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- The x86 BIOS: Its Limits and Capabilities
- 16- and 32-Bit Code
- The BIOS as Driver for DOS
- Modern Uses of the BIOS
- What BIOS Do You Have?
- Add-On Card BIOSs
- Video BIOSs
- Boot BIOSs for SCSI and Networking
- Additional BIOSs
- BIOS Updates
- EIDE and SCSI Hard Disk Handling
- Understanding CHS Geometry Limits
- Getting Around the 1024-Cylinder Limit
- Common BIOS Disk Utilities
- The Handoff to the OS
- Summary
EIDE and SCSI Hard Disk Handling
EIDE and SCSI hard disks are very similar in some ways but quite different in others. As I've already mentioned, the BIOS handles the two differently; the motherboard BIOS can control EIDE disks by itself but requires help from a SCSI host adapter's BIOS to handle SCSI disks.
No matter the disk type, though, there are certain characteristics of hard disks that you should understand if you're to configure your system for multiple OSs. These characteristics relate to a hard disk's geometrythe numbers with which the BIOS or OS accesses the data on the disk.