So, you finally got your very own Western Digital Caviar Green hard disk drive and can't wait to split it into two partitions so as to enjoy the best of it, huh? Well tough luck for you, because you still won't get to use it to its maximum. Only after using the Advanced Format hard Drive utility that Western Digital announced not too long ago will you be able to truly give your Caviar Green (or any recent WD hard disk drive) a run for its money. Curious what it is? Keep on reading then.

Drives using the Advanced Format option are optimized specifically for the latest Windows operating systems such as Windows 7 or Windows Vista and, of course, for the Mac. They require a clean install of the OS and possibly the running of the WD Align software utility, which we will be discussing a bit later. The Advanced Format Technology allows not only Western Digital but also other drive manufacturers to increase media format efficiency and enable larger drive capacities.

Ok, I have mentioned the WD Align software and it is time for you to know what that is. After installing your OS or partitioning and formatting the drive as a secondary storage device, you have to use the WD Align software so as to ensure it offers full performance for certain configurations. By certain configurations I am referring to Microsoft Windows and not Mac.

As far as the Windows operating system goes, should you use Windows XP, you need to run WD Align no matter what partition you have, while Vista and W7 require WD Align only if you have more than one partition or have used a cloning utility. The Advanced Format Hard Drive utility will offer you between 7 to 10 percent extra space on your hard drive.


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