Could formatting/disk checking 4k drive damage it

[KYThrill]

I'm just curious if it would be possible to damage a 4k advance format drive by using an incompatible program like Acronis 9 to attempt a format and disc check?  I sold my 4k Samsung drive to a guy, who is now claiming that the drive is bad because Acronis reports that Sector 0 is bad.  However, he is using Acronis 9.  On their website, Acronis states that 4k drives were not supported until version 10, and then only their enterprise versions.  I pointed this out to him, but he is still being completely irrational.  I offered him his money back if it failed ESTool, but he won't even entertain using any other program but Acronis 9.

 

I don't think there is anyway he could damage it just doing a sector scan (at least none I can think of), but I don't want to take it back if there is a chance he Fubar'ed it with Acronis 9.  At this point, I'm about ready to tell him to get stuffed anyway because he is being irate and won't even listen to reason.

[bubbaQ]

No, it will just corrupt the filesystem.  No damage occurs that can't be fixed by a proper wipe of the first cylinder and reformatting.

[lionelhutz]

The drive will appear as a 512b sector drive to the system so I doubt he could have done any damage. The 4k sectors are an internal thing and the drive maps the internal 4k sectors to the standard 512b sectors just like every other drive has. I'm not sure what Acronis does but I can't see how it would get past that internal mapping for there to make a difference. I guess the flip side of this is that it could really be bad. I expect that 4k sector support is for any possible future 4k drives.

 

Peter

 

[KYThrill]

The drive will appear as a 512b sector drive to the system so I doubt he could have done any damage. The 4k sectors are an internal thing and the drive maps the internal 4k sectors to the standard 512b sectors just like every other drive has. I'm not sure what Acronis does but I can't see how it would get past that internal mapping for there to make a difference. I guess the flip side of this is that it could really be bad. I expect that 4k sector support is for any possible future 4k drives.

 

Peter

 

 

Well, Acronis has stated that their software does not work with the EARS 4k drives (unless you have an enterprise version of 10 or 11).  Emulation must not be as transparent as we think.  Now apparently it doesn't work with the Samsung 4k drives either.  Symptoms were the same for both.  It reports sector 0 as corrupt.  Since sector 0 is the MBR, their must be something in the MBR specific to 4k that trips up Acronis.