The Dos 1 Gbyte Limit; When To Use Extended Translation - Acer Altos 900 User Manual

4.4.2

The DOS 1 GByte Limit

All current versions of DOS are limited to 1024 cylinders per drive. The standard
translation scheme for SCSI host controllers, using 64 heads and 32 sectors,
provides a maximum accessible capacity of 1 GByte.
To eliminate the 1 GByte limit, Adaptec's extended translation feature uses 255
heads and 63 sectors, extending the disk drive capacity limit under DOS to 8
GBytes.
If you have already partitioned a large disk
drive with one translation method, conversion
to another method will erase your data. Be
sure to back up your disk drive prior to any
change in the translation method used.
4.4.3

When to Use Extended Translation

With MS-DOS 5.0 and Above
NetWare 386 (versions 3.0 and above) and the versions of UNIX do not share the
1024 cylinder limit of DOS and do not require extended translation to support
large disk drives and should not be enabled.
AcerAltos 900 User's Guide
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