Summary of HP Advanced Format tools

HP has released a number of SoftPaqs for disk information and partition alignment tools. While these tools are unnecessary if partitions have been 4 KB-aligned during partitioning, they may be useful for diagnosis or remedial action. For example, the Unattended AF Disk Information Tool has a useful feature that allows it to detect solid-state drives (SSDs) based on the Media Rotation Rate flag.

Table 4 briefly summarizes the features of these tools.

Table 4. Summary the sources for and key features of HP Advanced Format (AF) tools

 

 

 

Unattended AF Disk Information Tool

 

AF Disk Information Tool

Paragon Partition Alignment Tool

Paragon Partition Alignment Tool for Workstations (offline edition for CD)

Paragon Partition Alignment Tool for Linux

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SoftPaqs (1)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Desktop/POS

 

sp56815

 

 

sp53063

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Workstation

 

sp56815

 

 

sp53063

sp55511

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notebook

 

sp56528

 

sp57093(3)

sp52890

 

sp53121(4)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Superseded SoftPaqs

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Desktop/POS

 

sp55117(2)

 

 

sp51011

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Workstation

 

sp55117(2)

 

 

sp51011

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notebook

 

sp56211(2)

 

sp52575(3)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Key features

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unattended

 

X

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No installation required

 

X

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Detect AF disk

 

X

 

X

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Detect SSD

 

X

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Report 4 KB alignment

 

X

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Report 1 MB alignment

 

X

 

 

X

X

X

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sample scripts

 

X

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Supported on non-

 

X

 

X

 

 

 

 

writeable media

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aligns partitions

 

 

 

 

X

X

X

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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