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