Hard disk drives (HDDs) come in two sector sizes; traditional HDDs are called 512-byte native (512n). Newer HDD models use a 4k-byte internal sector size to improve storage efficiency and offer a 512-byte format on the external interface, a technology called 512-byte emulation (512e).
A 512e HDD is typically slightly faster than a 512n in the same hardware generation because there are fewer auxiliary control bits in 512e, resulting in a higher data transfer rate at the same speed.
In the Toshiba HDD Lab, the feasibility of swapping 512n and 512e hard disks in a RAID system was evaluated. With RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks), if one of the hard disks fails, the RAID controller can use parity or mirroring information to rebuild the array information into the new hard disk on the replacement.
The drives used in the review were Toshiba's NAS HDD N300 as a 4TB version in 512n sector format, and the enterprise model MG08ADA400E as a 512e sector format version. The popular 4-bay desktop NAS models are the QNAP 4-bay desktop NAS TS-464-4G and the Synology 4-bay desktop NAS DS-420+.
For the server RAID subsystem, several RAID controllers were selected for review, including the Microchip Adaptec? SmartRAID 3204, Microchip Adaptec? SmartRAID 3154, and Broadcom's MegaRAID SAS 9460 and successor model MegaRAID SAS 9560.
In all test configurations, there is no limit to the number of 512e models that can be used to replace a failed 512n drive, but exact rebuild times will vary depending on the system and workload.
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