5 Steps to prepare your deployment process for Advanced Format (AF) Hard Disk Drives

Dell began shipping Advanced Format Hard Disk Drives (AF) in May on new Enterprise Client systems.  For those customers that use their own OS deployment process, there are some required changes.  To assist with that, Dell TechCenter has outlined the following steps to prepare your imaging process for AF Drives.

1. Acquire an Advanced Format Hard Disk Drive (AFHDD) for testing

• Request an AFHDD from your Dell sales team - ask for customer kit 342-3321 OR
• Request an AFHDD from IDEMA.org with the Developer Kit Registration Form OR
• Verify an existing test drive is Advanced Format with the Dell Advanced Format Detection Tool

2. Modify your disk configuration process to support Advanced Format Hard Disk Drives

• WinPE - many deployment processes use tools contained in WinPE (like diskpart.exe) to configure the hard disk when deploying a new operating system. It is recommended that you use WinPE 3.0 or higher when deploying systems with AFHDD's. If you use WinPE do the following:

1. Patch WinPE 3.0 with KB982018. Microsoft has instructions on how to patch WinPE. If you are using WinPE 3.0 already, this is the quickest way to support AFHDD's with WinPE. OR
2. Upgrade to WinPE 3.1 This option has more challenges that you need to be aware of. If you use Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) for your deployment process, you need to read Michael Niehaus' blog on the specifics of using WinPE 3.1 with MDT. If you use Microsoft Configuration Manager (ConfigMgr) for your deployment process there is a document that explains the WinPE 3.1 support for ConfigMgr.
3. If you must use a version earlier than WinPE 3.0, verify that a proper partition alignment is set during disk configuration (see Step 4)

• Ghost - Symantec doesn't formally support AFHDD's with Ghost, but they provide a switch "-align=1mb" which appears to properly align partitions on an AFHDD.

3. Include AFHDD support in the Windows Operating System (OS) image to be deployed.

• OS Updates
  • Windows 7 SP1 includes support for AFHDD but it is recommended that you include the KB982018 patch as it is also applicable to Windows 7 SP1.
  • Windows 7 RTM needs to have the KB982018 patch applied.
  • Windows Vista SP1 and higher needs to have the 2470478 patch applied.
  • Windows XP and older OS's are not supported on Advanced Format drives. KB2510009 has more information on Microsoft's AFHDD support policy.
• Drivers - Ensure that you have the latest drivers for your deployment process. Specifically the Mass Storage drivers as some older drivers are not compatible with AFHDD's.

4. Test your deployment process
Now that you have your disk configuration and OS ready for AFHDD's, do a test deployment onto your test AF drive. You will want to check for the following:

• Verify partiton alignment by using one of the following methods
  1. Dell Advanced Format Detection Tool - this command line tool will identify Advanced Format drives on the system and give partition alignment status. No switches are required, but there are switches available to target a specific drive.
  2. Diskpart.exe - Use the following commands
     1. select disk 0 (hit enter) or use the disk number of the disk you want to evaluate.
     2. list partition (hit enter) Look for the offset to be equal to "1024 KB" OR
     3. select partition 1 (hit enter) or select the partition you want to evaluate
     4. detail partition (hit enter) divide the "offset in bytes" by 4096. If it equals a whole number it is aligned.
  3. Scripts - Sample scripts are available here for VBscript and Powershell for verifying partition alignment.
• Check for other issues
  1. Encryption - If you encrypt your drives you will want to check this carefully. McAfee has an article on an issue with their encryption software and AFHDDs here KB71967

5. Audit and Remediate systems with Advanced Format Hard Disk Drives
Since most environments will contain standard and Advanced Format drives for quite some time it is imperitive to be able to know what systems have AFHDD's and be able to verify their partition alignment.

• Audit - The Dell Advanced Format Detection Toolprovides exit codes so that it can be incorporated into systems management tool reporting as most systems management tools include the exit codes in their standard software deployment reporting.
  • Exit code 0 = No AFHDD found
  • Exit code 201 = AFHDD present and partitions are aligned
  • Exit code 202 = AFHDD present and one or more partitions are not aligned

• Remediate - When systems with AFHDD's are found that are not aligned and cannot be re-imaged then the Paragon Alignment Tool can be used on existing systems to re-align their partitions.

Two TechTuesday chats have been held and the transcripts of those chats can found in the Dell TechCenter article along with additional information.  You can also follow the Advanced Format Hard Drive discussion on Twitter with the #AFHDD hashtag.