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:
| Bytes per Sector | Bytes per Physical Sector | Format Type |
|---|---|---|
| 512 | 512 | 512-byte native |
| 512 | 4096 | 512-byte emulation |
| 4096 | 4096 | 4K native |
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:
| Logical Sector size | Physical Sector size | Format Type |
|---|---|---|
| 512 bytes | 512 bytes | 512-byte native |
| 512 bytes | 4096 bytes | 512-byte emulation |
| 4096 bytes | 4096 bytes | 4K native |