Preparing Advanced Format hard drives for Microsoft Windows installations on HP Business Notebook PCs and desktop PCs - White Paper
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Table 1. Links to information on optimizing performance in various scenarios involving the use of an Advanced Format drive
Scenario
Windows 7
Windows Vista
SP1 or later
Windows Vista
prior to SP1
Windows XP
Windows 2000
Linux
FreeDOS
POSReady 2009
or WEPOS
You are installing a preinstalled
image you received directly from HP
A
A
A
A
B
A
A
A
You are installing your own image
using WinPE
C
C
C
C
C
C
B
B
You are installing your own image;
you are not using WinPE
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
You are installing off-the-shelf
(that is, non-HP) media
A
A
E
E
E
E
E
B
You are installing HP restore media
A
A
E
E
E
A
B
E
You are installing an HP F11 restore
image
A
A
B
B
B
A
B
B
You are using Norton Ghost to re-
image the drive
F
F
F
F
F
F
A
F
Table 2. Actions to be taken to optimize system performance, with links to the appropriate downloads
Scenario
Actions
A
Your Advanced Format drive is aligned.
To optimize performance with Windows 7 or WinPE, apply Microsoft Knowledge Base article 982018.
Note: If you are upgrading your PC to Windows Vista SP1 or later or Windows 7, no realignment is
required since these OSs are Advanced Format-aware.
B
This scenario is not supported by HP.
C
For WinPE installations prior to 3.0, install Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK).
To optimize performance with Windows 7 or WinPE, apply Microsoft Knowledge Base article 982018.
For Intel platforms, upgrade to Intel Rapid Storage Technology (RST) 9.6 or later.
For AMD platforms, upgrade to the latest version of the AMD Serial ATA (SATA) Advanced Host Controller
Interface (AHCI) Driver.
D
Ensure that your imaging tools are Advanced Format-aware so that you can validate your infrastructure for
Advanced Format readiness.
To optimize performance with Windows 7 or WinPE, apply Microsoft Knowledge Base article 982018.
For Intel platforms, upgrade to Intel Rapid Storage Technology (RST) 9.6 or later.
For AMD platforms, upgrade to the latest version of the AMD SATA AHCI Driver.
Note: When a Linux image is being installed, an Advanced Format drive has no impact if you create
partitions with appropriate offset values
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. The Linux kernel performs accesses in multiples of the hardware
page size, which is 4 KB on an x86 platform.
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The same rule applies to Windows images.