HDAT2 X Disk Hdd En
User Manual: X-Disk
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Hard Disk
Version 1.0
06.08.2009
Lubomir Cabla/CBL
http://www.hdat2.com/
Contents
CONTENTS....................................................................................................................................................................I
TABLES.......................................................................................................................................................................III
PICTURES..................................................................................................................................................................III
PREFACE......................................................................................................................................................................4
APPENDIXES................................................................................................................................................................5
A. STANDARD ATA/ATAPI (PATA/SATA/FATA)......................................................................................................5
A.1 ATA (ATA-1, IDE)............................................................................................................................................5
A.2 ATA-2 (EIDE, Fast-ATA)..................................................................................................................................6
A.3 ATA-3................................................................................................................................................................6
A.4 ATA/ATAPI-4....................................................................................................................................................6
A.5 ATA/ATAPI-5....................................................................................................................................................6
A.6 ATA/ATAPI-6....................................................................................................................................................6
A.7 ATA/ATAPI-7....................................................................................................................................................6
B. STANDARD SCSI........................................................................................................................................................9
D. STANDARD SATA....................................................................................................................................................10
D.1 The Different Modes of SATA Controllers.....................................................................................................12
D.1.1 Emulating Parallel ATA Mode.................................................................................................................................13
D.1.2 Native Serial ATA Mode.........................................................................................................................................13
D.2 SATA II Features............................................................................................................................................14
D.2.1 Native Command Queuing (NCQ)...........................................................................................................................14
D.2.2 Non-Zero Offsets in DMA Setup.............................................................................................................................14
D.2.3 DMA Setup FIS Auto-Activate Optimization..........................................................................................................14
D.2.4 Device-Initiated Interface Power State Transitions..................................................................................................15
D.3 Serial ATA Hardware Register Interface.......................................................................................................15
D.4 Naming Conventions for Serial ATA Products...............................................................................................15
D.5 Supports for Serial ATA in Windows..............................................................................................................15
D.6 Identifying modes of SATA Controllers..........................................................................................................16
D.7 Notices about SATA........................................................................................................................................17
D.7.1 The SATA cable connector is not shielded..............................................................................................................17
D.7.2 Variety of problems.................................................................................................................................................18
D.7.3. Specifications..........................................................................................................................................................18
E. STANDARD IEEE 1394.............................................................................................................................................19
E.1 Evolution of standard IEEE 1394...................................................................................................................19
Specification 1394.........................................................................................................................................................20
Comments and limitations.............................................................................................................................................21
Compare 1394 and USB................................................................................................................................................22
U. STANDARD USB......................................................................................................................................................24
J. SI UNITS..................................................................................................................................................................26
O. THE BIOS HARD DISK LIMITATIONS .........................................................................................................................28
28/48-bit LBA in Windows....................................................................................................................................30
O.1 Limit 504/528 MB...........................................................................................................................................31
O.2 Limit 2.1 GB...................................................................................................................................................31
O.3 Limit 3.2 GB...................................................................................................................................................32
O.4 Limit 4.2 GB...................................................................................................................................................32
O.5 Limit 7.9/8.4 GB.............................................................................................................................................33
O.6 Limit 32 GB....................................................................................................................................................33
O.6.1 Hardware limit.........................................................................................................................................................33
O.6.2 Windows 95 limit.....................................................................................................................................................33
O.6.3 ScanDisk limit..........................................................................................................................................................33
O.7 Limit 64 GB....................................................................................................................................................34
O.7.1 FDISK......................................................................................................................................................................34
O.7.2 FORMAT.................................................................................................................................................................34
O.8 Limit 137 GB..................................................................................................................................................35
O.9 Limit 512 GB..................................................................................................................................................35
O.10 Limit 2.2 TB..................................................................................................................................................35
Page i
O.11 Limit 128 PB.................................................................................................................................................35
P. PARALLEL AND SERIAL INTERFACE ................................................................................................................................36
P.1 Introducing SAS and SATA.............................................................................................................................36
P.2 Multiple layers of compatibility......................................................................................................................37
S. FILE SYSTEMS............................................................................................................................................................38
S.1 File systems FAT/NTFS...................................................................................................................................38
S.1.1 FAT16......................................................................................................................................................................38
S.1.2 FAT32......................................................................................................................................................................38
S.1.3 NTFS........................................................................................................................................................................39
S.1.4 Size limitations.........................................................................................................................................................40
S.1.5 DVD formats............................................................................................................................................................41
S.2 MBR (Master Boot Record).............................................................................................................................42
S.3 Type of disk partitions.....................................................................................................................................43
Diagnostics partition ID 12h..............................................................................................................................................45
G. GLOSSARY...............................................................................................................................................................54
G.1 Buses...............................................................................................................................................................54
G.2 Basic terms.....................................................................................................................................................56
Z. REFERENCES.............................................................................................................................................................58
Page ii
Tables
TABLE 1: OVERVIEW OF ATA/ATAPI TRANSFER MODES............................................................................8
TABLE 2: OVERVIEW OF CABLES........................................................................................................................8
TABLE 3: OVERVIEW OF SCSI...............................................................................................................................9
TABLE 4: SCSI CABLES............................................................................................................................................9
TABLE 5: SATA STANDARDS................................................................................................................................11
TABLE 6: IEEE 1394 VS. USB 1.1............................................................................................................................23
TABLE 7: PREFIXES FOR DECIMAL MULTIPLIES OF SI UNITS................................................................26
TABLE 8: PREFIXES FOR BINARY MULTIPLIES............................................................................................26
TABLE 9: LIMITATIONS FOR INT13H AND ATA.............................................................................................28
TABLE 10: LBA ASSISTED METHOD...................................................................................................................29
TABLE 11: BIT-SHIFTING TRANSLATION........................................................................................................30
TABLE 12: LIMITS OF FILE SYSTEM FAT16.....................................................................................................38
TABLE 13: LIMITS OF FILE SYSTEM FAT32.....................................................................................................39
TABLE 14: COMPARE NTFS 4 WITH 5................................................................................................................40
TABLE 15: SIZE LIMITATIONS FOR FILE SYSTEMS.....................................................................................41
TABLE 16: DVD FORMATS.....................................................................................................................................41
TABLE 17: TYPE OF PARTITIONS FOR MS-DOS.............................................................................................43
TABLE 18: PARTITION ID DESCRIPTION.........................................................................................................45
TABLE 19: COMPARE OF PCI BUSES..................................................................................................................55
TABLE 20: COMPARE OF BUSES.........................................................................................................................56
Pictures
PICTURE 1: SATA LOGO........................................................................................................................................10
PICTURE 2: SERIAL ATA VS. PARALLEL ATA DEVICE DIAGRAM...........................................................17
PICTURE 3: SERIAL ATA CABLES AND CONNECTORS (SOURCE: MOLEX)..........................................17
PICTURE 4: 4-PIN AND 6-PIN FIREWIRE CONNECTORS..............................................................................21
Page iii
Preface
I am sorry for my English.
Page 4
Appendixes
A. Standard ATA/ATAPI (PATA/SATA/FATA)
ATA (AT Attachment): ATA standard specifies the AT Attachment Interface between
host systems and storage devices. It provides a common attachment interface for
systems manufacturers, system integrators, software suppliers, and suppliers of
intelligent storage devices. ATA defines the physical, electrical, transport, and command
protocols for the internal attachment of storage devices to host systems.
ATA interface is derived from Advanced Technology (AT) developed initially for
computer IBM PC/AT in the middle of 1980.
ATAPI (AT Attachment Packet Interface) device: A device implementing the Packet
Command feature set. It is designed for removable devices like CD-ROM, DVD, ZIP,
JAZZ, tape drive etc.
With regard to new standard SATA is for existing ATA standard used PATA (Parallel ATA).
IDE and EIDE are only marketing names to label device corresponded with ATA standard.
Description of transfer speed, e.g. Ultra DMA 133 indicate that data could be transfer
with speed up to 133 MB/s. ATTENTION: it is burst transfer data rate and not average
transfer data rate, which should be half or less than third of burst transfer data rate.
ATA - Advanced Technology Attachment, the standard PC Hard drive interface (IDE).
SATA - Serial ATA is a newer PC hard drive interface that is quickly taking over the
"ATA" stronghold. SATA is faster than ATA and runs at about 150 MB/s. SATA rev.2.x
runs at 300 MB/s.
PATA - Parallel ATA is the same as ATA or IDE. The old standard for connecting hard
drives (40 pin connector).
FATA - FATA is a Fibre connectted ATA drive. Usable on systems that have a Fibre based
backplane.
A FATA disk is a combination of SATA rev.2.x and Fibre Channel disk technologies that
connects a dual-port FC interface directly to SATA rev.2.x disk drive hardware. This
provides true dual-port drive connectivity.
Designed to meet the architectural standards of enterprise-class storage systems FATA
disk drives provide high capacity as a low-cost alternative to FC disks without much
sacrifice of performance, availability, or functionality. Also, when used within their
recommended duty cycle, reliability is comparable to that of the FC disks.
A.1 ATA (ATA-1, IDE)
ANSI document X3.221-1994
ATA is actual standard for what is known as IDE. ATA define PIO (Programmed Input
Output) modes 0, 1 and 2 and DMA (Direct Memory Access) mode 0.
AT Attachment Interface for Disk Drives (ATA-1) was withdrawn as a standard on 6
August 1999.
Page 5
A.2 ATA-2 (EIDE, Fast-ATA)
ANSI document X3.279-1996
ATA-2 is standard known as EIDE.
ATA-2 introduces higher transfer modes PIO 3, 4, and Multiword DMA modes 1, 2. These
modes make possible transfer rate up to 16.6 MB/s. Next introduce extended device
identification (extended command Identify Drive), block transfer, LBA and some added
commands.
A.3 ATA-3
ANSI document X3.298-1997
ATA-3 introduces S.M.A.R.T., security, support for ATAPI devices (CD-ROM, ZIP).
ATA-3 did not introduce any new PIO or DMA transfer modes.
AT Attachment Interface with Extensions (ATA-3) was withdrawn as a standard in 2002.
A.4 ATA/ATAPI-4
ANSI document NCITS.317-1998
ATA/ATAPI-4 introduces and change many things.
•
•
•
•
•
new ATAPI commands and reset protocols
change many old ATA commands and features (e.g. Format Track, Read/Write
Long) into state 'obsolete')
new transfer protocols Ultra DMA 0,1 and 2 with integrity data over CRC checking;
transfer rate up to 33 MB/s
new protocol for command overlapping and queuing into queue for ATA and ATAPI
devices (overlapping, queuing)
many new features for ATA and ATAPI devices
A.5 ATA/ATAPI-5
ANSI document NCITS.340-2000
ATA/ATAPI-5 cancel out some old commands, some new commands introduce.
Main change is adding 2 new and fast transfer modes Ultra DMA 2 and 3.
A.6 ATA/ATAPI-6
ANSI document NCITS.?
•
•
•
•
•
extension 28-bits LBA addressing to 48-bits addressing mode
increasing of 'Sector Count' (count of transfer sectors)
increasing timing Ultra DMA mode (Ultra DMA 100)
new commands for AV (Audio/Visual) applications
ATA Removable Media Serial numbers
A.7 ATA/ATAPI-7
ANSI document NCITS.?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Page 6
Ultra DMA mod 133
S.M.A.R.T.: Selective self-test, Conveyance self-test
preserve words, codes and feature sets for Serial ATA
Serial ATA Specification (SATA) 1.0
Forced unit access (FUA) commands
support for larger size of physical sector
definition World Wide Name for ATA device
Page 7
Table 1: Overview of ATA/ATAPI transfer modes
Name
PIO 0
PIO 1
PIO 2
PIO 3
PIO 4
Single word DMA 0
Single word DMA 1
Single word DMA 2
Multi word DMA 0
Multi word DMA 1
Multi word DMA 2
Ultra DMA 0
Ultra DMA 1
Ultra DMA 2 (UDMA33, ATA/33)
Ultra DMA 3
Ultra DMA 4 (UDMA66, ATA/66)
Ultra DMA 5 (UDMA100, ATA/100)
Ultra DMA 6 (UDMA133, ATA/133)
Original
standard
ATA (ATA-1)
ATA
ATA
ATA-2
ATA-2
ATA
ATA-2
ATA-2
ATA
ATA-2
ATA-2
ATA/ATAPI-3
ATA/ATAPI-3
ATA/ATAPI-4
ATA/ATAPI-5
ATA/ATAPI-5
ATA/ATAPI-6
ATA-ATAPI-7
Max. Bus speed
[MB/s]
3.33
5.22
8.33
11.1
16.6
2.1
4.2
8.3
4.16
13.3
16.6
16.6
25.0
33.3
44.4
66.6
100.0
133.0
PIO (Programmed Input Output) mode – The oldest method of transferring data
over the IDE/ATA interface is through the use of programmed I/O. This is a technique
whereby the system CPU and support hardware directly control the transfer of data
between the system and the hard disk.
