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- DOCUMENT:Q93930 24-SEP-1993 [W_NT]
- TITLE :1024-Cylinder Limitation on SCSI and ESDI Drives
- PRODUCT :Windows NT
- PROD/VER:3.10
- OPER/SYS:WINDOWS
- KEYWORDS:
-
- ---------------------------------------------------------------
- The information in this article applies to:
-
- - Microsoft Windows NT operating system version 3.1
- ---------------------------------------------------------------
-
- This article explains the 1024-cylinder limitation on Enhanced Small
- Device Interface (ESDI) and Small Computer System Interface (SCSI)
- drives.
-
- ESDI uses cylinder, head, sector (CHS) addressing and has a
- 1024-cylinder limitation. Some controller cards can work around this
- by implementing a translation scheme in the onboard controller BIOS.
- Windows NT (and other protected mode operating systems) must duplicate
- the code found in these BIOS chips to duplicate this behavior.
- Unfortunately, there are many ways to perform this translation and to
- accommodate them all Microsoft would have to incorporate all of these
- schemes in the standard AT disk driver. (Microsoft has NOT included
- support for all known ESDI-translation schemes.)
-
- Some ESDI controllers implement this translation in hardware; thus, it
- is totally transparent to the system. This allows the standard driver
- to work unchanged. Consult your controller documentation to see if
- such translation is performed by the BIOS or the hardware.
-
- SCSI uses relative block address (RBA) addressing. Normally, you do
- not have to worry about a 1024-cylinder limit with SCSI until the SCSI
- drive becomes very large (that is, greater than 1 gigabyte [GB]). At
- that point there may be a problem. Some SCSI cards have a jumper for
- greater than 1 GB support. Refer to your hardware documentation to
- determine if your card has this jumper.
-
- Additional reference words: 1024 cylinder
- KBCategory:
- KBSubCategory: HRDWR
-
- =============================================================================
-
- THE INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THE MICROSOFT KNOWLEDGE BASE IS
- PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. MICROSOFT DISCLAIMS
- ALL WARRANTIES, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING THE WARRANTIES
- OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. IN NO
- EVENT SHALL MICROSOFT CORPORATION OR ITS SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR
- ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER INCLUDING DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL,
- CONSEQUENTIAL, LOSS OF BUSINESS PROFITS OR SPECIAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF
- MICROSOFT CORPORATION OR ITS SUPPLIERS HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE
- POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION
- OR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES
- SO THE FOREGOING LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY.
-
- Copyright Microsoft Corporation 1993.