HP Pro 6305 Installation Manual
Preparing advanced format hard drives for microsoft windows installations on hp business notebook pcs, workstations, and desktop
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- Maintenance and service manual (232 pages) ,
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- Illustrated parts & service map (4 pages)
Table of Contents
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Preparing Advanced Format hard drives
for Microsoft Windows installations on HP
Business Notebook PCs, Workstations,
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
Partition alignment ........................................................................................................................... 3
Performance optimization.................................................................................................................. 4
Important tips ...................................................................................................................................... 6
Encrypting drives ............................................................................................................................. 6
Installing Windows Vista (prior to SP1) or Windows XP images ............................................................. 6
Avoiding a potential error associated with a Windows Vista deployment ............................................... 7
Creating a 1 MB-aligned partition ...................................................................................................... 7
Extending the partition during a Windows XP image deployment .......................................................... 9
Aligning drives in a RAID configuration ............................................................................................ 10
Using third-party deployment tools ................................................................................................... 10
Enhancing performance with many small writes (as with ImageX) ........................................................ 10
Validating partition alignment ............................................................................................................. 10
Using the Unattended Advanced Format Hard Disk Information Tool .................................................... 11
Using DiskExt ................................................................................................................................. 11
Using WMIC ................................................................................................................................. 12
Using DiskPart ............................................................................................................................... 12
Sample validation .......................................................................................................................... 13
Summary of HP Advanced Format tools ................................................................................................ 14
Frequently asked questions ................................................................................................................. 16
Appendix A: Technical background ..................................................................................................... 18
Partition alignment ......................................................................................................................... 18
Why alignment helps ...................................................................................................................... 19
Appendix B: Procedure for installing KB982018 into WinPE 3.0 ............................................................ 20
For more information .......................................................................................................................... 21
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Page 1: Table Of Contents
Preparing Advanced Format hard drives for Microsoft Windows installations on HP Business Notebook PCs, Workstations, 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 Partition alignment ........................... -
Page 2: Executive Summary
Executive summary Designed for both SMB/enterprise users and consumers, this white paper provides instructions for preparing an Advanced Format hard drive for a Microsoft® Windows® installation on an HP Business Notebook PC, Desktop PC, Workstation, or Retail Point-of-Sale (POS) system. Historically, hard disk drives (HDDs) have used 512-byte sectors;... -
Page 3: What Does The Advanced Format Drive Mean To You
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. -
Page 4: Performance Optimization
Note Because the Paragon Partition Alignment Tool reports that a correctly aligned 4 KB partition is misaligned, you should use the Unattended Advanced Format Hard Disk Information Tool to verify alignment. Performance optimization 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 system. - Page 5 Table 2. Actions to be taken to optimize system performance, with links to the appropriate downloads Scenario Actions All involving To optimize performance with Windows 7, either apply Microsoft Knowledge Base article 982018 Windows 7 or update to Windows 7 SP1 or later. For Intel®...
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Page 6: Important Tips
Use the Ghost command line switches –align=1MB to ensure the partition is aligned to a 1 MB boundary, and thus also a 4 KB boundary. Note: Although Ghost preserves the alignment in the image, the command line switch -align=1MB overrides the original alignment. Remember that specifying the incorrect combination of partition size and the ExtendOemPartition line –... -
Page 7: Avoiding A Potential Error Associated With A Windows Vista Deployment
Avoiding a potential error associated with a Windows Vista deployment Applications built on the Extensible Storage Engine API (ESENT) that run on a Windows Vista-based system may report errors. For example, running Windows Update, which is an ESENT application, may result in the following error: FATAL: Failed to initialize datastore, error = 0xC8000222 If you receive an error when running an ESENT application on a Windows Vista system, review Knowledge Base article KB2470478, which provides a fix-on-failure patch. - Page 8 Deploying Windows XP on an HP system For proper partition alignment when deploying Windows XP on an HP system, observe the following guidelines: Remove the ExtendedOEMPartition command line from Sysprep (or other unattended installation method). Allow the disk cloning tool to manage/extend the partition size. ...
