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