HP Compaq Pro 6305 User manual

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

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; however, this sector size is now

limiting HDD capacity. To address this limitation, the industry is moving to Advanced Format drives

with 4096-byte (4-KB) sectors –eight times larger than current drive technology. With 4-KB sectors,

less space is wasted on the physical media, making the drive easier to manufacture and able to

support higher capacities.

First-generation Advanced Format drives retain backwards-compatibility by using external SATA

communications based on a 512-byte sector; however, these drives –also known as 512e

drives –

operate internally at 4 KB. Thus, any PC with a SATA interface can use an Advanced Format drive;

however, depending on the operating system (OS) being installed, extra steps may be required to

optimize performance.

If you are using an Advanced Format driver with an OS that is not Advanced Format-aware, you

should take steps to align logical sectors (OS) with physical sectors (disk media) in order to optimize

I/O performance.

This white paper presents a range of scenarios involving the use of Advanced Format drives and

describes the actions you should take to optimize the performance of your HP Business Notebook PC,

Desktop PC, Workstation, or Retail POS system. It also outlines HP tools that provide disk information

and support partition alignment, and provides a “Frequently asked questions” section, as well as an

appendix with technical background.

Identifying an Advanced Format drive

Options for identifying an Advanced Format drive include:

Running the HP Unattended Advanced Format Hard Disk Information Tool (all HP systems) or the

interactive HP Advanced Format Hard Drive Information Tool (HP Business Notebook PCs only)

provides a range of information about a particular HDD, including vendor, model, capacity and

whether or not it is an Advanced Format drive

Reviewing the label on the HDD to determine if the Advanced Format logo (shown in Figure 1) is

present

For more information on disk information and partition alignment tools for HP systems, refer to

Summary of HP Advanced Format tools.

Where “e” indicates that these drives emulate conventional drives, maintaining backwards-compatibility with current computers by operating

internally at 4 KB and externally at 512 bytes

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.

Partition alignment

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.

Microsoft Windows 7 and Windows Vista SP1 or later are Advanced Format-aware; thus, no

realignment is required.

Note

This white paper does not provide guidelines for Windows 8 systems.

When creating or deploying an image for an OS that is not Advanced Format-aware, you can

typically use tools like Microsoft DiskPart or Symantec Ghost. For an image that has not been aligned

during creation or deployment, use one of the following processes:

Use an interactive remedial tool such as the Paragon Partition Alignment Tool

Use a scriptable solution such as Microsoft ImageX or Ghost:

ImageX

1. Create a backup image using ImageX.

2. Use DiskPart to create an aligned partition.

3. Use ImageX to restore the image.

Ghost

1. Create a backup.

2. Restore the backup while using the –align=1MB switch.

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.

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

POSReady 2009

or WEPOS

You are installing a preinstalled

image you received directly from HP

You are installing your own image

using WinPE

You are installing your own image;

you are not using WinPE

You are installing off-the-shelf

(that is, non-HP) media

You are installing HP restore media

You are installing an HP F11 restore

image

You are using Symantec Ghost to re-

image the drive

Table 2. Actions to be taken to optimize system performance, with links to the appropriate downloads

Scenario

Actions

All involving

Windows 7

To optimize performance with Windows 7, either apply Microsoft Knowledge Base article 982018

or update to Windows 7 SP1 or later.

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.

Note: The Intel and AMD drivers are supported on Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP.

All involving

Windows

Vista

With Windows Vista, you should apply the appropriate fix-on-failure patch (Microsoft Knowledge

Base article 2470478) if, for example, you receive the following error message during Windows

Update:

FATAL: Failed to initialize datastore, error = 0xC8000222

All involving

Windows XP

Even with non-Advanced Format drives, specifying the incorrect combination of partition size (for

example, when using DiskPart or the Ghost –sze switch) and the ExtendOemPartition line2in

SYSPREP.INF (or other Windows unattended installation files) will cause the blue screen of death

(BSOD).

The recommended solution is as follows:

Remove the ExtendOemPartition line from SYSPREP.INF and UNATTENDED.TXT.

Ensure that partition size is not manipulated by template SIF files.

You must use Filesystem=LeaveAlone and you must NOT use ExtendOemPartition.

Allow disk cloning tools such as DiskPart or Ghost to align and extend the partition.

Your Advanced Format drive is aligned.

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.

This scenario is not supported by HP.