DMA mode - A better solution is to take the CPU out of the picture entirely, and have
the hard disk and system memory communicate directly. Direct memory access or
DMA is the generic term used to refer to a transfer protocol where a peripheral device
transfers information directly to or from memory, without the system processor being
required to perform the transaction. Modern IDE/ATA hard disks use first-party DMA
transfers. The term "first party" means that the peripheral device itself does the work of
transferring data to and from memory, with no external DMA controller involved. This is
also called bus mastering, because when such transfers are occurring the device
becomes the "master of the bus". Bus mastering allows the hard disk and memory to
work without relying on the old DMA controller built into the system, or needing any
support from the CPU. It requires the use of the PCI bus - older buses like MCA also
supported bus mastering but are no longer in common use. Bus-mastering DMA allows
for the efficient transfer of data to and from the hard disk and system memory. Bus
mastering DMA keeps CPU utilization low, which is the amount of work the CPU must do
during a transfer.
Table 2: Overview of cables
Cable
40-wire
80-wire
Length of cable
Min.
Max.
18"
10"
18"
Used protocol
up to UDMA33
for UDMA66 or high
80-wire (conductor) cable is optionally applicable for devices using Ultra DMA 2 mode
(ATA/33).
Page 8
B. Standard SCSI
SCSI = Small Computer System Interface (‘skuzzy’)
Table 3: Overview of SCSI
Business TERM
SCSI-1
SCSI-2
Fast SCSI
Fast SCSI
Fast Wide SCSI
Ultra SCSI
Ultra SCSI
Wide Ultra SCSI
Wide Ultra SCSI
Wide Ultra SCSI
Ultra2 SCSI
Wide Ultra2
SCSI
Wide Ultra3
SCSI
Ultra 160 SCSI
Ultra 320 SCSI
Ultra 640 SCSI
Serial Attached
SCSI
Max.
Bus
speed
[MB/s]
5
SE
HVD
LVD
8
6
25
-
8
10
10
8
8
3
25
25
-
8
8
SCSI-3
20
16
3
25
-
16
F-20
F-20
F-20
F-20
F-20
SPI-2
SPI-2
20
20
40
40
40
40
80
8
8
16
16
16
8
16
1.5
3
1.5
3
-
25
25
25
25
25
25
12
12
8
4
16
8
4
8
16
Fast-80
SPI-3
160
16
-
-
12
16
Fast-80
Fast-160
SPI-3
SPI-4
16
16
-
-
12
12
16
16
SAS
?
160
320
640
?
?
?
?
?
?
Fast-5
Fast-10
Fast-10
(SPI, SIP)
Fast-10
(SPI, SIP)
Fast-20
Fast-20
Fast-20
Fast-20
Fast-20
Fast-40
Fast-40
Standard
SCSI
SCSI-2
SCSI-2
SCSI-3
Bus
width
[bits]
Max. Length of
cable [m]
Max.
Device
count
Standard
TERM
SE = Single Ended
HVD = High Voltage Differential
LVD = Low Voltage Differential
Ultra SCSI: between devices is the same distance
Table 4: SCSI cables
SCSI
SCSI-1
Differential SCSI
Fast SCSI-2
Ultra SCSI
Wide SCSI
Min. distance
between devices
?
?
12"
from 2. to 4. device
from 5. to 8. device
12"
Max.
Length of
cable [m]
6
25
3
3
1.5
3
Page 9
D. Standard SATA
Picture 1: SATA logo
Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA) = SATA 1.0a 07.01.2003
Serial ATA Working Group was founded in 1999.
[http://www.serialata.org/]
Serial ATA (SATA) is obviously based on serial signaling technology. This means that
those old ATA ribbon cables were used to send a parallel signal those forty wires were
used to transfer data along many parallel routes. ATA is also known in retrospect as
Parallel ATA (PATA). All these wires next to each other were sensitive to interference and
caused all kinds of problems. Serial ATA signals are transferred at a more efficient
voltage of 250mV compared to the 5V of Ultra/ATA and interference is cancelled out by
two phase-reversed signals. It is unlikely that many more advancements could be made
even if Parallel ATA were to have still an extended lifetime. In addition, Serial ATA is,
obviously by name, a serial technology. It can only “talk” to one device per channel.
While this might seem like a step back from the two devices per channel allowed with
Ultra/ATA, this is quickly offset by other plusses that will be described shortly.
As far as controller cards go, today's PCI Serial ATA controller cards (year 2004) will be
very short lived. In a couple of months Intel will release their 865 and 875 chipsets with
native support for two Serial ATA channels in their ICH5 I/O Hub, eliminating the need
for an add-in Serial ATA card.
The ATA command set support in a driver limits the addressable hard disk drive capacity.
Because both Serial ATA and parallel ATA connections use the ATA commands, both
Serial ATA and parallel ATA have the same capacity limitations.
SATA description:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
SATA supports a single device per SATA cable
no master/slave jumper
used topology „star“ (point-to-point), without hubs
32-bits CRC check for data and commands
whole bandwidth for every device (channel is not shared)
low voltage (250mV) differential signaling with 8/10b encoding
supply 12.0, 5.0 and 3.3 V
Since Serial ATA only requires seven wires per device, the new cables will only be 8mm
wide. Another dimensional advantage is that while ATA cables could only be up to 40 cm
long, Serial ATA cables will be very long at 1m. Of course, since the cables are smaller
Page 10
and contain only seven wires, the connectors will be more compact as well. This will save
space on motherboards and the hard drives themselves.
Table 5: SATA standards
Standard
SATA rev.1.x (2002)
SATA rev.2.x (2004)
SATA rev.3.x (2007)
Transfer [MB/s]
150 (up to 1.5 Gb/s)
300 (up to 3 Gb/s)
600 (up to 6 Gb/s)
PATA devices connected to SATA over adapter should be jumpered as master.
SATA 1.0 defines speed 1.5 Gb/s.
SATA II defines Extensions specifications to Serial ATA 1.0 and increases interface speed
to 3.0 Gb/s. Multiple specification release:
- Serial ATA 1.0 Extensions, Cable Connector, Port Multiplier, Port Selector, Switch, Phy
II 3.0 Gb/s
- All extensions are optional and the product must support at least one extension to claim
compliance
Port Multiplier
- Allows one Serial ATA link to connect to more than one device
- Can provide a simple expansion solution for entry-level servers and RAID boxes
Port Selector
- Conceptually, a simple A/B switch that creates a redundant path to the device
- Can provide a simple fail over solution for entry-level servers
SATA II Extensions 1.0:
1. Native Queuing
- Defines simple and streamlined command queuing model that will enable 32 queued
commands
- Returns a race-free status condition that minimizes the protocols round trip which in
turn reduces the incurred overhead
- Can be used with first party DMA or with a scatter gather table
2. Identify Device / Set Feature
- Used by the host to determine which features the device supports
- Identify device and set features will include those commands in the Serial ATA II
extensions specification that affect the device
3. Staggered Spin up
- Defines a method of staggering spin up of drives when used in RAID configurations with
multiple drives
4. Hot Plug / Presence Detect
- Defines a method for the host to determine when a device is plugged into a hot bay
5. First Party DMA
- Defines a method of allowing the device to access the host's memory
Page 11
- This may be used in conjunction with command queuing
SATA II Extensions 1.1:
1. Device Configuration Overlay (DCO)
- An ATA/ATAPI mechanism for disabling features in the drive. Identify Device will not
support features disabled using DCO
- Defining DCO words for Serial ATA specific items:
-
Asynchronous notification
Native command queuing
Non-zero buffer offset
Power management support
2. First Party DMA Auto-Activation
- Eliminates the extra transmission of a FIS. The DMA Setup FIS will contain a bit to
automatically activate the DMA controller
3. Queuing Optimization
- An in-order data delivery that guarantees the DMA buffer offsets are continuous when
the device utilizes First Party DMA and non-zero buffer offsets in the DMA setup FIS
External SATA is a device that allows the user to add storage to his system without
opening the system box.
- External Serial ATA Logic will be different from Serial ATA 1.0
- Different Voltage Swings
- Hot Plug connector
D.1 The Different Modes of SATA Controllers
The core of Serial ATA is defined by the Serial ATA 1.0 Specification, which was published
in August 2001. To make adoption easier for the new interconnect, the Serial ATA 1.0
Specification defines a special mode for Serial ATA controllers so that they emulate the
behavior and configuration of the parallel ATA interconnect. In this Emulating Parallel
ATA mode, Serial ATA controllers can leverage all the existing parallel ATA drivers and
infrastructure of shipped Windows operating systems.
The Serial ATA 1.0 Specification also has new features that are not compatible with all
existing parallel ATA drivers. Existing parallel ATA drivers do not comprehend any newly
defined features and capabilities for which there are no equivalents in parallel ATA.
Therefore, such software will not utilize any such new features. A controller that takes
advantage of these new features is said to be operating in Native Serial ATA mode. A
Serial ATA controller capable of doing both emulation and native modes cannot switch
between Emulating Parallel ATA and Native Serial ATA modes while Windows is running.
Additional new Serial ATA extensions are defined in the Serial ATA II Specification,
which was published in October 2002. Serial ATA II is not the next version of Serial ATA,
nor is it a mode of Serial ATA like Emulating Parallel ATA and Native Serial ATA. Serial
ATA II is a set of optional extensions and features for Serial ATA that is available to
Serial ATA controllers and devices that operate in Native Serial ATA mode.
Finally, a few miscellaneous specifications define additional optional new Serial ATA
features for controllers that implement Native Serial ATA mode, but are not included in
either the Serial ATA 1.0 or Serial ATA II specifications.
Page 12
D.1.1 Emulating Parallel ATA Mode
The Emulating Parallel ATA mode defines a transfer level equivalent of parallel ATA for
Serial ATA controllers. In this mode, a Serial ATA controller can emulate master-only
(device 0) parallel ATA or shared channel parallel ATA. In master-only parallel ATA
emulation, the Serial ATA controller presents itself to the computer as a parallel ATA
controller with only a single master storage device attached to a channel. In shared
channel parallel ATA emulation, the controller uses two Serial ATA channels, each only
attach to a single storage device, as a single parallel channel attaching two storage
devices. Both forms of emulation work with Serial ATA controllers that use Windows
parallel ATA (atapi.sys) drivers.
Beyond configuration emulation requirements, Emulating Parallel ATA mode restricts the
controller from doing Native Serial ATA mode functionality described in the next section.
Another notable distinction is that parallel ATA has many transfer modes each with a
unique transfer speed associated with it. Serial ATA emulating Parallel ATA mode
controllers also must support parallel ATA transfer modes, but its transfer speed is much
faster then all parallel ATA transfer modes. While Serial ATA controllers operate at higher
transfer speeds, it is possible for them to claim to operate in slower parallel ATA transfer
modes such as Programmed Input/Output (PIO).
D.1.2 Native Serial ATA Mode
The advanced features that can be utilized in native mode revolve around improvements
to the Serial ATA interconnect. The feature that has generated the most interest in this
area is hot plugging, which allows an end user to remove a storage device from a Serial
ATA controller while a system is running. This is useful for RAID systems and notebook
docking stations with built-in storage devices. However, hot plugging should not be
attempted with a system's primary boot device.
