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Fixed BIOS drive type with different drive

pearce_jj

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May 14, 2010
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Do t think I’ve ever actually tested this.

For a simple bios that doesn’t support auto detection and have manually set drive type, eg type 1, how would the controller respond to a different device being connected provided the device meets or exceeds the expected CHS values?

Seems to me it should work just fine at the expense of device portability between systems.
 
That should work, particularly if your BIOS translates to LBA. I recall that some HP systems translated differently from other systems, so things written on another system wouldn't operate correctly just by moving the drive. It was something odd, like the HP maxing out at 240 heads.
 
Thanks. That being the case for that Yamaha music computer I think it could be as easy as making an IDC cable to alter a couple of connections for a CompactFlash adapter.
 
I presume you have some 386 or early 486 based system?

I agree that it should translate correctly (on that particular system) up to the maximum size that the BIOS supports but, if you have a 2 GB hard drive and the BIOS only supports a maximum of 528 MB/504 MiB (which most 386 & early 486 BIOSes did), then it would be a waste of hard drive "space".
You can always then go the XT-IDE BIOS on a NIC (LAN card) route and then let the XT-IDE BIOS handle the larger capacity hard drive for you or, make use of DDO software.
Obviously, if you are formatting with FAT16 (DOS 4 or higher), then you are still limited to a maximum partition size of 2 GB and you will then have to create multiple partitions if you have a hard drive larger than 2 GB.
 
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