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Page 9: Extending The Partition During A Windows Xp Image Deployment
Using DiskPart to force a 1 MB-aligned partition If desired, DiskPart can be used as follows to force a 1 MB-aligned partition: Important The clean command removes all partition information from the selected disk. DiskPart select disk 0 clean create partition primary align=1024 exit where command line switch align=1024 specifies a 1 MB partition alignment. -
Page 10: Aligning Drives In A Raid Configuration
Aligning drives in a RAID configuration If two or more Advanced Format drives have been configured for RAID, running the Paragon Partition Alignment Tool on these drives aligns partitions at 2,048 sectors. Since a starting offset of 2,048 supports most stripe-unit sizes, performance would be enhanced due to the elimination of redundant disk operations. -
Page 11: Using The Unattended Advanced Format Hard Disk Information Tool
Using the Unattended Advanced Format Hard Disk Information Tool The Unattended Advanced Format Hard Disk Information Tool contains a sample VBS script that calculates and reports the partition alignment. Note For a comparison with other Advanced Format Tools from HP and their current SoftPaq numbers, see Summary of HP Advanced Format tools. -
Page 12: Using Wmic
Using WMIC After the operating system has been installed, run wmic from the Windows command line. At the resulting prompt, type partition list full to display information about system partitions. Identify the offset value of each partition and divide by 4096. If the value is exactly divisible, the partition is aligned. -
Page 13: Sample Validation
Sample validation The example shown in Table 3 shows the sizes and offsets associated with four partitions. All eight values must be evenly divisible by 4,096. Table 3. Validating the alignment of four sample partitions Partition Partition size Starting offset 208,666,624 B 1,048,576 B 208,666,624 ÷... -
Page 14: Summary Of Hp Advanced Format Tools
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. - Page 15 Tools work with the following: SUSE Linux DOS 16-bit WinPE 32-bit Windows 32-bit WinPE 64-bit Windows 64-bit(5) Notes (1) Since different product divisions have different SoftPaq release processes, there may be multiple SoftPaqs with the same functionality. (2) The version of AF-CHECK.EXE in SoftPaqs sp55117 and sp56211 creates the correct file output; however, the error-level return code is incorrect if two or more disks are attached.
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Page 16: Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently asked questions I am not sure I have an Advanced Format drive. What should I do? Even if you are not sure you have an Advanced Format drive, you can still follow the procedures described in this white paper. Changing your installation methods to accommodate Advanced Format-compatibility does not negatively impact a drive with 512-byte sectors. - Page 17 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.
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Page 18: Appendix A: Technical Background
Appendix A: Technical background Since standards were introduced in 1956, industry-standard HDDs have used 512-byte sectors on their internal media. However, this relatively small sector size constrains storage capacity and has also caused manufacturing capabilities to reach a limit. Under the sponsorship and support of the International Disk Drive Equipment and Materials Association (IDEMA), manufacturers of industry-standard HDDs are transitioning from 512-byte to 4- KB sectors on HDDs with SATA interfaces, increasing the utilization of storage space and making the newer disks easier to manufacture. -
Page 19: Why Alignment Helps
The data on a 512e drive must be aligned to accommodate the following scenarios: Short write accesses (less than 4 KB) Most accesses to a drive are 4 KB or greater. However, when the host writes less than 4 KB, all 4 KB on the media must be read, the old data modified with new data, and then written back to the media as a 4-KB physical sector. -
Page 20: Appendix B: Procedure For Installing Kb982018 Into Winpe 3.0
Appendix B: Procedure for installing KB982018 into WinPE Important The following procedure is intended for the IT professional. Perform the following steps: Download the Windows PE hotfix to your c: drive from http://support.microsoft.com/hotfix/KBHotfix.aspx?kbnum=982018&kbln=en-us. Unzip the download file by double-clicking on it. The Windows6.1-KB982018-x86.MSU file should appear in your c: drive. -
Page 21: For More Information
Share with colleagues © Copyright 2010 -- 2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty.