Executive summary
Designed for both SMB/enterprise users and consumers, this white paper provides instructions for preparing an Advanced Format hard drive for a Microsoft® Windows® installation on an HP Business Notebook PC, Desktop PC, Workstation, or Retail
Historically, hard disk drives (HDDs) have used
If you are using an Advanced Format driver with an OS that is not Advanced
This white paper presents a range of scenarios involving the use of Advanced Format drives and describes the actions you should take to optimize the performance of your HP Business Notebook PC, Desktop PC, Workstation, or Retail POS system. It also outlines HP tools that provide disk information and support partition alignment, and provides a “Frequently asked questions” section, as well as an appendix with technical background.
Identifying an Advanced Format drive
Options for identifying an Advanced Format drive include:
∙Running the HP Unattended Advanced Format Hard Disk Information Tool (all HP systems) or the interactive HP Advanced Format Hard Drive Information Tool (HP Business Notebook PCs only) provides a range of information about a particular HDD, including vendor, model, capacity and whether or not it is an Advanced Format drive
∙Reviewing the label on the HDD to determine if the Advanced Format logo (shown in Figure 1) is present
For more information on disk information and partition alignment tools for HP systems, refer to Summary of HP Advanced Format tools.
1Where “e” indicates that these drives emulate conventional drives, maintaining
2