Problems with using some new hard drives as boot disks for XP

This one’s a bit obscure, but if you’re installing XP on a system with a new, large hard drive from Western Digital, there’s a little problem you should know about.

AnandTech has a good overview.

Thanks to LK for the heads-up. He says:

Check the model number of any Western Digital hard drive you may be considering. If it ends in EARS eg. WD10EAR, WD15EARS then you have the new format. No problem if you are using Linux, OSX, Vista or Win7. If using WinXP, and this hard drive will be the boot disk, then you need to apply the WD Align program (read the AnandTech article).