

So, as stated, There is one particular model of WD, called EARS, that requires -a if and only if it has a jumper installed. In all other cases, any drive, any size, any model, use -A.