Preparing Advanced Format hard drives
for Microsoft Windows installations on HP
Business Notebook PCs, Workstations,
and Desktop PCs
Technical white paper
Table of contents
Executive summary ............................................................................................................................... 2
Identifying an Advanced Format drive .................................................................................................... 2
What does the Advanced Format drive mean to you? .............................................................................. 3
Partition alignment ........................................................................................................................... 3
Performance optimization.................................................................................................................. 4
Important tips ...................................................................................................................................... 6
Encrypting drives ............................................................................................................................. 6
Installing Windows Vista (prior to SP1) or Windows XP images ............................................................. 6
Avoiding a potential error associated with a Windows Vista deployment ............................................... 7
Creating a 1 MB-aligned partition ...................................................................................................... 7
Extending the partition during a Windows XP image deployment .......................................................... 9
Aligning drives in a RAID configuration ............................................................................................ 10
Using third-party deployment tools ................................................................................................... 10
Enhancing performance with many small writes (as with ImageX) ........................................................ 10
Validating partition alignment ............................................................................................................. 10
Using the Unattended Advanced Format Hard Disk Information Tool .................................................... 11
Using DiskExt ................................................................................................................................. 11
Using WMIC ................................................................................................................................. 12
Using DiskPart ............................................................................................................................... 12
Sample validation .......................................................................................................................... 13
Summary of HP Advanced Format tools ................................................................................................ 14
Frequently asked questions ................................................................................................................. 16
Appendix A: Technical background ..................................................................................................... 18
Partition alignment ......................................................................................................................... 18
Why alignment helps ...................................................................................................................... 19
Appendix B: Procedure for installing KB982018 into WinPE 3.0 ............................................................ 20
For more information .......................................................................................................................... 21