The Serial ATA hot plug feature is implemented by the host controller, driver software,
and storage device. On the personal computer, support for Serial ATA hot plugging can
be implemented in the following two places:
1. In the Serial ATA controller driver:
Since parallel ATA controllers do not support hot plugging and Serial ATA Emulating
Parallel ATA mode controllers are likely to use parallel ATA controller drivers, Emulating
Parallel ATA mode controllers must find another way to support the hot plug feature. The
atapi.sys driver in Windows does not support hot plugging; however, it is likely that
Native Serial ATA mode drivers will.
2. In the system firmware outside of Windows:
Support from ACPI, BIOS, or a combination of the two can be used to trigger bus reenumerations during a hot plug event. Check with the controller manufacturer for details
on support for hot plugging.
Another improvement is finer grained power management. In addition to doing power
management on Serial ATA storage devices, the Serial ATA controller itself can be
managed so that unused parts of the controller can be put into lower power modes to
conserve electricity.
Finally, there are features for Serial ATA drivers. There are new control, error and status
registers that allow the Serial ATA controller to pass information to the driver about
Page 13
Serial ATA specific features. In addition, the Serial ATA interconnect configures its own
transfer rate so that the driver no longer needs to.
D.2 SATA II Features
The most significant Native Serial ATA mode feature defined in Serial ATA II is native
command queuing, which is optimized for Serial ATA and is much more efficient. The
intention of the new queuing method is to improve performance by eliminating
handshakes, allowing aggregating of interrupts, and reducing the interface transaction
count.
Other optional features try to make Serial ATA more attractive in enterprise storage
markets. The Enclosure Services feature allows a Serial ATA controller to
communicate status and control commands to the enclosure processor of the storage
system. Serial ATA II also defines signal constraints for using Serial ATA as a rack
backplane and a mechanism for controlling staggered spin up.
D.2.1 Native Command Queuing (NCQ)
Native Command Queuing (NCQ) is arguably the most significant advance in the
Serial ATA II specification. Native Command Queuing allows the host to issue multiple
commands to the device (up to 32 commands) without having to wait for the device to
complete any commands. Queuing of commands allows SATA drives to look ahead at
what data has been requested or needs to be written, thereby allowing the drive to
optimize the order of the commands and maximize data throughput efficiency, providing
a significant performance improvement.
Note: NCQ-capable host hardware and drivers must be used to take advantage of the
performance gains provided by NCQ.
To enable Native Command Queuing, the Serial ATA II standard defines a method of
allowing an HDD to control the order of command execution and data transfer. Using
special SATA commands READ FPDMA QUEUED or WRITE FPDMA QUEUED the host
will issue each command an identifier, or tag. The specification of Native Command
Queuing allows for up to 32 tags (0 to 31). In order to avoid collisions and mishandled
data, the HDD will only release a tag after the associated command is complete and the
data has been returned to the host.
The concept of command queuing means that a drive does not need to return the
data in the same order that the commands are requested (tags 0 to 31 can be executed
in any order and data packets for those commands can be returned to the host in any
order). For example, the commands may be issued in numerical order: 1, 2, 3, 4, and
the data for those commands may be returned to the host in a different order: 4, 2, 1, 3
(or any other order). This allows a drive to use rotational position optimization to
maximize the efficiency and overall performance of the drive.
D.2.2 Non-Zero Offsets in DMA Setup
When enabled, this feature allows the HDD to use non-zero buffer offsets, which is
needed to implement out of order data delivery. Based on current bit densities and spin
speeds, out-of order data delivery provides no significant performance advantage.
D.2.3 DMA Setup FIS Auto-Activate Optimization
Page 14
When enabled, this feature allows the HDD to optimize DMA data transfers by reducing
the required overhead to setup the DMA data transfer. Removing the overhead
associated with DMA setup commands will not provide any appreciable performance
improvements, as the overhead is an insignificant portion of data transfers.
D.2.4 Device-Initiated Interface Power State Transitions
The feature gives hosts the ability to prevent HDD’s from automatically activating power
saving features.
D.3 Serial ATA Hardware Register Interface
The Serial ATA specifications do not define a full standard hardware register interface for
Serial ATA drivers. Without a standard interface, Serial ATA controller manufacturers are
tasked with the redundant work of creating their own proprietary interfaces. The result of
this is the possibility of many different Serial ATA interfaces and the inability for Microsoft
to create a driver that works commonly over all Serial ATA controllers.
The potential for many unique interfaces could cause the same challenges for Serial ATA
that is seen in small computer system interface (SCSI) controllers. Currently one public
committee led by Intel, the Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) Contributor
Group, is working to create a public specification for a Serial ATA interface. Microsoft is a
member of the AHCI Contributor Group, and encourages all Serial ATA controller
manufacturers to adopt AHCI.
D.4 Naming Conventions for Serial ATA Products
Serial ATA products will continue to be identified by speed and not by feature set or
specification compliance. This is the parallel ATA naming convention. Already Serial ATA
1.5 gigabytes (GB) per second are available, and in the future, there will be Serial ATA 3
GB per second, Serial ATA 6 GB per second, and so on.
There is no mandatory distinction made between Serial ATA products that support
different Serial ATA and Serial ATA II features. Many people will be tempted to associate
incorrectly Serial ATA II with Serial ATA 3.0 GB per second, which has not been defined
yet. This should not be done.
In addition, there is no distinction made between Serial ATA products that support either
version of Emulating Parallel ATA mode or for Native Serial ATA mode.
D.5 Supports for Serial ATA in Windows
Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA) controllers seen today come in two form
factors: as components of chipsets and as discrete controller add-on cards. The great
majority of parallel ATA controllers in chipsets can load drivers that are included with
Windows while a smaller portion of add-on cards, usually PCI cards, can use drivers that
are included with Windows.
Serial ATA controllers have been using and will likely continue to use, the same form
factors as parallel ATA controllers. It is possible that many Serial ATA and parallel ATA
controllers will be included in the same product to accommodate both Serial ATA and
parallel ATA hard disk drives.
Page 15
Like parallel ATA controllers, Windows support for Serial ATA controllers depends on the
Serial ATA features implemented and the hardware register interface used by the
controller.
With the product introduction of Ataport, two miniports will be introduced. The first is a
default miniport driver that will work with the current atapi.sys supported parallel ATA
controllers. The second is a new miniport driver that will support the Advanced Host
Controller Interface (AHCI) Serial ATA controllers.
A Serial ATA Emulating Parallel ATA mode controller can load and use parallel ATA
drivers that are supported by Windows. By definition, all versions of Windows before
Windows Server 2003 have Emulating Parallel ATA mode support.
Not all parallel ATA controllers are supported natively in a Windows distribution so there
will be some Serial ATA Emulating Parallel ATA mode controllers that must have their
manufacturer's drivers to work properly.
Because Native Serial ATA mode controllers do not appear or act like parallel ATA
controllers, they cannot use the Windows parallel ATA controller drivers, and thus,
Windows Server 2003 and previous do not ship with drivers that support Native Serial
ATA mode controllers.
Native Serial ATA mode controllers can be made to work with all existing versions of
Windows as long as the controllers come with the appropriate drivers. With these drivers,
Windows can be installed on and booted from Serial ATA storage devices in the same
way many parallel ATA add-on controllers do currently.
D.6 Identifying modes of SATA Controllers
Driver support for Emulating Parallel ATA mode and Native Serial ATA mode controllers is
separate and distinct as these modes appear as two different and unique ATA
interconnects. There will be some Serial ATA controllers that will want to implement both
Emulating Parallel ATA and Native Serial ATA modes on the same device, which is
acceptable. It is not acceptable to use both modes at the same time in Windows.
Additionally, loading parallel ATA drivers on a Serial ATA controller in Native Serial ATA
mode and vice versa will have disastrous results.
The solution to identifying the Serial ATA mode problem is using the correct PCI SubClass code. Appendix D of the latest PCI specification lists all the Sub-Class codes for
Base Class 01h, mass storage controllers. Sub-Class code 01h, ATA controller, should be
used by Emulating Parallel ATA mode controllers. A new Sub-Class code 06h, Serial ATA
controller, should be used by Native Serial ATA mode controllers.
Page 16
Picture 2: Serial ATA vs. Parallel ATA Device Diagram
Picture 3: Serial ATA Cables and Connectors (Source: Molex)
D.7 Notices about SATA
D.7.1 The SATA cable connector is not shielded
The basic problem is the SATA cable connector is not shielded.
- Do not
- Do not
supply.
- Do not
- Do not
- Do not
operate SATA devices outside of a sealed system unit.
operate SATA devices from a power supply that is not the system unit's power
tie wrap SATA cables together.
put sharp bends in SATA cables.
route SATA cables near PATA cables.
Page 17
- Avoid placing SATA devices close to each other such that the SATA cable connectors are
close to each other.
- Do not operate a radio transmitter (such as a cell phone) near an exposed SATA cable
or device.
D.7.2 Variety of problems
Testing of SATA products are finding a variety of problems.
- timeout errors
- data compare errors
- strange status errors
The unshielded SATA cable connector is mostly like the source of many of these
problems. Making things worse is the failure of the SATA specification to implement an
equivalent to the ATA Soft Reset. On a PATA interface Soft Reset rarely fails to get
ATA/ATAPI devices back to a known state so that a command can be retried. On a SATA
interface the equivalent to this reset does not seem to reset anything and the SATA
controller and device basically ignore some times it.
Today's SATA products are actually 10% to 20% slower than PATA. This is because
today's SATA products are really PATA products with an extra SATA-to-PATA 'bridge chip'
in the device. These bridge chips add significant overhead to the SATA protocols. In time
there will real 'native' SATA devices that do not need these bridge chips - Then we can
see what the true performance of SATA. However, remember SATA is a 'serial interface'
and serial interfaces rarely live up to their marketing claims.
D.7.3. Specifications
SATA-1, the SATA version that will be included in ATA/ATAPI-7, is designed to emulate
traditional parallel ATA. Most SATA host controllers shipping today look like and are
programmed just like any other ATA host controller. These controllers are compatible
with the Intel ICHx design and compatible with the T13 1510D document. This allows
SATA controllers and devices to be used in systems without BIOS or OS driver changes.
The biggest problem with today's SATA host controllers is that SATA gets errors that
never happened on PATA. In addition, today's SATA host controllers do a very poor job of
reporting these errors to the host software. Then there is the problem of having an OS
device driver for SATA that understands these errors and knows how to recover from the
error conditions. As of September 2003 T13 is just now starting to talk about these
problems.
There are some SATA host controllers that are not ICHx compatible and these require
proprietary BIOS or OS drivers. We can only hope that the Intel AHCI specification effort
is successful in bringing us a new and better SATA host controller standard.
In May 2003 Intel has issued new specification Advanced Host Controller
Specification (AHCI) for Serial ATA host controller. AHCI support standard interface for
system drivers to use extended features of SATA like command queuing, hot plug and
power management.
Page 18
E. Standard IEEE 1394
1394 Trade Association [http://www.1394ta.org/]
IEEE [http://www.ieee.org/]
Consumer web site [http://www.askfor1394.com/]
IEEE 1394 (High Performance Serial Bus) is an international high-performance
serial-bus standard that offers the real-time data transfer of video, audio and peripheral
applications through a universal I/O interface. With this technology, digital cameras, CDROMs, printers, hard disk drives and audio/stereo equipment can move data at high
speeds to desktops and portable computers through a single cable.