Installations using versions of WinPE as early as version 1.63(from Windows Server 2003) can be

used to create aligned partitions. Although not required for imaging, the following environments

provide some additional capabilities for Advanced Format drives:

WinPE 3.0 plus Microsoft Knowledge Base article 9820184

WinPE 3.1

Ensure that your imaging tools are Advanced Format-aware so that you can validate your

infrastructure for Advanced Format readiness.

HP recommends creating an aligned partition (using a tool like DiskPart) to be used during the OS

installation.

Alternatively, you could first install the image and then interactively run the Paragon Partition

Alignment Tool to ensure the partition is aligned. HP does not recommend this option for large-scale

deployments and does not provide a scriptable version of the Paragon Partition Alignment Tool.

Important: Do not create new partitions with an OS that is not Advanced Format-aware.

Note: If you are downgrading your PC to Windows XP or Windows Vista, note that these OSs are

not Advanced Format-aware.

The ExtendOemPartition line specifies whether or not to extend the partition on which you are installing the Windows operating system.

Versions of WinPE prior to 2.1 do not provide support for Advanced Format drives. However, you can use an earlier version to create a

partition if you supply the align=1024 parameter to DiskPart’s Create command.

The functionality provided by KB982018 is included in Windows 7 SP1 and WinPE3.1

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 –even with a non-Advanced Format drive –may result in a BSOD (as outlined

earlier in this table).

Important tips

This section provides important tips regarding the set-up and use of Advanced Format drives. More

information is provided on the following topics:

Encrypting drives

Installing Windows Vista (prior to SP1) or Windows XP images

Avoiding a potential error associated with a Windows Vista deployment on an Advanced Format

drive

Creating a 1 MB-aligned partition

Extending the partition during a Windows XP image deployment

Aligning drives in a RAID configuration

Using third-party deployment tool

Enhancing performance with many small writes (as with ImageX)

Encrypting drives

For optimal performance with a software-encrypted Advanced Format drive, install the vendor’s latest

driver that is tuned for Advanced Format drives prior to encrypting the drive.

Important

Always back up all your data before manipulating any drive to avoid data

loss.

Before you encrypt an Advanced Format drive, you should ensure the

partition is 4 KB-aligned.

If your drive is misaligned, you should decrypt, align and re-encrypt the

drive using the instructions provided with your encryption software.

Installing Windows Vista (prior to SP1) or Windows XP images

If you are planning to install Windows Vista (prior to SP1) or Windows XP on an Advanced Format

drive, you should first create a 4 KB-aligned partition and then install the image in such a way that the

partition is not modified.

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. If your application is

listed in this article, apply the patch.

Creating a 1 MB-aligned partition

By default, the following create partitions that are 1 MB-aligned:

Windows Vista SP1 and later

Windows 7

WinPE 1.6 and later

This section provides guidelines for achieving proper partition alignment when deploying XP on HP

systems.

Warning concerning KB931760

Using Knowledge Base article KB931760 causes DiskPart to create misaligned partitions on HP

systems. Thus, because KB931760 is not needed if proper deployment steps have been followed, its

application should be blocked in Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) and Microsoft System Center

Configuration Manager (SCCM).

Important

Do not use KB931760 on an HP system.

KB931760 is a registry patch for WinPE that was designed to address the following: “You cannot

install Windows XP successfully after you use Windows Vista or Windows PE 2.0 to create partitions

on a hard disk.” This problem, which only occurs with certain BIOS firmware, happens because

Windows XP and Windows PE 2.0 create disk partitions differently than Windows XP.

According to the article, the patch was intended to prevent a BSOD when deploying Windows XP

with ImageX on some vendors’ systems. However, if you follow the recommended deployment steps

(Deploying Windows XP on an HP system), the BSOD will not occur on HP systems, thus the patch

need not be applied.

Note

If you need to create an unaligned partition for test purposes, you can use

KB931760 to modify the WinPE registry and then use DiskPart to create a

partition.

Versions of WinPE prior to 2.1 do not provide support for Advanced Format drives. However, you can use an earlier version to create a

partition if you supply the align=1024 parameter to DiskPart’s Create command.

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.

Do not use the KB931760 WinPE registry patch on an HP system.

