IRVINE, CA — (Marketwire) — 07/19/11 — developer Paragon Software Group (PSG) announced that Toshiba selected the Paragon Alignment Tool (PAT) for use with Toshiba-s Advanced Format (AF) hard disk drives.
“Windows operating systems before Vista experience a problem with 4K sectors called misalignment,” said Tom Coughlin, founder of Coughlin Associates and author of “Aligning with the Future of Storage.” “Under some conditions, such as system migration, even newer Windows and Linux* computers can suffer from block misalignment.”
The provides customers with the following benefits:
Easily checks and confirms the drive is properly aligned
Automatically finds and on hard disk drives using AF technology
Features essential data protection by allowing alignment to continue after an interruption (e.g. power outage, or user reset) — even if Windows does not boot
“Advanced Format drives offer users increased capacity and enhanced data integrity. As AF drives become more prevalent, users with older operating systems and non-4K ready applications will need to ensure that their systems are optimized to take full advantage of the performance capabilities of 4K drives. This can easily be accomplished through the use of a software alignment tool,” said Joel Hagberg, vice president of Marketing, Storage Device Division for Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc. “By partnering with Paragon Software, we can ensure that our customers are able to enjoy the full benefits of Advanced Format drives no matter what operating system or software applications they are using.”
PAT is a user-friendly software utility designed to automatically determine if a drive is misaligned, and then properly realign all existing partitions, including boot partitions (and any data they contain) to the correct 4K sector boundaries. This can increase performance by as much as 300 percent.
“Companies are susceptible to misalignment problems that will adversely affect the performance not only of their physical systems and storage arrays but also their virtual environments,” said Tom Fedro, president of Paragon Software Group. “Symptoms to watch for include slow write times, inefficient disk operations, and overall poor performance. We have seen a significant increase in the amount of inquiries resulting from system crashes due to misalignment — unfortunately awareness of these problems has not yet permeated the industry, so many IT professionals are caught unaware.”
The Paragon Alignment Tool for Toshiba AF 512e Drives is available to Toshiba customers free of charge. A version for other AF drives is available from Paragon Software-s Web site and is incorporated into Paragon-s other mainstream 4K-ready products such as Hard Disk Manager and Partition Manager.
Paragon Software Group is an innovative software developer focused on two dynamic growth markets — data storage and mobile productivity. The company-s comprehensive product line for the data storage market addresses the needs of data security, storage and management for PCs, servers and networks. A second portfolio of products focuses on mobile productivity applications for handheld devices. Founded in 1994, Paragon Software has offices in the USA, Germany, Japan, Poland and Russia delivering its solutions to consumers, small business and enterprise clients worldwide through a network of Value Added Resellers, distributors and OEMs as well as online through the company website. Paragon Software provides technology to a host of world class companies and partners including Cisco, Dell, ASUS, Seagate, Buffalo, Iomega, Siemens, Lenovo, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia, and more. For more information please visit the company website at .
* Linux is not supported by the Paragon Alignment Tool for Toshiba AF 512e Drives.
Paragon Software is a trademark of Paragon Software Group. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Deanne Hollis
Paragon Software Group
P: 951-346-4883
For Toshiba:
Phil Missimore
Waggener Edstrom Worldwide
415-547-7032
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