Gentoo Archives: gentoo-user

From: walt <w41ter@×××××.com>
To: gentoo-user@l.g.o
Subject: [gentoo-user] Who believes in cylinders?
Date: Sat, 27 Feb 2010 00:09:55
Message-Id: hm9nqu$66g$1@dough.gmane.org
1 There's been some talk here recently about partitions versus cylinder
2 boundaries, and when or even if they need to line up properly.
3
4 I'm confused. For many years now I've ignored "cylinders" completely
5 because I've read that modern disks are addressed by sector number only,
6 and disks don't know or care about cylinders. The "cylinder" seems to
7 be a fiction that sticks around like a drunk who refuses to leave when
8 the party is over.
9
10 The recent thread about the new disks with 1024-byte sectors has me
11 even more confused.
12
13 IIUC the new disks *do* care (at least) about where a partition
14 begins relative to it's own 1024-byte hardware sectors, and that
15 part makes perfect sense.
16
17 But, to me, that still leaves the "cylinder" as a completely useless
18 fiction that needs to join MSDOS in the scrap heap of history.
19
20 Am I right to separate the 1024-byte sector problem from "cylinders"
21 as being two entirely different and orthogonal ideas?
22
23 Is there really any need for the "cylinder" these days?
24
25 Happy Friday :)

Replies

Subject Author
Re: [gentoo-user] Who believes in cylinders? Volker Armin Hemmann <volkerarmin@××××××××××.com>
Re: [gentoo-user] Who believes in cylinders? Mark Knecht <markknecht@×××××.com>