In MDT and SCCM, ZTIDiskPart.wsf should be edited to prevent these registry settings from being

applied automatically. Consider the sample ZTIDiskPart.wsf code shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Excerpt of code used to update WinPE registry settings

//----------------------------------------------------------------------------

// If needed, set diskpart workaround as described in KB 931760/931761

// Always set the variables for Windows XP and 2003

//----------------------------------------------------------------------------

If Left(oEnvironment.Item("ImageBuild"), 1) = "5" Then

oEnvironment.Item("OSDDiskpartBiosCompatibilityMode") = "TRUE"

End If

If UCase(oEnvironment.Item("OSDDiskpartBiosCompatibilityMode")) = "TRUE" then

oLogging.CreateEntry "Implementing Diskpart BIOS compatibility fix (see KB 931760 and KB 931761)", LogTypeInfo

On Error Resume Next

oShell.RegWrite "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CURRENTCONTROLSET\SERVICES\VDS\ALIGNMENT\LessThan4GB", 0, "REG_DWORD"

oShell.RegWrite "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CURRENTCONTROLSET\SERVICES\VDS\ALIGNMENT\Between4_8GB", 0, "REG_DWORD"

oShell.RegWrite "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CURRENTCONTROLSET\SERVICES\VDS\ALIGNMENT\Between8_32GB", 0, "REG_DWORD"

oShell.RegWrite "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CURRENTCONTROLSET\SERVICES\VDS\ALIGNMENT\GreaterThan32GB", 0, "REG_DWORD"

On Error Goto 0

End If

While the ZTIDiskPart.wsf code varies somewhat between different versions of MDT and SCCM, the

excerpt shown in Figure 2 is fairly consistent. In the highlighted portion, the script determines if

Windows XP 5.1.2600, for example, is being deployed; if so, the registry settings listed below are

applied to the WinPE registry. Subsequently, these settings would result in misaligned partitions

when DiskPart is used.

To prevent the patch being applied, you can comment out the highlighted code.

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.

Extending the partition during a Windows XP image deployment

Take care when extending the partition during a Windows XP image deployment –if you modify the

partition incorrectly, you will receive a BSOD.

The best option for extending the partition is as follows:

1. Remove the ExtendOemPartition line from SYSPREP.INF and UNATTENDED.TXT, and ensure the

partition size is not manipulated by template SIF files.

You must use Filesystem=LeaveAlone and you must NOT use ExtendOemPartition.

2. Allow disk cloning tools such as Ghost or DiskPart to align and extend the partition.

If the image already contains an ExtendOemPartition (EOP) line that is not set to 0, then use the

following Ghost command line switches:

–align=1MB –szeE

where –szeE forces Ghost to maintain the size of the original partition, while allowing the EOP line to

adjust the size of the partition.

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.

Running the Paragon Partition Alignment Tool ensures support for the stripe-unit sizes associated with

most RAID configurations, including RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10.

If you wish to perform an unattended deployment for an aligned partition in a RAID configuration,

you can use DiskPart or ImageX as long as the RAID volume had been set up before creating

partitions and applying the image.

Using third-party deployment tools

Deploying an OS that is Advanced Format-aware (such as Windows 7) with a third-party deployment

tool that is not Advance Format-aware may result in misalignment. Moreover, if you were to boot to

an OS such as Linux or DOS, the partitioning tool may not be Advanced Format-aware in that

particular environment.

Contact the vendor for requirements for running their deployment tool.

Enhancing performance with many small writes (as with ImageX)

While Windows 7 SP1 and WinPE 3.1 are already optimized, Microsoft Knowledge Base article

KB982018 addresses performance degradation associated with a Windows 7 or WinPE 3.0 system

performing many small writes to an Advanced Format drive. For example, using the ImageX

command-line tool while booted to WinPE to apply a Windows image (.wim file) to an Advanced

Format drive would take significantly longer than applying the same image to a traditional hard drive.

To optimize Windows 7 performance, you should apply the KB982018 hotfix to your HP system, as

described in the article.

For WinPE 3.0, IT professionals can install KB982018 by following the procedure described in

Appendix B: Procedure for installing KB982018 into WinPE 3.0.

Validating partition alignment

This section outlines the following options for validating partition alignment:

Using the Unattended Advanced Format Hard Disk Information Tool

Using Microsoft DiskExt (for Windows XP or later platforms)

Using the Windows Management Information Command-line (WMIC) utility (for Windows XP or

later platforms)

Using DiskPart (for Windows 7 platforms)

Sample calculations are also provided.

Compared to a scenario with misaligned drives

Ultimately, alignment depend on stripe-unit size; however, 1 MB (2,048 sectors) alignment fits most RAID stripe-unit sizes.

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