How to Check Drive and Datastore Sector Size

Product version: 10.8

Last modified: 26 October 2022

Question

How can you check the sector size and format type (512-byte native, 512-byte emulation, or 4K native) of a drive or datastore?

Answer

VMware

To check the sector size of a VMware datastore, run the following command:

esxcli storage core device capacity list

In the resulting output, sector size information for each device is listed under the Format Type column. The possible values are 512n (512-byte native), 512e (512-byte emulation), and 4Kn SWE (4K native).

Windows

To check the sector size of a logical drive in Windows, run the following command, replacing "x" with the appropriate directory:

Fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo x:

In the resulting output, look for the Bytes per Sector and Bytes per Physical Sector values. Use the following table to identify the format type based on the aforementioned parameters:

Linux

To check the sector size of a drive in Linux, run the following command, replacing /dev/sda with the appropriate directory:

sudo hdparm -I /dev/sda |grep size

In the resulting output, look for the Logical Sector size and Physical Sector size values. Use the following table to identify the format type based on the aforementioned parameters: