Preparing Advanced Format hard drives for Microsoft Windows installations on HP Business Notebook PCs and desktop PCs - White Paper

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Figure 1: HDD label featuring the Advanced Format logo
What does the Advanced Format drive mean to you?
This section outlines a range of scenarios involving the use of Advanced Format drives and describes
actions that should be taken to optimize performance in each case. These actions typically depend on
the OS being used.
When running an OS that is not Advanced Format-aware in conjunction with an Advanced Format
drive, your system may experience performance issues due to misalignment between logical sectors
(OS) and physical sectors (disk media) – also referred to as a misaligned partition. You can typically
use the Paragon Partition Alignment Tool ensure partitions are aligned, thus enhancing performance.
The Partition Alignment Tool first checks to see if the alignment of a particular partition is compatible
with Advanced Format requirements and, if necessary, makes the appropriate adjustments.
Note
The Partition Alignment Tool may report a misalignment for a 4 KB-aligned
partition but not for a 1 MB-aligned partition.
The following Windows platforms are Advanced Format-aware (thus, no realignment is required):
 Windows Vista® SP1 or later
 Windows 7
 Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE) 3.0 or later
Tables 1 and 2 outline a number of scenarios involving the use of Advanced Format-aware drives and
recommends actions you should take to optimize the performance of your HP Business Notebook or
Desktop PC, or Retail POS system.