SQL Server 2008 R2 installation error 5178

Question

Hi All,
Can anyone shed some light on this? I've been searching answer on the web but with no luck. basically i got the following error in the sql error log while i was trying to intall SQL Server 2008 R2 Express.
2012-01-03 11:58:26.26 spid7s      Starting up database 'master'.
2012-01-03 11:58:26.28 spid7s      Error: 5178, Severity: 16, State: 1.
2012-01-03 11:58:26.28 spid7s      Cannot use file 'c:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10_50.QSRNVIVO9\MSSQL\Template Data\master.mdf' because it was originally formatted with sector size 4096 and is now on a volume with sector
size 3072. Move the file to a volume with a sector size that is the same as or smaller than the original sector size.
2012-01-03 11:58:26.28 spid7s      Error: 5178, Severity: 16, State: 1.
2012-01-03 11:58:26.28 spid7s      Cannot use file 'c:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10_50.QSRNVIVO9\MSSQL\Template Data\master.mdf' because it was originally formatted with sector size 4096 and is now on a volume with sector
size 3072. Move the file to a volume with a sector size that is the same as or smaller than the original sector size.
2012-01-03 11:58:26.30 spid7s      Error: 5178, Severity: 16, State: 1.
2012-01-03 11:58:26.30 spid7s      Cannot use file 'c:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10_50.QSRNVIVO9\MSSQL\Template Data\mastlog.ldf' because it was originally formatted with sector size 4096 and is now on a volume with sector
size 3072. Move the file to a volume with a sector size that is the same as or smaller than the original sector size.
2012-01-03 11:58:26.30 spid7s      Error: 5178, Severity: 16, State: 1.
2012-01-03 11:58:26.30 spid7s      Cannot use file 'c:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10_50.QSRNVIVO9\MSSQL\Template Data\mastlog.ldf' because it was originally formatted with sector size 4096 and is now on a volume with sector
size 3072. Move the file to a volume with a sector size that is the same as or smaller than the original sector size.
Below is some details about the machine.
Machine processor count:       2
  OS version:                    Windows Vista Home Premium
  OS service pack:               Service Pack 2
  OS region:                     United States
  OS language:                   German
  OS architecture:               x86
  Process architecture:          32 Bit
  OS clustered:                  No
C drive has 200GB+ free space and is formatted with 'Allocation unit size' = 4096 bytes
Also, chkdsk initially found a file system problem but it had been fixed by running the 'chkdsk /F' command.
Thanks,
Kevin

Answer 1

I ran into this as well, but was able to resolve it using the Intel Rapid Storage Download link referenced earlier in this thread. 
Here's the scenario:  Dell Latitude E6500, Win 7 x64.  I run 3 instances of SQL Server on this machine (05,08, and 12); it is a development machine.
Recently, the 500gb drive in my spare media bay drive, where my database files are, started reporting USB device errors.  After scanning it, I discovered that the Dell utilities were reporting a Western Digital drive error code.  So, I backed the
drive up (it was still functioning), and then replaced it with a 1TB Western Digital Scorpio Blue drive.  (Same brand and type as the original, drive, just in the large format 1TB option).
Everything "seemed" ok... until I started accessing SQL Server 2008 databases.  SQL 2k5 and 2k12 didn't seem to mind, but SQL 2k8 started throwing:
Cannot use file 'd:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10_50.SQL2K8\MSSQL\DATA\mastlog.ldf' because it was originally formatted with sector size 4096 and is now on a volume with sector size 3072. Move the file to a volume with a sector size that is the same as or smaller than the original sector size.
I fell back to my "dying" 500gb drive while I tried to figure out what to do.  I found some information about bios/firmware issues with Dell, that turned out to be a bad path.  I ran the Intel Rapid Storage Win 7 x64 installer (didn't need all
that floppy/non floppy stuff the Intel site talked about).  I put my 1TB drive back in the bay...and tada, all 3 instances of SQL Server (and my instance of DB2) are all happy... so far. 
I did find in the windows event log the following for both the SQL 2k8 and 2k12 instances after coming back up on the 1tb drive with the Intel Driver update:
The tail of the log for database DataMart is being rewritten to match the new sector size of 4096 bytes. 1024 bytes at offset 553905152 in file D:\MSSQL\LOGs\DataMart5.ldf will be written.
So far no ill effects...