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Appendix B Hard disks and BIOS setup
Translation mode is how sector addresses are translated. This parameter appeared because in
BIOS versions, there were limitations to the maximum address capacity of disks, which is
504 MB (1024 cylinders x 16 heads x 63 sectors x 512 bytes). There are two ways to bypass
this limitation: (1) switch from physical to logical sector addresses (LBA), (2) use mathematics
to reduce the number of addressed sectors (cylinders) and increase the number of heads; this
method is called Large Disk (Large). The simplest decision is to set the value of this
parameter to Auto.
If there are several hard disks connected to your motherboard, but you do not want
to use some of them at the moment, you have to set the Type of these disks to Not
Installed.
Parameters of hard disks can be set manually with the help of information provided
by the hard disk manufacturer on its case, but it is easier to use the IDE
autodetection utility that is usually included in modern BIOS versions.
The utility is sometimes a separate BIOS menu item and sometimes is included in
the standard CMOS setup menu.
Please note that in Appendix B. «Hard disks and BIOS setup» we have described the general
details of
physical
structure. As a result, the BIOS of the motherboard «sees»
sectors. We are not going to elaborate on this issue here, but knowing about this can
sometimes be useful.
B.2.3
Arranging boot sequence, advanced CMOS setup menu
Aside from standard CMOS setup, BIOS menu usually has an advanced CMOS setup
item. Here you can adjust the boot sequence: C:; A:; CD-ROM:.
Please note that
BIOS, AWARDBIOS and brand-name hardware manufacturers.
Several years ago, the operating system boot sequence was hard-coded into the
BIOS. An operating system could be booted either from a diskette (drive A:), or
from the hard disk C:. That was the sequence in which the BIOS queried external
drives: if drive A: was ready, BIOS attempted to boot an operating system from a
diskette. If the drive was not ready or there was no system area on diskette, BIOS
tried to boot an operating system from hard disk C:.
At present, BIOS allows booting operating systems not only from diskettes or hard
disks, but also from CD-ROMs, and other devices. If there are several hard
disks installed in your computer labeled as C:, D:, E:, and F:, you can adjust the
boot sequence so that an operating system is booted from, for example, disk E:. In
this case, you have to set the boot sequence to look like E:, CD-ROM:, A:, C:, D:.
This does not mean that booting is done from the first disk in this list; it only means that the
first attempt to boot an operating system is to boot it from this disk. There may be no
operating system on disk E:, or it can be inactive. In this case, BIOS queries the next drive in
the list. Errors can happen during the booting, see B.2.5 «Hard disk initialization errors».
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hard disk structure. Built-in IDE hard disk controls mask the physical disk
management differs for various BIOS versions, e.g. for AMI
boot sequence
cylinders, heads and
logical
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