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

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Summary of HP Advanced Format tools
HP has released a number of SoftPaqs for disk information and partition alignment tools. While these
tools are unnecessary if partitions have been 4 KB-aligned during partitioning, they may be useful for
diagnosis or remedial action. For example, the Unattended AF Disk Information Tool has a useful
feature that allows it to detect solid-state drives (SSDs) based on the Media Rotation Rate flag.
Table 4 briefly summarizes the features of these tools.
Table 4. Summary the sources for and key features of HP Advanced Format (AF) tools
Unattended AF Disk Information Tool
AF Disk Information Tool
Paragon Partition Alignment Tool
Paragon Partition Alignment Tool for Workstations (offline edition for CD)
Paragon Partition Alignment Tool for Linux
SoftPaqs (1)
Desktop/POS
sp56815
sp53063
Workstation
sp56815
sp53063
sp55511
Notebook
sp56528
sp57093(3)
sp52890
sp53121(4)
Superseded SoftPaqs
Desktop/POS
sp55117(2)
sp51011
Workstation
sp55117(2)
sp51011
Notebook
sp56211(2)
sp52575(3)
Key features
Unattended
X
No installation required
X
Detect AF disk
X
X
Detect SSD
X
Report 4 KB alignment
X
Report 1 MB alignment
X
X
X
X
Sample scripts
X
Supported on non-
writeable media
X
X
Aligns partitions
X
X
X