How to set "bytes per physical sector" at partition encryption

[GS6543]

Hi,

I would like to format my external HDD with its default "bytes per physical sector"-value 4096.
But if I create a encrypted partition, it results a value of 512.

How can I set the value to 4096 ?

Format with Windows:
Bytes pro Sektor : 512
Bytes pro physischem Sektor : 4096
Bytes pro Cluster : 4096
Bytes pro Dateidatensatzsegment : 1024

Format with VC 1.9:
Bytes pro Sektor : 512
Bytes pro physischem Sektor : 512
Bytes pro Cluster : 4096
Bytes pro Dateidatensatzsegment : 1024

Values by "fsutil fsinfo ntfsInfo <Volume-Letter>:"

Thanks in Advance

[Andreas Boehlk]

Hello,
it is easier as You think. After encrytion with VC just use Your favourite format-tool and format the mounted external HDD according to Your needs. In case of data on the drive, back it up before that.
Regards
Andreas

[GS6543]

Thanks for answering.

Sadly it seems, that the format tools only influences the "Bytes pro Cluster".

Format with 2k Sektors results

Bytes pro Sektor  :                 512
Bytes pro physischem Sektor :       512
Bytes pro Cluster :                 2048
Bytes pro Dateidatensatzsegment   : 1024

As you can see, VC still uses 512 in "physischem Sektor".

So the harddrive will not be able to write 4k on physical 4k in a single sector.
VC will split the virtual 4k to 8 * 512 b physical and write it down to a real physical 4k.
In the worst case there will be 8 * 4k sectors written to store a single 4k sector.

So my goal would be to map this correctly.

Thanks in Advance

[GS6543]

The Tool DiskCryptor is able to match the physischem Sektor with 4096 byte.

Does VC cannot do this or how can I achieve this?

[mvilimpoc]

Neither TrueCrypt nor VeraCrypt seem to properly support Advanced Format drives, neither of them exposes the correct "Bytes per physical sector" value to the operating system.

I had a not-great time figuring this out while trying to perform backups.
https://vilimpoc.org/blog/2019/11/07/why-are-my-backups-so-slow/

The disk transfer rate would inevitably stall and stutter when using tools like Robocopy or TeraCopy.

The only solution that I could find, which is neither cross-platform nor useful for Windows 10 Home users, was to use BitLocker To Go, which does expose the correct "Bytes per physical sector" value.

I deeply suspect that the value exposed by TrueCrypt and VeraCrypt's block device causes some issues when 8x as many sector writes as necessary are passed to the underlying USB mass storage driver.

[Mounir IDRASSI]

@mvilimpoc : Did you try checking the option "Enable Extended Disk control codes support" in VeraCrypt "Performace/Driver configuration" setting?
If this option is enabled, then VeraCrypt volumes will exposes various low level information from physical disk, including the size in bytes of physical sectors.
The screenshot below show where this option is located.

This option is not enabled by default in order to make all volumes similar without any link with the physical disk where they reside.

[DDD]

Could you please explain this more:
"This option is not enabled by default in order to make all volumes similar without any link with the physical disk where they reside."
Do you mean volumes across all users everywhere? Or all the volumes using that one device?

[mvilimpoc]

@idrassi Interesting. I will try this and see if it helps.