IEEE 1394, High Performance Serial Bus, is electronics standard for connecting devices to
your personal computer. IEEE 1394 provides a single plug-and-socket connection on
which up to 63 devices can be attached with data transfer speeds up to 400 Mbps. The
standard describes a serial bus or pathway between one or more peripheral devices and
your computer's microprocessor. Many peripheral devices now come equipped to meet
IEEE 1394. Two popular implementations of IEEE 1394 are Apple's FireWire and Sony's
i.LINK. IEEE 1394 implementations provide:
A simple common plug-in serial connector on the back of your computer and on many
different types of peripheral devices
A thin serial cable rather than the thicker parallel cable you now use to your printer, for
example
A very high-speed rate of data transfer that will accommodate multimedia applications
(100 and 200 megabits per second today; with much higher rates later)
Hot-plug and Plug and Play capability without disrupting your computer
The ability to chain devices together in a number of different ways without terminators or
complicated set-up requirements
In time, IEEE 1394 implementations are expected to replace and consolidate today's
serial and parallel interfaces, including Centronics parallel, RS-232C, and Small
Computer System Interface (SCSI). The first products to be introduced with FireWire
include digital cameras, digital video disks (DVDs), digital videotapes, digital
camcorders, and music systems. Because IEEE 1394 is a peer-to-peer interface, one
camcorder can dub to another without being plugged into a computer. With a computer
equipped with the socket and bus capability, any device (for example, a video camera)
can be plugged in while the computer is running.
E.1 Evolution of standard IEEE 1394
FireWire was introduced in 1990 by company Apple Computer Inc. and developed by
company Texas Instruments. Originally was intended like replacement for SCSI.
1. IEEE 1394-1995:
- original standard
1394 devices on the market today conform to either the original IEEE 1394-1995
specification or its backward-compatible supplement, IEEE 1394a-2000.
2. IEEE 1394a-2000:
- max. speed 400 Mpbs, do not change basic features, and contains „Advanced power
management“
Page 19
Note that 1394a-2000 primarily clarifies the 1394-1995 specification in ways that
enhance interoperability. 1394a-2000 does not increase its speeds beyond 400 Mbps or
change its fundamental capabilities. One feature of 1394a-2000 of key interest to the PC
industry is its advanced power management capabilities.
3. IEEE P1394b (Gigabit 1394, FireWire800):
- extension to 1394
- speed up to 800 Mbps
- support new transferal media
- POF = plastic optical fiber
- GOF = glass optical fiber
P1394b adds a new electrical signaling method that permits much higher speeds (800
Mbps and beyond) and easier system implementation. Protocol improvements also
significantly improve the efficiency of the bus. "Loop healing" improves ease-of-use by
dealing with the pathological case where a user connects the entire bus in a loop.
P1394b introduces substantial improved electrical characteristics. Backward compatibility
with P1394-2000 and 1394-1995 devices is easily achieved with a low-cost chip known
as a fan-out PHY (for physical layer).
P1394b also supports new transport media in addition to copper cables, including plastic
optical fiber (POF), glass optical fiber (GOF), and Cat5 cable. With the new media come
extended distances, e.g., 100 meters over Cat5.
4. Wireless IEEE 1394:
- The IEEE 802.15.3 Wireless Personal Area Network standard is designed to connect
more than 200 wireless devices.
- Adaptation of the 1394 infrastructure to 802.15.3 makes possible the reuse of existing
middleware for audio and video streaming and other multimedia applications.
Specification 1394
There are two levels of interface in IEEE 1394, one for the backplane bus within the
computer and another for the point-to-point interface between device and computer on
the serial cable. A simple bridge connects the two environments. The backplane bus
supports 12.5, 25, or 50 megabits per second data transfer. The cable interface supports
100, 200, or 400 megabits per second. Each of these interfaces can handle any of the
possible data rates and change from one to another as needed.
The serial bus functions as though devices were in slots within the computer sharing a
common memory space. A 64-bit device address allows a great deal of flexibility in
configuring devices in chains and trees from a single socket.
IEEE 1394 provides two types of data transfer: asynchronous and isochronous.
Asynchronous is for traditional load-and-store applications where data transfer can be
initiated and an application interrupted as a given length of data arrives in a buffer.
Isochronous data transfer ensures that data flows at a pre-set rate so that an application
can handle it in a timed way. For multimedia applications, this kind of data transfer
reduces the need for buffering and helps ensure a continuous presentation for the
viewer.
The 1394 standard require that a device be within 4.5 meters of the bus socket. Up to 16
devices can be connected in a single chain, each with the 4.5 meter maximum (before
signal attenuation begins to occur) so theoretically you could have a device as far away
as 72 meters from the computer.
Page 20
There is a wealth of specifications that build on the base IEEE 1394 specifications. Here
are some of the more important. The Open Host Controller Interface (OHCI) defines
the way 1394 interfaces to a PC host. OHCI provides an operating system like Microsoft
Windows a standardized way of interacting with the 1394 bus. IEC 61883 defines the
details for controlling specific audio-video device types over 1394. Serial Bus Protocol 2 (SBP-2) defines standard ways of encapsulating device commands over 1394 and is
essential for DVD players, printers, scanners, and other devices. Home AV
Interoperability (HAVi [http://www.havi.org/]) is another layer of protocols for 1394.
HAVi is directed at making 1394 devices plug-and-play interoperable in a 1394 network
whether or not a PC host is present. Note that the critical pieces of OHCI, IEC61883, and
SBP-2 are supported in the most recent versions of Microsoft Windows.
Digital content over 1394 can be robustly protected using Digital Transmission Copy
Protection (DTCP). DTCP support device authentication, content encryption, and renew
ability, should a DTCP device ever be compromised. Encoding rules can be specified for
content, e.g., "copy freely," "copy once," or "copy never." The motion picture industry
recognizes DTCP as satisfactory to them in permitting the transmission of their content
over 1394.
Comments and limitations
The Firewire cable bus is a 'non-cyclic network with finite branches", consisting of bus
bridges and cable devices (nodes). Non-cyclic means that one cannot plug devices
together to create a loop. Up to 16 cable hops are allowed between nodes, thus the term
finite branches. 6-bit addressing allows up to 63 nodes to be connected to a single bus
bridge. Thus, 63 connected devices is a limit for a conventional IEEE 1394 card in a PC.
Each node usually has three connectors, and up to 16 nodes can be connected in a 'Daisy
chain" through the connectors with standard cables up to 4.5 m long for a total of 72 m.
Special high-quality 'fatter' cables allow longer interconnections. Additional devices can
be added in a leaf-node configuration (shown in the next figure). Physical addresses are
automatically assigned to the devices on bridge power up (bus reset) and when a new
node is added or removed from the system. Hot plugging of the devices is fully
supported. No device ID switches are required.
Picture 4: 4-pin and 6-pin FireWire connectors
Firewire serial interface uses a simple cable with two types of small and inexpensive
connectors: 4-pin and 6-pin connectors - to carry multiple channels of digital video and
video data and control information plus the power.
Typical power consumption for a 1-2 port 1394 serial bus is 1-3 watts. For an Ethernet
port it is 3-5 watts. The power needed for an additional port is close to 1 watt (e.g., 4
watts for a 3-port 1394 bus). There are three power class devices: power class 1, 2, 3
with power requirements of 15, 30, and 45 watts, respectively. Adding an extra port will
not require a lot of extra power. Devices with 1394 ports and the ability to supply some
power to other devices are considered optimal.
Page 21
Any device attach/detach, or power-turn on, will cause the bus to reset. Before the link is
ready for data transfer, a sequence of handshake signals (packets) will be exchanged
between the two devices to complete standard procedures such as dynamic node address
allocation, self-identification, and arbitration for IRM, BM, and cycle master.
The maximum number of nodes in a bus is 63.
The maximum number of cable hops is 16, where the length of each hop is 4.5 meters
(per IEEE 1394-1995). Long Distance 1394 is being standardized in IEEE 1394b.
If a device is in a network, and is not in leaf node, the device must keep its PHY active
even if the device is not in operation.
The devices connected in a bus should not form a closed loop where they may hang-up
during the self-identification process.
Mixing slower devices with higher-speed devices may hinder performance. For example,
two 200 Mbps devices separated by a 100 Mbps device can communicate with only 100
Mbps.
The 1394 serial bus architecture favors high-speed, real-time data transport
(isochronous) applications. For asynchronous-only applications, lower bandwidth
utilization efficiency (less than 50% of the bus bandwidth) may be expected.
Compare 1394 and USB
These buses have several common features:
Isochronous and asynchronous communication modes used for data transport.
Daisy chaining of devices allowed.
Power sourcing to peripherals with low power requirements.
However, there are some significant differences:
-
Performance
Host controller requirement
Peer-to-peer communication
Cost
Interrupt capability
On the other hand, IEEE 1394-1995 is a high-speed (maximum 400 Mbps) serial bus
which does not require an external host controller (such as a PC), and is designed to be
used in a home environment with or without a PC. For example, homes may have an
STB, a TV, and DVCR, but no PC. The 1394 bus allows peer-to-peer data communication
and, depending upon need, consumer devices may be built with scaled capabilities. A
device with IRM capability can act as a bus manager. Devices such as an STB, a DVD
player, and a DVCR (digital VCR) will have IRM. Implementation of a 1394 port with IRM
capability is much more expensive than USB ports built into peripheral devices. In
general, even a minimum implementation of a 1394 port will be more expensive than
that of a USB port in a slave device (such as peripherals). There is no interrupt capability
in a 1394 bus.
On the USB, the host port (e.g., PC) will source power. Peripheral devices will use either
their own power or sink power from the bus. Devices can be built with a 1394 port, which
may sink, source, or use their own power. Each device with a 1394 port will have a
power class code (0-8). During the self-identification process, this code will be included in
the self-id packet. From the power class information, the bus manager recognizes what
Page 22
device can source power and what device needs power. The USB uses a 4-wire cable-two
for the differential signal, one for +5 volts, and the fourth for the ground. The 1394 bus
uses a 6-wire cable-one pair for data, one pair for the strobe, and the third pair for
power. The 1394 bus also allows a simplified low-cost cable with four conductors for data
and strobe but no power. Typical voltage on the 1394 bus is 24 volts.
Table 6: IEEE 1394 vs. USB 1.1
Max. number of devices
Hot-swap
Plug and Play
Length of cable between devices
Speed
Need host controller (PC)
Peer-to-peer
Cost
IEEE 1394
63
yes
yes
4.5 m
400 Mbps
no
yes
expensive
Interrupt ability
Cable
no
6/4-conductors
USB 1.1
127
yes
yes
5m
12 Mbps
yes
no
simple,
not expensive
yes
4-conductors
Page 23
U. Standard USB
The USB [Universal Serial Bus] specification defines the Mechanical, Electrical and
Protocol layers of the interface. USB defines two types of hardware, Hubs and
Functions. Up to 127 devices may be connected together in a tiered Star topology.
The limiting factor being seven address bits. Wire segments are point-to-point between a
Host, Hub, or Function. The system may only have one Host.
The USB bus is a [Differential] Bi-directional serial interface cable bus.
Differential NRZI data is transmitted Isochronous or Asynchronous between devices. Data
is transferred at three different rates over a maximum cable length of 4 meters ~ over 4
wires, 2 of which carry data on a balanced twisted pair, one for power +5 V (0.5 A) and
one for ground.
A Slow-Speed mode of 1.5Mbps is used for devices such as mice. Full-Speed mode is
used by most devices and allows a transfer rate of 12Mbps. High-Speed mode [defined
by USB 2.0] allows rates of 480Mbps. Transmission at the High-Speed mode requires the
addition of 45 ohm termination resistors between each data line and ground. Operation
at Full-Speed mode is 2.8 volts [High] to 0.3 volts [Low]. Operation at High-Speed mode
is at 400mV +/-10% [High] to 0V +/- 10mV [Low]. Cable impedance for both modes is
90 ohms +/- 15% (differential).
Four different (packet) protocols are used: Control, Interrupt, Isochronous and Bulk.
Each exchange contains three packets; A token packet which holds the address, a data
packet which holds the data, and a handshake packet which terminate the exchange.
NRZI produces a change in the signal indicating a logic zero, no change indicates a logic
one. Bit stuffing is used with NRZI to stop the signal remaining in the steady state
condition; if more then 6 ones are transmitted (no change in the signal) a zero is
inserted to produce a transition. NRZI, with bit stuffing is self-clocking, allowing the
receiver to synchronize with the transmitter.
Devices can draw power directly from the system, from an attached self-powered hub, or
be connected to their own power supply.
USB is still a serial-type interface and sends bits one after another...
