Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
I usually recommend disabling the serial and parallel ports if they are not being used be-
cause this frees up those resources for other devices and potentially speeds up boot time.
Advanced Drive Configuration
Of all the BIOS Setup menus, the hard-disk settings are some of the most important.
As with many BIOS Setup settings, the default or automatic values are generally recom-
mended. With Auto settings, the BIOS sends a special Identify Drive command to the
drive,whichrespondswithinformationaboutthecorrectsettings.Fromthis,theBIOScan
automatically detect the specifications and optimal operating mode of almost all ATA and
SATA hard drives. When you select Auto for a hard drive, the BIOS redetects the drive
specifications during POST, every time the system boots. You could swap drives with the
power off, and the system would automatically detect the new drive the next time it was
turned on.
InadditiontotheAutosetting,mostolderBIOSsofferedastandardtableofupto47drive
types with specifically prerecorded parameters. Each defined drive type had a specified
number of cylinders, number of heads, write precompensation factor, landing zone, and
number of sectors. This was used often many years ago, but it is not used today because
no current drives conform to the older type parameters.
Note that systems dating from 1997 and earlier usually are limited to a maximum drive
sizeof8.4GBunlesstheyhaveaBIOSupgrade.Systemsfrom1998andlaterusuallysup-
port drives up to 137GB; systems dating from 2002 and beyond usually support drives
beyond 137GB (48-bit LBA support), although a BIOS upgrade might be necessary for
some systems.
Table 5.13
showsthe Drive Configuration menu andoptions foratypical modern mother-
board.
Table 5.13 Advanced Drive Configuration Menu Settings
