Hard drive evolution could hit Microsoft XP users

by Mark Ward

Hard drives are about to undergo one of the biggest format shifts in 30 years.

By early 2011 all hard drives will use an "advanced format" that changes how they go about saving the data people store on them. 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. However, it might mean problems for Windows XP users who swap an old drive for one using the changed format. Read more...

Source: BBC Technology

Western Digital's Advanced Format

Old news and there is a driver for XP already. Alternatively you can set a jumper on the drive.

Well yeah, XP does not support SATA either, but there are ways around it.

Well yeah, XP does not support SATA either, but there are ways around it.

What are you on about? I've never heard of or had an issue with Xp and SATA or eSATA, the BIOS and MOBO hardware make it transparent to most 'modern' operating systems.

Just built and commissioned another new machine and it will take more than some bullshlt 'Hard Drive Evolution' rumor to get me away from XP SP3 in the short term!

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Just built and commissioned another new machine and it will take more than some bullshlt 'Hard Drive Evolution' rumor to get me away from XP SP3 in the short term!

I bought a laptop a year ago with an internal SATA drive. My XP installation disc did not see the hard drive. I did some research and found a workaround, had to modify the installation and burn it to a new disc.

Personally, I don't give a rat's arse what OS you use.

2011? Isn't it by then most HD will be SSD?

Dont know if that would make any difference to the xp issue

Well yeah, XP does not support SATA either, but there are ways around it.

I have XP on my desktop with SATA drive, never had a problem. I once installed XP on my Asus notebook with SATA drive, never had an issue also. So I am not sure why you had problem with yours.

Well yeah, XP does not support SATA either, but there are ways around it.

I have XP on my desktop with SATA drive, never had a problem. I once installed XP on my Asus notebook with SATA drive, never had an issue also. So I am not sure why you had problem with yours.

Also depends on the age of the motherboard, the new ones help xp with it and there is no problem. Or you might have a newer version of an XP install where the issue was solved already.

Well yeah, XP does not support SATA either, but there are ways around it.

I have XP on my desktop with SATA drive, never had a problem. I once installed XP on my Asus notebook with SATA drive, never had an issue also. So I am not sure why you had problem with yours.

Also depends on the age of the motherboard, the new ones help xp with it and there is no problem. Or you might have a newer version of an XP install where the issue was solved already.

It's well-known and well-covered, there's a software tool and relatively simple instructions out there (can't recall the name of it, was a year ago) for hacking the install.

I thought I was covering all the little details when shopping for the new laptop, never occurred to me that it wouldn't be XP friendly -- officially HP declared the model I bought would not support XP, meaning no XP device drivers. I did get it installed, but all the klooj-ing to get the Vista drivers for the other hardware stuff (graphics, sound, network, etc) were so iffy I had to give up on XP. Running Win7 now with dual-boot Linux, but aspiring to using Linux as everyday system. I'm waiting for next month's Ubuntu release to put all the effort into configuring it.