USB makes adding peripheral devices very easy and is quickly replacing different kinds of
serial and parallel port connectors with one standardized plug and port combination. One
can now connect a USB-capable mouse, keyboard, digital joystick, and a scanner, a set
of digital speakers, a digital camera or a PC telephone to the computer.
In theory, a USB interface can support up to 127 individual USB peripherals at one time.
The practical maximum number of devices is less since some of them reserve USB
bandwidth. Additional PCI-based USB cards provide an independent USB bus so that
even more peripheral devices can be connected.
For practical connection of multiple devices to the host (root), special hubs are required.
Hubs notify the host when nodes (devices) attach or detach from the hub to provide the
real-time reconfiguration of the system and device identification. Hubs can have up to
seven connectors to nodes or other hubs. They could be self-powered or powered by the
host.
USB is generally described as having a tiered star topology, however each device
communicates with the host as if it had its own connection. This means that
communication from the host centers around a set of hubs/devices, each of which in-turn
Page 24
serves as the center for another set of hubs/devices, etc. However, the hubs are
transparent to the software and the devices are addressed individually. Cables are used
to create point-to-point connections between devices and USB ports, or to connect one
USB hub to another. The maximum cable length is five meters long. However, a repeater
hub may be used to extend the distance between the peripheral and the host. There are
also special USB repeaters that can be used to extend the connection even further.
Open Host Controller Interface for USB (OHCI) specifies host controller USB rev. 1.0.
Enhanced Host Controller Interface (EHCI) specifies host controller USB rev. 2.0.
Page 25
J. SI Units
Table 7: Prefixes for decimal multiplies of SI units
[http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/prefixes.html]
Factor
1024
1021
1018
1015
1012
109
106
103
102
101
Name
yotta
zetta
exa
peta
tera
giga
mega
kilo
hecto
deka
Symbol
Y
Z
E
P
T
G
M
k
h
da
Table 8: Prefixes for binary multiplies
[http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/binary.html]
Factor
260
250
240
230
220
210
Name
exbi
pebi
tebi
gibi
mebi
kibi
Symbol
Ei
Pi
Ti
Gi
Mi
Ki
Origin
exabinary (210)6
petabinary (210)5
terabinary (210)4
gigabinary (210)3
megabinary (210)2
kilobinary (210)1
Derivation
exa (103)6
peta (103)5
tera (103)4
giga (103)3
mega (103)2
kilo (103)1
Examples:
1 kibibit = 1 Kibit = 210 bits = 1024 bits
1 kilobit = 1 kbit = 103 bits = 1000 bits
1 mebibyte = 1 MiB = 220 B = 1,048,576 B (binary megabyte = 1024x1024)
1 megabyte = 1 MB = 106 B = 1,000,000 B (decimal megabyte = 1000x1000)
1 gibibyte = 1 GiB = 230 B = 1,073,741,824 B
1 gigabyte = 1 GB = 109 B = 1,000,000,000 B
Capacity in binary megabytes used e.g. DOS FDISK, old CMOS SETUP in ROM, and File
Manager in Windows 3.x.
Capacity in decimal megabytes used DOS CHKDSK, new CMOS SETUP and manufacturers
of hard drives.
Convert decimal MB to binary MB:
[decimal MB] x 1,000,000
= binary MB
1,048,576
Convert binary MB to decimal MB:
Page 26
binary MB x 1.048576 = decimal MB
Page 27
O. The BIOS Hard Disk Limitations
Interrupt 13h – Software interface of system BIOS to provide access to hard drive. The
problem is in limit of fixed values of CHS (Cylinder/Head/Sector) to 1024x256x63 –
capacity is limited to 8 GB.
Interrupt 13h Extensions – Extension of functions of interrupt 13h to breaking the 8
GB limit with maintenance of compatibility with old hard drives and systems. Instead of
CHS is recommended LBA.
Table 9: Limitations for INT13h and ATA
Limit
INT13h
Ext.INT13h
ATA(28-bits)
INT13h+ATA
ATA(48-bits)
Ext.INT13h
Cylinders
1024
10
16384 14
65536 16
1024
10
-
bits
bits
bits
bits
Heads
256 8 bits
16 4 bits
16 4 bits
16 4 bits
-
Sectors
63 6 bits
63 6 bits
255 8 bits
63 6 bits
-
Max. size
8.4 GB
8.4 GB
137 GB
528 MB
128 PB
16 EB
Bits
24
24
28
20
48
64
INT13h BIOS:
16384 x 16 x 63 (Ext.INT13h)
1024 x 256 x 63 (INT13h)
= 16,515,072 sectors = 8,455,200,768 bytes = 7.9/8.4 GB
ATA specification (28-bits):
65,536 x 16 x 255 = 267,386,880 sectors = 136,902,082,560 bytes = 127.5/137 GB
Combined INT13h BIOS and ATA (28-bits):
By using the same C/H/S values for INT13h and ATA disk, we get combination of two
limitations (smaller of each):
1024 x 16 x 63 = 1,032,192 sectors = 528,482,304 bytes = 504/528 MB
CHS (Cylinder-Head-Sector) (Normal) – CHS is the oldest system for addressing sectors
on an ATA-drive. The method is based on that used for ST506 drives. Since every BIOS
could work with these drives, ATA was made very compatible with it. A CHS-BIOS does
not perform translation, which results in a combination of the lowest values of the BIOS
and drive (see table 13). Therefore, the maximum capacity for CHS-BIOS is 1024 x 16 x
63 = 504 MB.
LBA (Logical Block Address) – LBA provides a way to address sectors. LBA gives
BIOS’s a common way to address sectors. LBA does not work with sector per track,
cylinders and heads, but it uses logical sector numbers. LBA can support drives to 128
GB. When LBA is turned on, the BIOS will enable geometry translation.
This translation may be done in the same way that it is done in Extended CHS or large
mode, or it may be done using a different algorithm called LBA-assist translation. The
translated geometry is still what is presented to the operating system for use in Int 13h
calls. The difference between LBA and ECHS is that when using ECHS the BIOS translates
the parameters used by these calls from the translated geometry to the drive's logical
Page 28
geometry. With LBA, it translates from the translated geometry directly into a logical
block (sector) number.
•
•
28-bits address: 228 = 268,435,456 sectors (128 GB)
48-bits address: 248 = 281,474,976,710,656 sectors (128 PB)
LBA addressing mode implement system BIOS or hard drive adaptor, which translate the
CHS parameters passing to BIOS into 28/48-bits LBA address of sector to get data from
hard drive. This translation could provide various utility “dynamic drive overlay”
(software translation) also, e.g. SpeedStor (Storage Dimensions), EZ-Drive (Micro
House), Disk Manager (OnTrack).
Compatibility with LBA: AMI BIOS from 25.04.1994 include
Phoenix BIOS from version 4.03 include
Some PCs are using a specific version of Phoenix BIOS 4.03, which does not support LBA.
Assisted LBA – The number of sectors/track is fixed at 63 and the number of heads is
16 or a multiple of that (32, 64, 128, 255). Then the number of cylinders is calculated by
dividing the total capacity in sectors by the number of sectors per cylinder:
number of cylinders = x/(63*heads)
where x = total number of sectors
63 = number of sectors per cylinder
This translation is called the LBA assisted method. This translation method can only be
utilized if the disk drive itself supports LBA addressing.
Table 10: LBA assisted method
Total number
of sectors
reported
1 X 1,032,192
1,032,192 X
2,064,384
2,064,384 X
4,128,768
4,128,768 X
8,257,536
8,257,536 X
16,450,560
Number of
sectors
reported
63
Number of
heads
reported
16
Number of
cylinders
reported
X/(63*16)
Theoretical
maximum
capacity
528.4 MB
63
32
X/(63*32)
1.057 GB
63
64
X/(63*64)
2.114 GB
63
128
X/(63*128)
4.228 GB
63
255
X/(63*255)
8.422 GB
Large/ECHS (Extended CHS; CHS to CHS Translation) – BIOS translation works by
having the BIOS act as a "middleman" of sorts between the IDE/ATA hard disk and the
standard BIOS Int 13h, and by taking advantage of the fact that one standard allows
more heads than the other but fewer cylinders. The BIOS takes the logical geometry that
the hard disk specifies according to the IDE/ATA standard, and translates it into an
equivalent geometry that will "fit" into the maximums allowed by the BIOS Int 13h
standard. This is done by dividing the number of logical cylinders by an integer, and then
multiplying the number of logical heads by the same number. The technique is
sometimes called bit shift translation (since the multiplication and division is done by
shifting the cylinder and head bits). The capacity is of course unchanged, and the new
geometry fits quite nicely into the BIOS limits.
Page 29
Therefore, the rule for choosing the multiplier is: make the multiplier is as low as it can
be to bring the cylinder and heads within the range permitted by INT13h (that is, 1024
cylinders numbered 0 to 1023). To achieve this, the BIOS do a simple loop (with some
added error checking):
1. Multiplier = 1
2. Cylinder = Cylinder -1
3. Is Cylinder < 1024? If not:
Do a right bitwise rotation on the cylinder (i.e., divide by 2)
Do a left bitwise rotation on the multiplier (i.e., multiply by 2)
Use the multiplier on the Cylinder and Head values to obtain the translated values.
At the end of this loop, the multiplier will be as small as it can be to bring the cylinder to
within the permitted range.
Table 11: Bit-Shifting translation
Interval of
cylinders
0-1024
1025-2046
2047-4096
4097-8191
8192-16384
16385-32768
Number of
heads
16
32
64
128
256
512
The translation in fact is nothing but a conversion of the cylinders and heads in the BIOS
to their drive equivalents. If you change the translation mode of your hard disk, you risk
permanent loss of all the data on the drive.
Example of translation:
Hard disk Maxtor 85120A 5.1 GB
Factory CHS = 9924 x 16 x 63 = 10,003,392 sectors = 5,121,736,704 bytes = 5.1 GB
Assisted LBA = 622 x 255 x 63 = 9,992,430 sectors = 5,116,124,160 bytes = 5.1 GB
lost = 10962 sectors = 5,612,544 bytes = 5.6 MB
Standard ECHS = 620 x 256 x 63 = 9,999,360 sectors = 5,119,672,320 bytes = 5.1 GB
lost = 4032 sectors = 2,064,384 bytes = 2.0 MB
Revised ECHS = 661 x 240 x 63 = 9,994,320 sectors = 5,117,091,840 bytes = 5.1 GB
(10585 x 15 x 63)
lost = 9072 sectors = 4,644,864 bytes = 4.6 MB
SCSI controllers using own BIOS or device driver to replace services of system BIOS at
communication with SCSI hard disk and so there is no limitation for 1024 cylinders (504
MB).
ESDI (Enhanced Small Device Interface) devices using INT13h services in BIOS ROM
to provide a translation of device geometry, which is compatible with ATA interface.
28/48-bit LBA in Windows
Page 30
Drivers in Windows that use the 28-bit logical block addressing (LBA) ATA commands are
limited to 128 gigabytes (GB). Drivers that use the new 48-bit LBA ATA commands are
limited to 128 petabytes (PB). Examples are as follows:
1. Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 1, Windows Server 2003, and later versions of
Windows support 48-bit LBA ATA commands in the atapi.sys driver.
2. Windows XP (before Service Pack 1) and Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 or later
support 48-bit LBA ATA commands in the atapi.sys driver, but support must be enabled
by a registry key described under MS KB303013
[http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;303013].
3. All versions of Windows before Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 support 28-bit LBA ATA
commands in the atapi.sys driver.
Any system that has a controller that does not use Microsoft's atapi.sys driver will have
limitations dependent upon the driver's manufacturer.
O.1 Limit 504/528 MB
First limitation is a problem of fixed values of CHS in INT13h and ATA protocol.
Therefore, up to 1,032,192 sectors (1024 x 16 x 63) could be addressed, and with 512
bytes per sector, this yields a maximum theoretical capacity of about 528 MB. This is the
root cause of the first drive size boundary, the 528 MB barrier.
If the same values for C/H/S are used for the BIOS Int 13 call and for the ATA 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 528,482,304 bytes (528 MB), 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: a BIOS could use one geometry while talking to the drive, and another, fake,
geometry while talking to DOS, and translate between the two.
