Preparing Advanced Format hard drives
for Microsoft Windows installations on HP
Business Notebook PCs 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
Important tips
......................................................................................................................................
5
Encrypting drives
.............................................................................................................................
5
Installing Windows Vista (prior to SP1), Windows XP or Windows 2000 images
....................................
5
Creating a 1 MB-aligned partition
......................................................................................................
6
Extending the partition during a Windows XP image deployment
..........................................................
6
Aligning drives in a RAID configuration
..............................................................................................
7
Using third-party deployment tools
.....................................................................................................
7
Replacing a drive on a Windows 2000 platform
.................................................................................
7
Enhancing performance with many small writes (as with ImageX)
..........................................................
7
Validating partition alignment
...............................................................................................................
8
Using DiskExt
...................................................................................................................................
9
Using WMIC
...................................................................................................................................
9
Using Diskpart
.................................................................................................................................
9
Sample validation
..........................................................................................................................
10
Phase-in of Advanced Format drives
.....................................................................................................
11
Frequently asked questions
.................................................................................................................
12
Hard drive deployment decision tree for managed IT
.........................................................................
14
Appendix A: Technical background
.....................................................................................................
15
Partition alignment
.........................................................................................................................
15
Why alignment helps
......................................................................................................................
16
For more information
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17
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