Upcoming Hard Drive Changes To Effect Windows XP Users

Windows XP is the most widely used operating system in the world, but users might be given a firm reason to upgrade soon. The BBC reports that, by early 2011 all hard drives will use an "advanced format" that changes how they go about saving the data people store on them.

Throughout this year and into 2011, hard drive makers will be working to expand their drives' sector sizes from 512 bytes to a new industry standard of 4 kilobytes. Given the average size of drives these days, that leaves a lot less space used up by sector markers. The move to the advanced format will make it easier for hard drive makers to produce bigger drives that use less power and are more reliable. Wikipedia provides a pretty good read on sectors and measurements.

Moving to an advanced format of 4K sectors means about eight times less wasted space but will allow drives to devote twice as much space per block to error correction.

"You can get yourself into a corner where you cannot squeeze much more onto the disk," said Steve Perkins, a technical consultant for Western Digital.

This shift also allows manufacturers to make more efficient use of the real estate on a hard drive.

"We can put more data on the disk," he said. "It's about 7-11% more efficient as a format."

Because XP was coded in a time before this standard switch was under consideration, the Windows OS could see compatibility problems along with speed drops. Some advanced drives will be able to emulate the older sector sizes for compatibility, but still, those building their own computers or trading up on hard drives may see notable performance problems. If you're a devoted XP, tell us how you plan to adapt the new “advanced format” in the comments.