Solution: New BIOS with LBA support or bit shift, or LBA assisted translation, eventually
Ext. INT13h. Some drive overlay manager utility.
O.2 Limit 2.1 GB
BIOS developers and engineers, in order to solve the 528 MB problem, employed
different methods to accomplish resolution. One such solution was to take the top 2 bits
from the Int 13h head register and use them for bits 11 and 12 of the cylinder count. By
doing this, the maximum head value that can be stored in the remaining 6 bits of the
head register is 63 (64 heads total).
The presumption is that all bits of the head register will define the logical head count.
Therefore, in order to properly translate a drive with 4,096 physical cylinders you must
divide the cylinder count by four (1,024 logical cylinders) and multiply the head count by
four (128 logical heads). But, since some of the early BIOS's used the top two bits of the
head register as part of the cylinder count, there is no way in which to define 128 heads.
A BIOS that handles drives in this fashion may hang during the system POST process, as
the BIOS attempts the "Identify Drive" command and tries to set the CHS values.
Limit: 212 = 4096 → (0-4095 cylinders, 12 bits)
Page 31
4096 x 16 x 63 = 4,128,768 sectors = 2,113,929,216 bytes = 2.1 GB (1.97 GB)
Solution: New BIOS. Some drive overlay manager utility.
O.3 Limit 3.2 GB
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.
Solution: New BIOS.
O.4 Limit 4.2 GB
Unlike the 528 MB barrier, which is both hardware and software related, the 4.2 GB
barrier is a limitation imposed by the underlying operating system. Some operating
systems store the number of heads reported as an 8-bit value. Therefore, if the BIOS
reports 256 heads, then these systems will only be saving the lower eight bits, which will
then result in a value of zero and a disk drive that cannot be configured. This occurs any
time the device reports 16 heads and greater than 8,192 cylinders to the Bit Shift
translation.
Affected operating systems: DOS, Windows 3.x/95 (version 95A); Windows NT
3.x/4.x using FAT file system
When Bit Shift Translation is used with one these operating systems, the maximum
capacity that can be configured is 4.2 GB. LBA Assist Translation never reports more than
255 heads so the problem does not exist in situations where LBA Assist Translation is in
use.
To access device we use Revised ECHS (adjusting the number of heads to 15). A simple
way around the 256 head problem was to do a small “pre-translation” on the disk
geometry when the number of heads exceeds 8192 that converts the number of heads
from 16 to 15:
If cylinders > 8192 and heads = 16
- Heads = 15
- Cylinders = cylinders * 16 / 15 (losing the fraction component)
- Do a standard ECHS translation
To access device we use Assisted LBA. The BIOS achieves assisted LBA using the
following algorithm (use 63 sector per cylinder always):
If cylinder > 8192
- Variable CH = Total Sectors / 63
- Divide (CH – 1) by 1024 (as an assembler bitwise right shift) and add 1
- Round the result up to the nearest of 16, 32, 64, 128 and 255. This is the value to be
used for the number of heads.
- Divide CH by the number of heads. This is the value to be used for the number of
cylinders.
8191 cylinders cause transfer 16 heads to 128
8192 cylinders cause transfer 16 heads to 256
Page 32
Limit: 213 = 8192 → 8191 cylinders (0-8190 cylinders, 13 bits)
8191 x 16 x 63 = 8,256,528 sectors = 4,227,342,336 bytes = 4227 MB (3937 MB)
(a fake geometry is CHS 1024x128x63)
O.5 Limit 7.9/8.4 GB
16384 cylinders cause transfer 16 heads to 256
16385 cylinders cause transfer 16 heads to 512, this is out of range BIOS to serve
Limit: 214 = 16384 → 8191 cylinders (0-8190 cylinders, 14 bits)
16384 x 16 x 63 = 16,515,072 sectors = 8,455,716,864 bytes
= 8456 MB = 8.4 GB (8064 MB = 7.9 GB)
(a fake Assisted LBA geometry is CHS 1024xHx63, where H is a first number of 16, 32,
64, 128, and 255)
According to ATA-3 specification device with more than 8 heads should not use more
than 16383 cylinders.
Program DOS FDISK does show disk size up to 8 GB.
Solution: New BIOS with Ext. INT13h support.
O.6 Limit 32 GB
Hard drives over 8.4 GB are supposed to report their geometry CHS as 16383/16/63.
This in effect means that the “geometry” is obsolete, and the total disk size can no longer
be computed from the geometry. Many BIOS’s compute number of cylinders by dividing
total capacity with value 16x63. For disk larger than 33.8 GB BIOS obtain number of
cylinders greater than 65,535 what cause a failure or BIOS may hang.
O.6.1 Hardware limit
65,535 x 16 x 63 = 66059280 sectors = 33,822,351,360 bytes = 31.5 GB
Solution:
1. New BIOS without bugs.
2. Disks larger than 32 GB may have a special jumper to limit capacity up to 32 GB.
3. In CMOS set up 15 instead 16 heads.
O.6.2 Windows 95 limit
Any Windows 95 version does not support disk greater than 32 GB (see KB246818
[http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;246818]).
Solution: none; use another operating system (upgrade to Microsoft Windows 98 or
Microsoft Windows NT).
O.6.3 ScanDisk limit
If you use the protected-mode (graphical) version of ScanDisk to perform a thorough
scan (which includes a surface scan) on an ATA hard disk that is larger than 32 GB in
size, ScanDisk may report errors on every cluster after approximately cluster number
Page 33
967,393 (see MS KB243450 [http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;ENUS;243450]).
Graphical (protected) version of ScanDisk in Windows 9x has a problem at surface
scanning with disk larger than 32 GB – it may show error for every cluster after cluster
number 967,393
Cause: This problem may occur on computers that use a Phoenix BIOS and use the
Phoenix BitShift translation algorithm to report the geometry of large ATA hard disks. On
such computers, the Windows protected-mode ATA disk driver (Esdi_506.pdr) may not
correctly recognize the translation mode for the drive, resulting in an inability to access
areas of the drive beyond the first 32 GB.
This problem does not occur if the BIOS use logical block addressing (LBA) Assist
translation instead of Phoenix BitShift translation.
Solution: A supported fix is available from Microsoft Update site for Windows 98/98 SE.
O.7 Limit 64 GB
This limitation is software based only.
O.7.1 FDISK
Fdisk Does Not Recognize Full Size of Hard Disks Larger than 64 GB – see MS KB263044
[http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;263044]. When you use
Fdisk.exe to partition a hard disk that is larger than 64 GB in size (68,719,476,736
bytes), Fdisk does not report the correct size of the hard disk.
The size that Fdisk reports is the full size of the hard disk minus 64 GB. For example, if
the physical drive is 70.3 GB (75,484,122,112 bytes) in size, Fdisk reports the drive as
being 6.3 GB (6,764,579,840 bytes) in size. Fdisk uses some 16-bit values internally to
calculate the size of the drive. Some of these variables overflow when the drive size is
equal to or larger than 64 GB.
Solution: A supported fix of FDISK is available from Microsoft for Windows 98/98SE (not
for Windows 95). This hot fix is not designed for 48-bit logical block addressing (LBA)
hard disks, and it is not supported on hard disks larger than 137 GB. Windows
Me/2000/XP/2003 is not affected with this problem.
O.7.2 FORMAT
Format Displays Size of Partitions or Logical Drives Larger Than 64 GB Incorrectly in
Windows 9X/Millennium – see MS KB263045 [http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?
scid=kb;EN-US;263045]. When you use Format.com to format a partition or logical
drive that is larger than 64 GB (68,719,476,736 bytes) in size, Format.com does not
report the correct size of the drive being formatted at the beginning of the format
process. However, as the formatting process progresses, the entire drive are formatted
and the correct formatted size is displayed when the operation is finished.
Format.com uses some 16-bit values internally to calculate the initial displayed size of
the drive. Some of these variables overflow when the drive size is equal to or larger than
64 GB. This is a display (or cosmetic) issue only; the drive is formatted to its full size.
This problem does not occur if you format the drive from within Windows Explorer.
Page 34
O.8 Limit 137 GB
This is a limit of ATA specification with 28-bits logical addressing.
Solution: BIOS and device with 48-bits logical addressing support (ATA/ATAPI-6).
Implementation of 48-bit addressing required for hard drives larger than 137.4 GB.
O.9 Limit 512 GB
Fdisk.exe Unable to Partition Drives Larger Than 512 Gigabytes (see MS KB280737
[http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;280737&Product=w98])
When you attempt to partition your hard disk by using the Fdisk utility, you may be
unable to create a partition that is larger than 512 GB. This issue occurs because the
Fdisk utility is limited to creating partitions with a maximum size of 512 GB.
When you use the Fdisk utility to partition a drive that is larger than 512 GB, you might
not receive any error messages that state that the drive was not partitioned correctly;
however, the drive might not be partitioned correctly. For this reason, use alternative
programs when you partition drives that are larger than 512 GB.
Cause: Fdisk utility is limited to creating partitions with a maximum size of 512 GB.
Solution: To work around this issue and create partitions that are larger than 512 GB,
do not use Fdisk to partition your hard disk. You can use the Windows Millennium Edition
(Me) Setup boot disk that is provided with the full version of Windows Me to partition
new drives before you install Windows.
Some third-party programs also contain programs that can partition drives that are
larger than 512 GB. For example, Ghost from Symantec Corporation contains a program
called Gdisk that partitions drives that are larger than 512 GB.
O.10 Limit 2.2 TB
This is a limit of FAT32 file system in Windows 98.
Solution: use another file system like NTFS
O.11 Limit 128 PB
This is a limit of ATA specification with 48-bits logical addressing.
Solution: New standard with 64-bits logical addressing or another standard…
Page 35
P. Parallel and Serial interface
For over 20 years, the parallel bus interface has been the mainstream storage
interconnects for most storage systems. However, increasing bandwidth and flexibility
demands have exposed inefficiencies in the two main parallel interface technologies: ATA
and SCSI. The lack of compatibility between parallel ATA and SCSI - including different
connectors, cables and software - increases costs for inventory management, R&D,
training and product qualification.
Parallel technology poses still other challenges. Parallel transmissions are susceptible to
crosstalk across wide ribbon cable paths. This crosstalk adds line noise and can cause
signal errors, a pitfall that has been remedied by slowing the signal, limiting cable length
or both. Terminating parallel signals is also difficult, requiring individual lines to be
terminated, usually by the last drive, to avoid signal reflection at the end of a cable.
Finally, parallel's large cable and connector size make it unsuitable for increasingly dense
computing environments.
P.1 Introducing SAS and SATA
Serial technology, specifically Serial ATA (SATA) and Serial Attached SCSI (SAS),
addresses the architectural limitations of its parallel counterparts. The technology draws
its name from the way it transmits signals, that is, in a single stream (serially)
compared with the multiple streams found in parallel technology. The main advantage
of serial technology is that while it moves data in a single stream, it does so much faster
than parallel technology because it is not tied to a particular clock speed. Serial
technology wraps many bits of data into packets and then transfers the packets up to 30
times faster than parallel down the wire to or from the host.
SATA extends the ATA technology roadmap by delivering disk interconnects speeds
starting at 1.5Gbps. Due to its lower cost per gigabyte, SATA will continue as the
prevalent disk interface technology in desktop PCs, sub-entry servers and networked
storage systems where cost is a primary concern.
SAS, the successor technology to the parallel SCSI interface, leverages proven SCSI
functionality and promises to greatly build on the existing capabilities of the enterprise
storage connection. SAS offers many features not found in today's mainstream storage
solutions. These include drive addressability of up to 16,256 devices per port and reliable
point-to-point serial connections at speeds of up to 3Gbps.
In addition, due to its small connector, SAS offers full dual-ported connections on 3.5-in.
and smaller 2.5-in. hard disk drives, a feature previously found only on larger 3.5-in.
Fibre Channel disk drives. This is an essential feature in applications requiring redundant
drive spindles in a dense server form factor such as blade servers.
