Protected Area Function; Example For Operation (In Lba Mode) - Hitachi HTS548040M9AT00 Specifications

11.10 Protected Area Function

Protected Area Function provides a protected area which cannot be accessed via conventional methods. This
protected area is used to contain critical system data such as BIOS or system management information. The contents
of the entire system main memory may also be dumped into the protected area to resume after a system power off.
The LBA/CYL changed by the following commands affects the Identify Device Information.
Two commands are defined for this function:
• Read Native Max ADDRESS ('F8'h)
• Set Max ADDRESS ('F9'h)
Four security extension commands are implemented as sub functions of the Set Max ADDRESS:
• Set Max SET PASSWORD
• Set Max LOCK
• Set Max FREEZE LOCK
• Set Max UNLOCK

11.10.1 Example for operation (In LBA Mode)

The following example uses hypothetical values.
Device characteristics:
Capacity (native)
Max LBA (native)
Required size for protected area
Required blocks for protected area
Customer usable device size
Customer usable sector count
LBA range for protected area
1. Shipping drives from the drive manufacturer
When the drive is shipped from the manufacturer, the device has been tested to have a capacity of 536 MB,
flagging the media defects not visible by the system.
2. Preparing drives at system manufacturer
Special utility software is required to define the size of the protected area and to store the data in it. The
sequence is:
Issue Read Native Max ADDRESS command to get the real device max of LBA/CYL. Returned value shows
that native device Max LBA is 0FFFFFh regardless of the current setting.
Make the entire device accessible, including the protected area, by setting the device Max LBA as 0FFFFFh
via Set Max ADDRESS command. The option could be either nonvolatile or volatile.
Test the sectors for protected area (LBA > = 0FC000h) if required.
Write information data such as BIOS code within the protected area.
Change maximum LBA using Set Max ADDRESS command to 0FBFFFh with nonvolatile option.
536,870,912 bytes (536MB)
1,048,575 (0FFFFFh)
8,388,608 bytes
16,384 (004000h)
528,482,304 bytes (528MB)
1,032,192 (0FC000h)
0FC000h to 0FFFFFh
Travelstar 5K80 Hard Disk Drive Specification
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