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Re: various limitations for IDE disks
I think the only limit that affects OpenBSD is the 137GB limit...If that ever
becomes a problem I'm sure there will be a solution from the manufacturers
who love you most....
In all other instances it can work around BIOS limitations because it gets
the geometry right from the drive instead of using the BIOS' idea of it...
On Tue, 27 Jul 1999, Denis A. Doroshenko wrote:
|
| don't we need this put somewhere in docs/faqs? it looks cool and explains
| roots of many ide/bios issues...
|
| --
| cyxob
|
| stolen from http://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/mini/Large-Disk
| section 4.2 "History of BIOS and IDE limits"
|
| ---[]-------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
| ATA Specification (for IDE disks) - the 137 GB limit
| At most 65536 cylinders (numbered 0-65535), 16 heads (numbered
| 0-15), 255 sectors/track (numbered 1-255), for a maximum total
| capacity of 267386880 sectors (of 512 bytes each), that is,
| 136902082560 bytes (137 GB). This is not yet a problem (in
| 1999), but will be a few years from now.
|
|
| BIOS Int 13 - the 8.5 GB limit
| At most 1024 cylinders (numbered 0-1023), 256 heads (numbered
| 0-255), 63 sectors/track (numbered 1-63) for a maximum total
| capacity of 8455716864 bytes (8.5 GB). This is a serious
| limitation today. It means that DOS cannot use present day
| large disks.
|
|
| The 528 MB limit
| If the same values for c,h,s are used for the BIOS Int 13 call
| and for the IDE disk I/O, then both limitations combine, and one
| can use at most 1024 cylinders, 16 heads, 63 sectors/track, for
| a maximum total capacity of 528482304 bytes (528MB), the
| infamous 504 MiB limit for DOS with an old BIOS. This started
| being a problem around 1993, and people resorted to all kinds of
| trickery, both in hardware (LBA), in firmware (translating
| BIOS), and in software (disk managers). The concept of
| `translation' was invented (1994): a BIOS could use one geometry
| while talking to the drive, and another, fake, geometry while
| talking to DOS, and translate between the two.
|
|
| The 2.1 GB limit (April 1996)
| Some older BIOSes only allocate 12 bits for the field in CMOS
| RAM that gives the number of cylinders. Consequently, this
| number can be at most 4095, and only 4095*16*63*512=2113413120
| bytes are accessible. The effect of having a larger disk would
| be a hang at boot time. This made disks with geometry
| 4092/16/63 rather popular. And still today many large disk
| drives come with a jumper to make them appear 4092/16/63. See
| also over2gb.htm.
|
|
| The 3.2 GB limit
| There was a bug in the Phoenix 4.03 and 4.04 BIOS firmware that
| would cause the system to lock up in the CMOS setup for drives
| with a capacity over 3277 MB. See over3gb.htm.
|
|
| The 4.2 GB limit (Feb 1997)
| Simple BIOS translation (ECHS=Extended CHS, sometimes called
| `Large disk support' or just `Large') works by repeatedly
| doubling the number of heads and halving the number of cylinders
| shown to DOS, until the number of cylinders is at most 1024.
| Now DOS and Windows 95 cannot handle 256 heads, and in the
| common case that the disk reports 16 heads, this means that this
| simple mechanism only works up to 8192*16*63*512=4227858432
| bytes (with a fake geometry with 1024 cylinders, 128 heads, 63
| sectors/track). Note that ECHS does not change the number of
| sectors per track, so if that is not 63, the limit will be
| lower. See over4gb.htm.
|
|
| The 7.9 GB limit
| Slightly smarter BIOSes avoid the previous problem by first
| adjusting the number of heads to 15 (`revised ECHS'), so that a
| fake geometry with 240 heads can be obtained, good for
| 1024*240*63*512=7927234560 bytes.
|
|
| The 8.4 GB limit
| Finally, if the BIOS does all it can to make this translation a
| success, and uses 255 heads and 63 sectors/track (`assisted LBA'
| or just `LBA') it may reach 1024*255*63*512=8422686720 bytes,
| slightly less than the earlier 8.5 GB limit because the
| geometries with 256 heads must be avoided. (This translation
| will use for the number of heads the first value H in the
| sequence 16, 32, 64, 128, 255 for which the total disk capacity
| fits in 1024*H*63*512, and then computes the number of cylinders
| C as total capacity divided by (H*63*512).)
|
| ---[]-------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
--
Corporations are not evil. That kind of anthropomorphism is inappropriate.
Corporations are too stupid to be evil, only people can be that. -jwz