SAS improves drive addressability and connectivity using an expander that enables one
or more SAS host controllers to connect to a large number of drives. Each expander
allows connectivity to 128 physical links, which may include other host connections, other
SAS expanders or hard disks. This highly scalable connection scheme enables enterpriselevel topologies that easily support multi-node clustering for automatic failover
availability or load balancing.
In one of its most significant advances, the SAS interface will also be compatible with
lower-cost-per-gigabyte SATA drives, giving system builders the flexibility to integrate
either SAS or SATA devices while slashing the costs associated with supporting two
Page 36
separate interfaces. As the next generation of SCSI, SAS bridges the parallel technology
gap in performance, scalability and affordability.
P.2 Multiple layers of compatibility
Physical layers
The SAS connector is a universal interconnection that is form-factor compatible with
SATA. It allows SAS or SATA drives to plug directly into a SAS environment for missioncritical applications with high-availability and high-performance requirements or lowercost-per-gigabyte applications such as near-box storage.
SATA connector signals are a subset of SAS signals that enable the compatibility of SATA
devices and SAS controllers. SAS drives will not operate on a SATA controller and are
keyed to prevent any chance of plugging them in incorrectly.
In addition, the similar SAS and SATA physical interfaces enable a new universal SAS
backplane that provides connectivity to both SAS drives and SATA drives. This eliminates
the need for separate SCSI and ATA drive backplanes. This consolidation of designs
greatly benefits both backplane manufacturers and end users by reducing inventory and
design costs.
Protocol layer
SAS consists of three types of protocols, each of which is used to transfer different types
of data over the serial interface, depending on which device is being accessed. Serial
SCSI Protocol (SSP) transfers SCSI commands, and SCSI Management Protocol
(SMP) sends management information to expanders. Meanwhile, SATA Tunneled
Protocol (STP) creates a connection that allows transmission of the SATA commands.
By including all three of these protocols, SAS provides seamless compatibility with
today's existing SCSI applications, management software and SATA devices.
This multi-protocol architecture support, coupled with the compatibility of SAS and
SATA's physical connection, allows SAS to operate as the universal interconnection for
both SATA and SAS devices.
Page 37
S. File systems
S.1 File systems FAT/NTFS
FAT = File Allocation System
NTFS = NT File System
Windows NT
: NTFS 4.0
Windows 2000/XP: NTFS 5.0
S.1.1 FAT16
Maximum number of files and folders within the root folder of FAT16 is 512. (Long file
names can reduce the number of available files and folders in the root folder.) FAT16
supports a maximum of 65,524 clusters per volume.
FAT16 volumes larger than 2 GB are not accessible from computers running MS-DOS,
Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me, and many other operating systems. This
limitation occurs because these operating systems do not support cluster sizes larger
than 32 KB, which results in the 2 GB limit.
Clusters are an allocation unit of disk space for files. Cluster size is determined by the
size of the disk. Large cluster sizes mean lower disk space efficiency. For example, a 1byte file requires 32K of disk space if the disk has 32K clusters.
Table 12: Limits of file system FAT16
Partition size
0-127 MB
128-255 MB
256-511 MB
512-1023 MB
1024-2047 MB
Requested cluster size for FAT16 volume
2 KB = 2048 B
4 KB = 4096 B
8 KB = 8192 B
16 KB = 16384 B
32 KB = 32768 B
S.1.2 FAT32
FAT32 – first version of FAT32 introduced in 1996 with Windows 95B OSR2.0.
FAT32X – second version introduced in 1997 with Windows 95C OSR2.5; support large
disk over 8 GB using Extended INT13h.
A FAT32 volume must have a minimum of 65,527 clusters. Windows XP Professional can
format FAT32 volumes up to 32 GB, but it can mount larger FAT32 volumes created by
other operating systems.
In theory, FAT32 volumes can be about 8 terabytes; however, the maximum FAT32
volume size that Windows XP Professional can format is 32 GB. Therefore, you must use
NTFS to format volumes larger than 32 GB. However, Windows XP Professional can read
and write to larger FAT32 volumes formatted by other operating systems.
FAT32 has no built-in file system security or compression scheme.
The following limitations exist using the FAT32 file system with Windows operating
systems:
Page 38
•
•
•
•
•
•
Clusters cannot be 64 KB or larger. If clusters were 64 KB or larger, some
programs (such as Setup programs) might calculate disk space incorrectly.
A volume must contain at least 65,527 clusters to use the FAT32 file system. You
cannot increase the cluster size on a volume using the FAT32 file system so that it
ends up with less than 65,527 clusters.
The maximum possible number of clusters on a volume using the FAT32 file
system is 268,435,445. With a maximum of 32 KB per cluster with space for the
file allocation table (FAT), this equates to a maximum disk size of approximately 8
terabytes (TB).
The ScanDisk tool included with Microsoft Windows 95 and Microsoft Windows 98
is a 16-bit program. Such programs have a single memory block maximum
allocation size of 16 MB less 64 KB. Therefore, the Windows 95 or Windows 98
ScanDisk tool cannot process volumes using the FAT32 file system that have a
FAT larger than 16 MB less 64 KB in size. A FAT entry on a volume using the
FAT32 file system uses 4 bytes, so ScanDisk cannot process the FAT on a volume
using the FAT32 file system that defines more than 4,177,920 clusters (including
the two reserved clusters). Including the FAT’s themselves, this works out, at the
maximum of 32 KB per cluster, to a volume size of 127.53 GB.
You cannot decrease the cluster size on a volume using the FAT32 file system so
that the FAT ends up larger than 16 MB less 64 KB in size.
You cannot format a volume larger than 32 GB in size using the FAT32 file system
in Windows 2000. The Windows 2000 FastFAT driver can mount and support
volumes larger than 32 GB that use the FAT32 file system (subject to the other
limits), but you cannot create one using the Format tool. This behavior is by
design. If you need to create a volume larger than 32 GB, use the NTFS file
system instead.
NOTE: When attempting to format a FAT32 partition larger than 32 GB, the format fails
near the end of the process with the following error: “Logical Disk Manager: Volume size
too big.”
Table 13: Limits of file system FAT32
Disk size
16 GB
64 GB
128 GB
256 GB
Required cluster size for FAT32 volume
4K
16K
32K (max. cluster size for Windows 95/98)
64K (Windows 95/98/Me don’t support)
S.1.3 NTFS
In theory, the maximum NTFS volume size is 264 clusters minus 1 cluster. However, the
maximum NTFS volume size as implemented in Windows XP Professional is 232 clusters
minus 1 cluster. For example, using 64 KB clusters, the maximum NTFS volume size is
256 terabytes minus 64 KB. Using the default cluster size of 4 KB, the maximum NTFS
volume size is 16 terabytes minus 4 KB.
Because partition tables on master boot record (MBR) disks only support partition sizes
up to 2 terabytes, you must use dynamic volumes to create NTFS volumes over
2 terabytes. Windows XP Professional manages dynamic volumes in a special database
instead of in the partition table, so dynamic volumes are not subject to the 2-terabyte
physical limits imposed by the partition table. Therefore, dynamic NTFS volumes can be
as large as the maximum volume size supported by NTFS. Itanium-based computers that
Page 39
use GUID partition table (GPT) disks also support NTFS volumes larger than
2 terabytes.
If you use large numbers of files in an NTFS folder (300,000 or more), disable short-file
name generation, and especially if the first six characters of the long file names are
similar.
NTFS is so called „journal“ file system. It saves boot sector into first and last sector of
partition.
Because NTFS data structures are not the same for Windows NT 4.0 and Windows XP
Professional, Windows NT 4.0 disk tools such as Chkdsk and Autochk do not work on
NTFS volumes formatted or upgraded by Windows XP Professional. These tools check the
version stamp of NTFS. After installing Windows XP Professional, you must run the
updated version of these disk tools on their NTFS volumes.
Table 14: Compare NTFS 4 with 5
Parameter
Alternate Streams
Compression
Encryption
Object Permissions
Disk Quotas
Sparse Files
Reparse Points
Volume Mount Point
NTFS 4
yes
yes
no
yes
no
no
no
no
NTFS 5
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
S.1.4 Size limitations
FAT12: max. 4086 data clusters
Size of cluster for all file systems:
Windows 95/98/Me: a power of 2 between 512 bytes and 32,768 bytes, inclusive
Windows XP/2000/NT: a power of 2 between 512 bytes and 65,536 bytes, inclusive
Page 40
Table 15: Size limitations for file systems
FAT16
4 GB – 1
(232 – 1 bytes)
FAT32
4 GB – 1
(232 - 1 bytes)
Min.
volume
size
Max.
volume
size
4085 clusters
65,535 clusters
2 GB
(max. 65,524
clusters)
16 EB
theoretical 264
clusters;
actual 232
clusters
(4,294,967,296
clusters)
Files per
volume
65,536
(216)
2 TB (theoretical 228 clusters)
Windows 2000/XP:
format up to 32 GB, can
mount/convert larger volumes
Windows Me: up to 268,435,444
clusters (228-12)
Windows 95/98: 4,177,918
clusters
4,177,920
(228)
Directory
size
(216-2) 65,534
directory
entries;
special limit for
root directory
(root=512 files)
DOS 8.3
(216-2) 65,534 directory entries in
single folder
(root without limit)
no limit
255 characters of system set
255 Unicode
characters
Max. file
size
File names
NTFS
16 EB – 1
(244 – 64 KB)
(design to
264 - 1 bytes)
1 MB
4,294,967,295
(232 - 1)
S.1.5 DVD formats
Table 16: DVD formats
DVD-Video
(video playback)
DVD-ROM
(data storage only)
DVD-R (data storage)
DVD-RAM
(video playback,
data storage)
DVD-RW
(video playback,
data storage)
DVD+RW
(video playback,
data storage)
Double-side
capacity
17 GB
Read/write support/sequence
Read only
4.7 GB
9.4 GB
Read and one-time write
Read and up to 100000 rewrites; random
9.4 GB
Read and up to 1000 rewrites; sequential
9.4 GB
Read and rewrites; random
Page 41
Windows XP uses for DVD-RAM file system FAT32 for read/write and support use a
format UDF (Universal Disk Format) only for read. DVD-RAM support multisession
recording or LBA addressing.
S.2 MBR (Master Boot Record)
The master boot record is always located at cylinder 0, head 0, and sector 1, the first
sector on the disk. The master boot record contains the following structures:
•
•
•
Master Boot Code (boot loader, 446 bytes): The master boot record contains the
small initial boot program that the BIOS loads and executes to start the boot
process. This program eventually transfers control to the boot program stored on
whichever partition is used for booting the PC.
Master Partition Table (4x16 bytes, started at 1BEh): This small table contains
the descriptions of the partitions that are contained on the hard disk. There is only
room in the master partition table for the information describing four partitions.
Therefore, a hard disk can have only four true partitions, also called primary
partitions. Any additional partitions are logical partitions that are linked to one of
the primary partitions. One of the partitions is marked as active, indicating that it
is the one that the computer should use for booting up.
Early MSDOS filled the partition table starting at the end. In particular, in the case
of only one partition, the descriptor was stored in the fourth primary slot. These
days DOS FDISK starts at the beginning, but other systems, like UnixWare, still
start at the end. Also Iomega writes the single partition of a ZIP disk in the last
entry (so that it has to be mounted as /dev/sda4 or /dev/hdc4 or so).
Boot Record Signature (2 bytes): The sector ends with the Word-sized
signature ID of AA55h (often called the sector's Magic number; on Intel CPU
systems, hex Words are stored with the Low-byte first and the High-byte last).
DR-DOS stores a password starting at offset 1B6h.
Windows 2000 /XP to display Error Messages on screen use the three bytes at offsets
1B5h through 1B7h - these three bytes are being used to reference the offset in memory
of the first byte of each Error Message that can be displayed on screen at boot up.
The four bytes from offsets 1B8h through 1BBh are called the Windows 2000/XP Disk
Signature or Windows NT Drive Serial Number (volume ID) (e.g. A8h E1h A8h E1h).
This four-byte Hex Word will be found in various keys of the Registry as E1A8E1A8 Hex.
