Comment 149 for bug 599255

Due to this issue being brought to IRC #ubuntu I did some background research to try to confirm Danny's theory about sector-size.

So far the best resource I've found in the Promise Knowledge base (kb.promise.com) is:

https://kb.promise.com/thread/how-do-i-create-an-array-larger-than-2tb-for-windows-xp-or-windows-2000-32-bit-operating-systems/

This page contains the following table:

For this logical drive size Select this sector size

Up to 16 TB 4096 bytes (4 KB)
Up to 8 TB 2048 bytes (2 KB)
Up to 4 TB 1024 bytes (1 KB)
Up to 2 TB 512 bytes (512 B)

The page intro says:

"This application note deals with a specific application for VTrak M-Class and E-Class in a Windows 2000/WinXP 32-bit OS environment."

From fragments in other Promise KB articles I do think this is the formula the Promise Fastrak Windows drivers follow so might be a basis for a permanent and reliable fix.