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 geometry—the numbers with which the BIOS or OS accesses the data on the disk.

Understanding CHS Geometry Limits

The basic design of hard disks hasn't changed much since the early 1980s, although today's models are orders of magnitude ...

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