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 .......................................................................................................................... 17

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Other models in this manual:
Desktops - HP 4410t Mobile Thin Client (465.93 kb)
Desktops - HP Compaq 6720t Mobile Thin Client (465.93 kb)