Windows 10 support AF, 512e or 4k sector HDD out of the box?

[MOS_6502]

Hello.

A friend of mine asked me if I can search a computer for his living room. After searching some options, I've found some barebones that requires a 2,5 HDD, and I like this:

WD WD10JPVX, 1TB:

https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Mobile-Hard-Disk-Drive/dp/B00C9TEBJQ

do you see the sticker? it says:

"Advanced Format Drive"

I remember reading about that years ago, about 4k sectors and 512e, but it seems that Windows 10 (out of the box) doesn't support those type of drives:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2510009/microsoft-support-policy-for-4k-sector-hard-drives-in-windows

4K -> Supported on the following operating systems:

Windows 8
Windows Server 2012
Windows 10 Version 1607

512e -> Supported on the following operating systems:

Windows Vista
Windows 7
Windows Server 2008*
Windows Server 2008 R2*
Windows Server 2012
Windows 8


how it is possible? Build 1607 was released on august 2, 2016, but what before that? how people installed Windows 10 on these drives? the vast majority of HDD, if not 99%, were 512e or 4k at that point... If you purchase a OEM Windows 10 cardboard envelope, like this:

what build will you receive? what about people with no internet connection to get updates? I think I'm missing something, because if you do some searchs on the net it reveals the confussion or the surprise of people that discovers this after or before the purchase of Windows 10.


What I can do in this situation? there's no internet connection on my friend's house.

 

[RealBeast]

All drives manufactured for quite a while now are advanced format. Most are manufacturer set to 512e (AF drives that emulate the old 512kb sector drives), but most newer hardware and W10 support native 4K but all have support for the 512e drives also.

 

[MOS_6502]

All drives manufactured for quite a while now are advanced format. Most are manufacturer set to 512e (AF drives that emulate the old 512kb sector drives), but most newer hardware and W10 support native 4K but all have support for the 512e drives also.

Hello, many thanks for the response.

I understand the fact that a 4k sector drive can act like one with 512kb sectors (512e), but that Microsoft bulletin states that drives that uses 512e doesn't work with Windows 10, and also says that 4k drives only work with Windows 10 from version 1607.
I asked this question because it's possible that the build included on the Windows 10 OEM disk will include a older version, rendering a 4k drive incompatible on this case, and I don't know how people buy a OEM disk, installs it and doesn't have compatibility problems, there are many reports on the net about sucessfull installations of Windows 10 on 4k/512e drives, but there are very few info about this very exact issue.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Windows 10 has supported the advanced format (4k sectors) drives since initial release. Just purchase a drive and don't worry about it.

 

[RealBeast]

No MOS, there is much misunderstanding on this issue. Not only can W10 1607 use 512e drive, it can use ancient actual physical 512kb drives.

The bottom line is:

All Windows versions will work with native 512kb drives.

All versions starting with Vista can use AF drive with 512kb emulation (aka 512e).

All versions starting with W8 can use AF drives that are 4k native.

 

[MOS_6502]

Windows 10 has supported the advanced format (4k sectors) drives since initial release. Just purchase a drive and don't worry about it.

No MOS, there is much misunderstanding on this issue. Not only can W10 1607 use 512e drive, it can use ancient actual physical 512kb drives.

The bottom line is:

All Windows versions will work with native 512kb drives.

All versions starting with Vista can use AF drive with 512kb emulation (aka 512e).

All versions starting with W8 can use AF drives that are 4k native.

I think that both answers are totally great, I tried to pick both answers as the solution, but I can't, sorry. I have already made the purchase (same HDD, W10) The only thing that remains is that all web search engines indexes this same post for others to see.

Many thanks to both!.

 

[tinkerthinker]

No MOS, there is much misunderstanding on this issue. Not only can W10 1607 use 512e drive, it can use ancient actual physical 512kb drives.

The bottom line is:

All Windows versions will work with native 512kb drives.

All versions starting with Vista can use AF drive with 512kb emulation (aka 512e).

All versions starting with W8 can use AF drives that are 4k native.

Sounds good, and I’m in the same process of looking for a hard drive that works with Windows 10. The difficulty is to find official sources, to back up the claims. As the OP clearly points out, Microsoft officially only supports 4K Native drives types. Maybe that declaration of policy is too old and has been left out of proper updating, because they do mention, in contrast, that Windows 10 can be installed respectively on both 512e and 4Kn Advanced Format hard drives here: http://

It would be a great, as an addition, if someone could verify that Windows 10 works with their 512e hard disk drive!

 

[MOS_6502]

No MOS, there is much misunderstanding on this issue. Not only can W10 1607 use 512e drive, it can use ancient actual physical 512kb drives.

The bottom line is:

All Windows versions will work with native 512kb drives.

All versions starting with Vista can use AF drive with 512kb emulation (aka 512e).

All versions starting with W8 can use AF drives that are 4k native.

Sounds good, and I’m in the same process of looking for a hard drive that works with Windows 10. The difficulty is to find official sources, to back up the claims. As the OP clearly points out, Microsoft officially only supports 4K Native drives types. Maybe that declaration of policy is too old and has been left out of proper updating, because they do mention, in contrast, that Windows 10 can be installed respectively on both 512e and 4Kn Advanced Format hard drives here: http://

It would be a great, as an addition, if someone could verify that Windows 10 works with their 512e hard disk drive!

I don't doubt about what ex_bubblehead and RealBeast said, but I can post here my results with an 512e drive when the computer arrives if you desire.

 

[RealBeast]

"It would be a great, as an addition, if someone could verify that Windows 10 works with their 512e hard disk drive!"

IT CAN, PERIOD.

Done it many times with both kinds of AF drives using W8 and W10, also installed W10 on old school 512 drives, which of course are smaller drives.

In fact, I used 4k native drives with Windows 7 by using an Adaptec 8805 controller, which can use them too. There are ways around everything but the only "problem" is trying to use AF drives (more so 4k) on very old hardware, which is the reason that they made AF in 512e and not just 4k.