Discussion HDD bytes per sector types; 521e vs 512n vs 4Kn?

[videobruce]

I'm in the market for a replacement HDD; 4TB vs 2TB. I settled for Seagate Enterprise. The 3 models are the same price & same warranty $150 5yrs,

The types are
521e (emulated),
512n (native) and
4Kn 4096 native

I have many a few good articles on the differences sine this aspect never came up before, 20 years playing around with computers. I only looked at manufacture, capacity, interface, speed, & warranty.

I'm running Win7 Pro (still), I may go to W10, but that is a maybe. The drives I have currently are one SSD and two Hitachi 2TB with a 512 BPS spec. I looked up the specs and all that is provided is "512", not 512e or 512n. So I don't know what they are. The drives models numbers are identical except for the last digit; 0 vs 1;
Hitachi HUA723020ALA640

From what I have read, 521e is the way to go for current compatibility.But, that seems debatable according to the articles. This replacement will be a 'storage' drive and it seemed that a 4096 BPS would be the better choice.

Input please.

 

[videobruce]

The Seagate Enterprise choices are;
ST4000NM0115
ST4000NM0085
ST4000NM0035

 

[Insert_Nickname]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Format

Hope that explains. Win7 can't handle native 4KB sectors, so it might be a good idea to get either a native 512 or 512e version. I think you need at least Win8 for that.

 

[videobruce]

Yes it can.;
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...he-compatibility-of-windows-7-and-windows-ser

I have found conflicting articles about this. As usual this is another Wintel fix, it has to do with Intel drivers. I run AMD so it isn't clear (as usual) how of if this affects AMD chipsets. 😡

Here is a good paper from Seagate;
https://www.seagate.com/tech-insights/advanced-format-4k-sector-hard-drives-master-ti/