How do I 4K align and GPT format a 3TB drive?

[PHOBOS-82]

Hi All

I'v been hunting around for this info and can't find a straigh answer about 4K aligning a GPT drive.

I just picked up two 3TB WD Red Edition drives (WD30EFRX) drives and would like to set them up correctly.
I'm not putting them into a NAS box but I am putting them into a 64bit Windows 7 PC thats runs 24/7 as a file server.

Now I believe these drives have 4K sectors rather than the old 512Bytes.
I would also like to know what Allocation unit size would be to choose when formating the drives. I have options randing from Default,512,1024,4096... all the way to 64K.
The drives will be single NTFS drives (no raid) in this PC.

Thanks for all the help in advance.

 

[drescherjm]

Just partition and format the drives with vista, windows 7 or windows 8 and they will be 4K aligned.

Now I believe these drives have 4K sectors rather than the old 512Bytes.

Yes they are. Like all current generation hard drives.

I have options randing from Default,512,1024,4096... all the way to 64K.

I would leave that as default.

 

[PHOBOS-82]

Thanks. Will give that a try.