Why new hard disks might not be much fun for XP users
11th March 2010
Instead of storing 512-byte sectors, hard disks will start using 4096-byte sectors. 4096 is a good size for this kind of thing. For one, it matches the standard size of allocation units in the NTFS filesystem, which nowadays is probably the most widely used filesystem on personal computers. Secondly, it matches the standard size of memory pages on x86 systems. Memory allocations on x86 systems are generally done in multiples of 4096 bytes, and correspondingly, many disk operations (such as reading to or from the pagefile, or reading in executable programs), which interact intimately with the memory system, are equally done in multiples of 4096 bytes.
We have the technology. Mostly.