LinuxSA Mailing list archives

  From: Sam Silvester <silvest@capri.net.au>
  To  : tjcorkin@steadycom.com.au
  Date: Fri, 12 Mar 1999 19:30:02 +1030

Re: Big disk drive + small PC + linux

Toby Corkindale wrote:

> Hmmm
> Maybe someone should tell all this to one of my PCs at home.
> I've got a 10.4 Gb drive in it, which is in LBA mode because I've got a
> windows partition on it as well.
> Contrary to what someone said earlier, the IDE drive does NOT do the LBA
> mapping/unmapping - this is purely a BIOS thing.
> Now, this 10gb drive definately has way more than 64 heads reported in
> BIOS, under LBA. (Yes, I know they're not 'real' heads, but the point is
> that there's more than 64 (2^6), which Mark is saying is the limit.) It
> also has more than 1023 cylinders as well.
> I've seen old BIOS's loop back large harddrives such that they report
> them as incorrect sizes, but mine works fine. I don't believe that the
> BIOS itself imposes a limit on the cylinder/head amounts. This drive has
> more than 1023 cylinders, and more than 64 heads, and works fine in LBA
> mode.
>

I think that you will find that if the BIOS is old (as it might be on a 486)
it is possible that it will not support LBA or be unable to address the large
HDD. On newer 486s the BIOS is often able to handle large drives, if not, the
drive will sometimes come with a DOS or Windows TSR that will intercept calls
to the BIOS and therefore enable access to large drives.Sam Silvester.

--
Programming is an art form that fights back.
Sam Silvester - silvest@capri.net.au


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