Preparing Advanced Format hard drives for Microsoft Windows installations on HP Business Notebook PCs, Workstations, and Desktop PCs

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Are there differences between Advanced Format drive models?
Some drive models have noticeably superior performance, though slightly higher potential for data
loss.
Many vendors are switching to the Advanced Format drives without making any other changes. Some
vendors have made the transition more transparent to users and have optimized the performance of
their software by delaying disk writes. While these sequential writes can improve performance, they
keep data in the cache longer; thus, if you fail to align one of these write-optimized drives, there is a
greater risk of data loss.
Why did HP choose to support emulation rather than drives with 4-KB native sector format?
While this was considered, the existing system infrastructure has been designed around a logical
512-byte sector – notably the hard disk boot device. The resources needed to update the environment
would have been vast; for example, a BIOS update would be required for every system. Moreover,
some operating systems do not support booting to 4-KB native drives. Older applications and games
would not be able to run, while there would be no performance advantage for a customer. Thus, HP
elected to not pursue this approach at this time.
Where can I build an Advanced Format drive-aware image?
As long as it is validated, you can create a custom image on either a conventional drive or an
Advanced Format drive.
Is there any value to aligning partitions on an SSD?
Many modern SSDs feature an internal memory configuration that corresponds to 4-KB sectors.
SSDs memory cells degrade over time, following a large number of write operations; thus, if partitions
are misaligned, not only will performance be degraded but you also increase the risk of premature
drive failure.
Aligning the partitions will eliminate all redundant read/write operations, thus enhancing drive
performance and potentially extending the life of the drive.
I have an image created for a drive with 512-byte sectors that I know is not aligned appropriately for
an Advanced Format drive. Can I use Symantec Ghost to install this image on an Advanced Format
drive?
Yes, the image can be aligned during deployment. Refer to the guidelines provided in Extending the
partition during a Windows XP image deployment.