Product manual

Installation
4-16 DiamondMax Plus8 20/30/40GB AT
• Use a third party software program that translates the hard
drive parameters to an acceptable configuration for MS-DOS.
• Use a hard disk controller that translates the hard drive
parameters to an appropriate setup for both MS-DOS and the
computer system’s ROM-BIOS.
• Insert the Alternate Capacity (AC) jumper on the drive (see
Section 4.3.5).
4.8.2 The 8.4-Gigabytes Barrier
Newer BIOS’s allow users to configure disk drives to go beyond the
528MB barrier by using several BIOS translation schemes. However,
while using these translations the BIOS using Int 13 functions are
limited to 24 bits of addressing which results in another barrier at the
8.4GB capacity.
To overcome this barrier a new set of Int 13 extensions are being
implemented by most BIOS manufacturers. The new Int 13 extension
allows for four words of addressing space (64 bits) resulting in 9.4
Terrabytes of accessible space.
Whenever possible the Maxtor DiamondMax Plus8 20/30/40GB AT
drive should be used on systems with BIOS that support Int 13
extensions. If that is not possible the following are some techniques that
can be used to overcome this barrier: Use a third party software that
supplements the BIOS and adds Int 13 extension support.
• Obtain a BIOS upgrade from the system board manufacturer.
Many system board manufacturers allow their BIOS to be
upgraded in the field using special download utilities.
Information on BIOS upgrades can be obtained on the System
Board Customer Service respective web sites on the Internet.
• Insert the Alternate Capacity (AC) jumper on the drive (see
Section 4.3.5).
4.8.3 Operating system limitations
Most popular operating systems available today have additional
limitations which affect the use of large capacity drives. However, these
limitations can not be corrected on the BIOS and it is up to the operating
system manufacturers to release improved versions to address these
problems.
The most popular operating systems available today, DOS and Win 95,
use a File Allocation Table (FAT) size of 16 bits which will only support
partitions up to 2.1GB. A newer release of Win 95 called OSR2 with a
32 bit FAT has been released to system manufacturers only. This new
FAT size table will support partitions of up to 2.2 Terrabytes.