Installing "Windows 7" on an "Advanced Format HDD", anything I have to consider?

Hello everyone.

I purchased an N-Series(no OS, or better, Ubuntu pre-installed) Latitude that arrived today on which I want to install Windows 7. From what I understand the hard drive in the machine is a 512e Advanced Format Hard Drive.

Do I need to do something different than usual before or after installing the OS? For example, will I get the error described here?
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2466753

I downloaded the F6 RAID drivers from dell.com to load during OS installation but to be honest, if I am to do something, I prefer to do "Method 1" described on that page since my machine only has one drive and I have no intention of RAID-ing anything

Thanks.

 

An advanced format drive behaves just like a regular one. Internally, it uses 4KB for sectors (instead of 512 bytes, like older drives), so you want to make sure your partitions are lined up to 4KB boundaries or you'll take a performance hit.

Windows 7 lines up all partitions to 1MB boundaries (a multiple of 4KB) so it will be fine. Vista and older versions of Windows don't do this so you have to set up the partitions with a special tool. It's the same situation for SSDs, which is why you sometimes see discussion related to getting the partitions "aligned" right for SSDs.

You don't have to worry about setting up drivers or anything (any more than you would have to with a regular drive attached to the same port).

 

That's great, Aaron44126.

So just to be 101% sure, I can go ahead and install Windows 7 just as if the drive was a regular one, even if it's Windows 7 WITHOUT SP1.

Correct?

 

Yes, that should be fine.

 

No, that is technically not correct. While AF HDDs can operate like standard HDDs, misaligned AF HDDs will not have the benefits of AF. If the AF HDD is aligned, there will be less disk I/Os as an entire 4K sector will be read, improving performance.

In order to avoid alignment issues, you need to partition the drive using Windows 7 with SP1 or WinPE 3.1 (which is based on Windows 7 with SP1). There is no alignment guarantee with previous versions of Windows, and while are other ways of doing this, using Windows 7 with SP1 is the easiest and most straightforward way.

However, there are a couple things to consider:

1. Image deployment. Are you planning on deploying a pre-existing image, or installing from scratch? If you are installing from scratch, you won't need to worry about alignment as long as you use a Windows 7 with SP1 installation disk.

2. UEFI or Legacy boot. With the introduction of Windows 8, there are multiple motherboard versions, which are configured differently depending on the OS that ships with the system. I don't know how Dell configures N-series systems, or whether they use yet another different motherboard, but do you plan to use UEFI or legacy boot?

3. AHCI or RAID. If you don't plan on using RAID, set SATA operation in the BIOS to AHCI. If this setting is changed after Windows has already been installed, you will need to reinstall.

4. RST/RAID drivers. These are not required if you're not using RAID, and I would recommend against installing them unless needed. They will reduce performance and potentially cause other issues (ie. eSATA PnP).

If you have already used a disk without SP1 to install Windows 7, you'll need to check the offset of the first partition (make sure it's a multiple of 4KB) and install an update or SP1. However, I would recommend reinstalling anyways, since you probably don't know how things are configured.

 

Hello Robin24k.

- No, I don't intend to use RAID. I checked the BIOS and it is set to AHCI, so that should be correct. I have no idea what UEFI or legacy boot is

- This is a brand new machine with Ubuntu pre-installed and I'm installing Windows from scratch.

- However, my disc is Windows 7 without SP1, it's just Windows 7. How shall I proceed in respect to alignment? Is alignment a one-time operation? I ask because the machine indeed came with Ubuntu pre-installed so maybe the drive was pre-aligned by Dell?

As a final question, what were users doing when they wanted to install Windows 7 on an SSD drive when SP1 was yet to be released?

Thank you.

 

It would be aligned from the factory, but the system came with Ubuntu and has ext3 partitions, not NTFS partitions. Alignment only needs to be verified when partitions are changed, and you need to clean the disk because Windows requires NTFS.

Cleaning the disk gives you an opportunity to convert between GPT and MBR. This is where UEFI/legacy boot comes in. UEFI boot is standard with Windows 8, but I'm not sure if Linux supports it, so we have to consider both possibilities. If the system is not configured to use UEFI boot, then things are simple and you can proceed to installing Windows. I don't know what environment you plan on using the system in, but UEFI requires GPT, which is a new format that is not as widely supported as MBR. If this is a concern, you'll need to change it at this time because the process is destructive.

To check if the system is configured for UEFI boot, look in the Boot Sequence field. There should be an option to select UEFI Boot or Legacy. Don't change the setting yet, but let me know what it is.

You don't want to use the Windows 7 without SP1 disk. Can you get a copy of a disk with SP1? Otherwise, you will need to use WinPE and partition the disk through the command line.

 

Yes, I have Legacy or UEFI.

In BIOS, mine is set to Legacy.

Can't I use the disc without SP1 and install SP1(the .exe I downloaded from microsoft's site) immediately after installation is complete? And, if not included in SP1, this one immediately after SP1 : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/982018 ?

I found this. Fair enough, not Dell, but according to HP's website:

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

SP1 is only listed for Vista.

 

Installing SP1 won't fix alignment issues. Regarding whether or not SP1 is required, I've read conflicting information, but after encountering a Windows 7 system with a misaligned HDD (originally installed using Windows 7 without SP1), I always use WinPE 3.1. Having to go back and fix a misaligned partition is a mess...

Here's a link to WinPE 3.1 (usually it requires downloading the AIK from Microsoft and manually creating the ISO):

Windows PE - Download - 4shared - c a

Here are instructions on creating a bootable USB drive (only perform step 1, for step 2, just copy all the contents of the ISO to the USB):

Create bootable Windows PE 3.0 USB drive - 4sysops

Here are instructions on using diskpart to partition the HDD (from WinPE):

Initializing Windows Disks with DiskPart

 

Thanks a lot for your help Robin.

One last question, please. If I decide to go ahead with installation without the WinPE steps(they are a little bit tricky for me), how will I know, after Windows is installed, that I have a misaligned HDD? And if I do, can I then start from scratch by following your WinPE steps?

Thank you.