Advanced HD Format on XP?HD Storage Only-Help

[itakey]

I want to add a new drive to my Windows XP Pro computer for storage only. Do I still need to do all of the firmware and re-aligning info I see out there everywhere?

Here are some drives I am considering, all 2GB:
-SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB 5400 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5"
-HITACHI Deskstar 5K3000 HDS5C3020ALA632 (0F12117) 2TB 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s
-Western Digital Caviar Green WD20EARS 2TB 64MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5"

All are right around the $79 mark retail, or a little less if on sale.

I'm guessing I definitely need to do the firmware update, and possibly still realign with a program like gparted. It just seems like some people had to put hours into updating their drives and I'm trying to avoid that if possible.

Can someone help me understand what I would need to do to get this to run happily and reliable on a windows XP pro machine as a backup/storage drive only (Never loading an OS onto it)?

Thanks

 

[itakey]

anyone?

 

[SickBeast]

The Seagate Barracuda Green LP 2tb drive auto aligns the partitions for you if that helps. I have one and it's great. Make sure you get the newest revision with the 640gb platters or else it won't have these features. I think the old one didn't have the word "green" in its name.

If you're going with one of the other drives, yeah, I would boot up a Linux livecd and fire up gparted. There's some sort of magic number that you have to be able to divide the partition size by, along with I think the start and end points.

Good luck. This stuff is a PITA.