[Bug 583790] Re: Ubuntu 10.04 and Western DIgital's new Advanced Format SATA drives - constant drive errors

[Alex Engelmann]

I finally got Ubuntu installed!  Because Ubiquity will partition 4k HDD
drives wrong, you have to do the following:

1. Make the partitions you want with GNU Parted in the commandline, easily done by booting from a live-USB or live-CD and making sure to use "parted -a optimal"
2. Use the 11.04 alternative installer CD and manually set the mount points for all the partitions.  A live-CD installer might work, but it didn't for me.  Ubiquity will complain that the disk is misaligned if you try to format any partitions besides the swap are, so make sure they've already been formatted in Disk Utility.

For some reason Ubiquity wants to put the first partition at the 34th
sector of the HDD, while Disk Utility and Parted will both (correctly)
put the first partition at the 63rd sector.  Hopefully the developers
can have this fixed before Oneiric's release!

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/583790

Title:
  Ubuntu 10.04 and Western DIgital's new Advanced Format SATA drives -
  constant drive errors

Status in “ubiquity” package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  I recently bought a Western Digital WD10EARS 1 TB SATA drive.

  This WD drive incorporates what is called "Advanced Format" on the
  drive:

  See:
  http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/WhitePapers/ENG/2579-771430.pdf&sa=X&ei=1H_2S8P9FYP78AavgNHECg&ved=0CB8QzgQoADAA&usg=AFQjCNHRHKOzE52JvyZZRvoYX3BiOoYsDw

  I tried to install Ubuntu 10.04 on it.
  The installation kept reporting errors related to the drive during installation.
  The installation took quite a bit longer than usual.
  After installation Ubuntu would boot but again various drive errors kept being reported.

  I thought this might have been a 'bad' HD so I returned it and got the
  same model as a replacement.

  Went through the same process... same results.

  Re-downloaded Ubuntu (just in case) and reburned a new CD (just in case)
  Tried to install Ubuntu 10.04 again... same results.

  So I returned the 2nd HD and paid a restocking fee to exchange for a
  Seagate SATA drive which works just fine.

  As far as I can tell the only difference was this new Advanced Format
  on the WD drive which the Seagate (and my other Hitachi HD's do not
  implement).

  Given the errors, I'm not sure if this is a BIOS compatibility problem a WD implementation issue or an Ubuntu issue but I wanted to report it.
  --- 
  Architecture: amd64
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" - Beta amd64 (20100318)
  Package: ubiquity (not installed)
  ProcEnviron:
   PATH=(custom, no user)
   LANG=en_US.utf8
   SHELL=/bin/bash
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-16.25-generic
  Tags: lucid
  Uname: Linux 2.6.32-16-generic x86_64
  UserGroups:

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