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So, I have two identical SSDs (crucial mx500 1TB SATA). I used one to install win10, while the second one was never used. I've put them both into my ubuntu server box and as I ran fdisk and lsblk I noticed that one device is reporting 512/512 for logical/physical sector size (which is also used for minimal/optimal IO size), while second is reporting 512/4096.

/dev/sda === START OF INFORMATION SECTION === Model Family: Crucial/Micron BX/MX1/2/3/500, M5/600, 1100 SSDs Device Model: CT1000MX500SSD1 Serial Number: 2103E4E9079B LU WWN Device Id: 5 00a075 1e4e9079b Firmware Version: M3CR033 User Capacity: 1,000,204,886,016 bytes [1.00 TB] Sector Size: 512 bytes logical/physical Rotation Rate: Solid State Device Form Factor: 2.5 inches Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show] ATA Version is: ACS-3 T13/2161-D revision 5 SATA Version is: SATA 3.3, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 6.0 Gb/s) Local Time is: Tue Oct 5 11:15:16 2021 UTC SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability. SMART support is: Enabled

/dev/sdb === START OF INFORMATION SECTION === Model Family: Crucial/Micron BX/MX1/2/3/500, M5/600, 1100 SSDs Device Model: CT1000MX500SSD1 Serial Number: 2103E4E8F7C9 LU WWN Device Id: 5 00a075 1e4e8f7c9 Firmware Version: M3CR033 User Capacity: 1,000,204,886,016 bytes [1.00 TB] Sector Sizes: 512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical Rotation Rate: Solid State Device Form Factor: 2.5 inches Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show] ATA Version is: ACS-3 T13/2161-D revision 5 SATA Version is: SATA 3.3, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 6.0 Gb/s) Local Time is: Tue Oct 5 11:15:37 2021 UTC SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability. SMART support is: Enabled

I plan to use them for lvm in raid1 setup. Will this cause any issues?

I keep reading that physical sector size is fixed and cannot be changed, but then I found that some vendors (like intel) have tools to change sector size. Did windows installation do this?

UPDATE: well, apparently I can change the sector size:

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION === Model Family: Crucial/Micron BX/MX1/2/3/500, M5/600, 1100 SSDs Device Model: CT1000MX500SSD1 Serial Number: 2103E4E9079B LU WWN Device Id: 5 00a075 1e4e9079b Firmware Version: M3CR033 User Capacity: 1,000,204,886,016 bytes [1.00 TB] Sector Sizes: 512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical Rotation Rate: Solid State Device Form Factor: 2.5 inches Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show] ATA Version is: ACS-3 T13/2161-D revision 5 SATA Version is: SATA 3.3, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 6.0 Gb/s) Local Time is: Tue Oct 5 11:50:05 2021 UTC SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability. SMART support is: Enabled

I used crucial storage executive software, and did a "PSID Revert".

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  • You can't change the sector size of a hard drive - the sectors are created when the hard drive is manufactured and can't be changed. You can change the NTFS cluster size (also called the "allocation unit size") of the file system. Taken from the Toms Hardware Web Site. As for LVM I do not know about that.
    – David DE
    Commented Oct 5, 2021 at 11:41

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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I used crucial storage executive software, and did a "PSID Revert". This reverted sector sizes back to 512/4096 :shrug:

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@versoljc, do you know how you got this physical 512 Bytes sectors on this drive ? I discover I have the same issue as you on a CT1000MX500 that currently shows a raw partition. So I want to clone it to another same drive, but the cloning tool (ddrescue) ignores the source 512B topology when writing to the target that is 512B-physical/4k-logical. Before I start cloning again to recover data from the cloned target, I'd like to have this target to be 512/512 too, so I get a better clone. But I can't get this. I tried cyphering it with bitlocker with both options (~legacy~ (before win10-1511) and current with no success : the drive is still seen as physical 4k in PowerShell get-disk|format-list and linux fdisk -x or lshw -class disk or lsblk -t.

Then in the end, when I've recovered data, I'll use your tip from Storage Executive to reset back to 4k. Many thanks for hint or memories.

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  • TBH, I'm not sure... like I said, the only diff between those two discs was that I used one for temporary win10 install. I don't know if this was factory setting or windows install did something :shrug:
    – vesoljc
    Commented Jan 23, 2023 at 8:33
  • I confirm resetting PSID with Crucial Storage Executive resets the disk geometry to defauts. Crucial support was of null help with this and we then know there is something weird in their disks => confidence broken.
    – useful
    Commented Mar 17, 2023 at 12:50

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