These particular keys:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\STORAGE\Volume
HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\DeviceClasses\
Disk signature is used to map drive letters to disks: in the registry item
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices
the drive letter is coupled with this disk signature. It is used as a disk label to map disk
info to disks in the registry item
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\DISK
The Disk Administrator generates this signature when it initializes the disk, unless there
already was a nonzero value there. Also LILO v20 and later preserves this area.
Page 42
The OS/2 fdisk writes some strange length in the descriptor of the last extended
partition. This is probably a bug. OS/2 fdisk fails to update the length of the (outer)
extended partition when a primary partition is created in the free space (space not used
by a logical partition) at the end of this extended partition. This can lead to overlapping
partitions.
OS/2 FDISK does not know about type 0Fh, but accepts DOS Extended Partitions
extending beyond cylinder 1023. When some other partition handler, like Partition Magic
4.0, changes the type of a large extended partition from 05h to 0Fh, OS/2 loses access.
OS/2 Boot Manager keeps a private copy of the partition table data. This leads to
problems when changing the partition table with 3rd party tools.
Windows 2000 tries to destroy OS/2 Boot Manager. Upon boot it ignores the 0Ah
partition ID, and sees something resembling a FAT boot sector describing 2 FAT copies.
When FASTFAT.SYS marks this partition as clean in the first reserved FAT entry, the
mirror (2nd) FAT sector is also updated. However, there is no mirror FAT, and
FASTFAT.SYS writes into the middle of the OS/2 Boot Manager code. This aggression was
built into FASTFAT.SYS at a fairly late stage, and prerelease versions work without
problems.
S.3 Type of disk partitions
The following table contains maximal sizes of partitions for MS-DOS versions:
Table 17: Type of partitions for MS-DOS
MS-DOS version
1.0 (1980)
2.0 (1983)
2.1
3.0
3.3+
4.0
5.0+
Max. Capacity of disk/partition
no hard disk support
disk max. 16 MB (FAT12)
disk max. 32 MB
only 1 partition max. 32 MB
(FAT16)
every partition is max. 32 MB
partition max. 512 MB
partition max. 2 GB
MS-DOS 3.3 introduces support for more than one logical drive per hard disk. Logical
drives are treated as completely separate disks under MS-DOS, even though they may
occupy the same physical hard disk.
This is supported by using no bootable MS-DOS partitions known as extended MS-DOS
partitions. Fdisk reports these as EXT DOS; other MS-DOS partitions are reported as
PRI DOS (for primary MS-DOS). Each primary MS-DOS partition is a logical drive, and
extended MS-DOS partitions contain from 1 to 23 logical drives (MS-DOS supports drive
letters up to Z). Logical drives in extended MS-DOS partitions have the same FAT type as
a primary MS-DOS partition of the same size.
Only one PRI DOS partition and one EXT DOS partition is allowed per drive. On
computers with two physical hard disks, a PRI DOS partition is not required on the
second physical disk. A PRI DOS partition is required on the first physical disk. (MS-DOS
does not support more than two physical disks.)
NOTE: Type 0Eh is the same partition type as 06h, and 0Fh is the same as 05h.
However, applications should use the (LBA) INT13h extension's read/write functions to
read from or write to the drive instead of the normal Cylinder/Head/SectorPerTrack
Page 43
(CHS) INT13h functions because the hard disk has more than 1024 cylinders and/or
more than 16,711,680 sectors. Note that earlier versions of FDISK recognize these
Windows 95 partitions as NON-DOS partitions.
Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2 (OSR2) and Windows 98 support two new partition
types (0Bh and 0Ch) to support the FAT32 file system.
Some partitions ID’s imply a particular method of disk access. In particular, ID’s 0Ch,
0Eh, 0Fh (the LBA versions of 0Bh, 06h, 05h) go with partition table entries that have
C/H/S = 1023/255/63 and expect access via the extended INT13h functions (AH=4x) of
the BIOS.
MS-DOS can read only partition 01h, 04h, 05h or 06h. With type 05h DOS/Windows will
not use the extended BIOS call, even if it is available.
If a partition table entry of type 42h is present in the legacy partition table, then W2K
ignores the legacy partition table and uses a proprietary partition table and a proprietary
partitioning scheme (LDM or DDM). As the Microsoft Knowledge Base writes: Pure
dynamic disks (those not containing any hard-linked partitions) have only a single
partition table entry (type 42) to define the entire disk. Dynamic disks store their volume
configuration in a database located in a 1-MB private region at the end of each dynamic
disk.
Windows NT 4.0 or earlier will add 80h to the partition type for partitions that are part of
a Fault Tolerant set (mirrored or in a RAID-5 volume). Thus, one gets types 86h, 87h,
8Bh, 8Ch. Windows NT does not recognize the four W95 types 0Bh, 0Ch, 0Eh, 0Fh.
Some partitions are classified as hidden partition. The partition ID of the hidden
partitions is different from their visible counterpart only by the hex number 10h, which is
added on the partition ID of the visible partition. And in order to make a partition visible
only this value 10h needs to be subtracted from the partition ID. The OS/2 boot manager
uses the same scheme for hiding partitions.
FDISK from FreeDOS hides partition 01h, 04-06h, 0Bh, 0Ch, 0Eh, 0Fh by added 8Ch.
Amoeba is a distributed operating system written by Andy Tanenbaum, together with
Frans Kaashoek, Sape Mullender, Robert van Renesse and others since 1981. It runs on
PCs (386 and up), Sun3, Sparc, 68030. It is free for universities for research/teaching
purposes. (See ftp://ftp.cs.vu.nl/pub/amoeba)
BSDI (Berkeley Software Design, Inc.) was founded by former CSRG (UCB Computer
Systems Research Group) members. Their operating system, based on Net/2, was called
BSD/386. After the USL (Unix System Laboratories, Inc./Novell Corp.) vs. BSDI lawsuit,
new releases were based on BSD4.4-Lite. Now they are announcing BSD/OS V2.0.1. This
is an operating for PCs (386 and up). The current partition id is 0Fh.
386BSD is a Unix-like operating system, a port of 4.3BSD Net/2 to the PC done by Bill
Jolitz around 1991. When Jolitz seemed to stop development, an updated version was
called FreeBSD (1992). The outcome of a Novell vs. UCB lawsuit was that Net/2
contained AT&T code, and hence was not free, but that 4.4BSD-Lite was free. After that,
FreeBSD and NetBSD were restructured, and FreeBSD 2.0 and NetBSD 1.0 are based on
4.4BSD-Lite. FreeBSD runs on PCs. See http://www.freebsd.org/FreeBSD.html. For
NetBSD, it changed partition type to A9h.
BootWizard 4.0 and its new version Acronis OS Selector 5.0 use this ID BBh:
1. when hiding partitions with types other than 01h, 04h, 06h, 07h, 0Bh, 0Ch, 0Eh
Page 44
2. when creating a partition without file system
REAL/32 is a continuation of DR Multiuser DOS. REAL/32 supports the standard FAT12,
FAT16 partition types and will shortly support FAT32. For partitions, which have been
marked as secure, we use C0h and D0h as partition markers (C0h < 32 MB, D0h >= 32
MB). REAL/32 is an advanced 32-bit multitasking & multi-user MS-DOS & Windows
compatible operating system. (See http://www.imsltd.com/)
Xenix is an old port of Unix V7. Microsoft Xenix OS was announced August 1980, a
portable and commercial version of the Unix operating system for the Intel 8086, Zilog
Z8000, Motorola M68000 and Digital Equipment PDP-11. Microsoft introduces XENIX 3.0
in April 1983. SCO delivered its first Xenix for 8088/8086 in 1983.
Diagnostics partition ID 12h
Compaq config partition ID 12h is used by Compaq for their configuration utility
partition. It is a FAT-compatible partition (about 6-40 MB) that boots into their utilities,
and can be added to a LILO menu as if it were MS-DOS. ID 12 is used by the Compaq
Contura to denote its hibernation partition.
NCR has used ID 12h MS-DOS partitions for diagnostics and firmware support on their
WorldMark systems since the mid-90s. DataLight's ROM-DOS has replaced MS-DOS on
systems that are more recent. Partition sizes were once 72 MB (MS-DOS) but are now 40
MB (ROM-DOS).
Intel has begun offering ROM-DOS based "Service Partition" support on many OEM
systems. This support initially used ID 98h but has recently changed to ID 12h. Intel
provides his own support for this partition in the form of a System Resource CD. Partition
size has remained constant at 40 MB.
Plan 9 [http://plan9.bell-labs.com/plan9dist/index.html] is an operating system
developed at Bell Labs for much architecture. Originally Plan 9 used an unallocated
portion at the end of the disk. Plan 9 3rd edition uses partitions of type 39h, subdivided
into sub partitions described in the Plan 9 partition table in the second sector of the
partition
When a PowerQuest [http://www.powerquest.com/] product like PartitionMagic or
Drive Image makes changes to the disk, it first changes the type flag to 3Ch so that the
OS won't try to modify it etc. At the end of the process, it is changed back to what it was
at first. So, the only time you should see a 3Ch type flag is if the process was interrupted
somehow (power outage, user reboot etc). If you change it back manually with a
partition table editor or something then most of the time everything is okay.
Table 18: Partition ID description
Value
00h
01h
02h
03h
04h
05h
06h
Name/Description
empty/unused partition table entry
DOS FAT12, max. 15 MB
XENIX root file system
XENIX /usr file system (obsolete)
DOS 3.0+ FAT16 (max. 16-32 MB)
DOS 3.3+ extended partition (max. 8.4 GB)
DOS 3.31+ FAT16 (Large File System, BigDOS, over 32 MB, max. 2 GB)
Partitions, or at least the FAT16 file systems created on them, are at most 2
GB for DOS and Windows 95/98 (at most 65,536 clusters, each at most 32
KB). Windows NT can create up to 4 GB FAT16 file systems (using 64 KB
Page 45
Value
07h
08h
09h
0Ah
0Bh
0Ch
0Dh
0Eh
0Fh
10h
11h
12h
13h
14h
15h
16h
17h
18h
Page 46
Name/Description
clusters), but these cause problems for DOS and Windows 95/98. Note that
VFAT is 16-bit FAT with long filenames; FAT32 is a different file system.
1. Windows NT NTFS
It is rumored that the Windows NT boot partition must be primary, and within
the first 2 GB of the disk.
2. OS/2 HPFS
3. Advanced Unix
4. QNX 2.x pre-1988
(see partition boot record; could be any of the above or others)
1. OS/2 (v1.0-1.3 only)
2. AIX bootable partition
3. SplitDrive
4. Commodore DOS
5. QNX 1.x and 2.x ("qny") (see QNX Partitions)
[http://www.qnx.com/literature/qnx_sysarch/fsys.html#RAWVOLUMES]
6. DELL partition spanning multiple drives
1. AIX data partition
2. Coherent file system
(UNIX-type OS for 286/386/486 from 1980-1995)
3. QNX 1.x and 2.x ("qnz")
1. OS/2 Boot Manager
2. Coherent swap partition
3. OPUS (Open Parallel Unisys Server)
Windows FAT32, max. 2047 GB (see Partition Types)
[http://support.microsoft.com/support/msdn/sdk/platforms/doc/sdk/
win32/95guide/src/fat32ovr_4.asp]
Windows FAT32 LBA-mapped
Ext.INT 13h equivalent of 0Bh; Extended FAT32-Partition (Windows FAT32
over 8.4 GB, using LBA-mode INT 13h extensions)
FAT16 Windows (?)
Windows DOS FAT16 LBA-mapped
logical-block-addressable VFAT (same as 06h but using LBA-mode INT 13h)
Extended Fat16-Partition
Windows Extended partition LBA-mapped
logical-block-addressable VFAT (same as 05h but using LBA-mode INT 13h);
type 0Fh is used instead of 05h if extended partition exceed 1024 cylinders
(Windows 95B/98);
Primary FAT16-Partition (Windows 95)
Windows 95 uses 0Eh and 0Fh as the extended-INT13h equivalents of 06h
and 05h.
OPUS
OS/2 Boot Manager hidden FAT12 DOS partition
1. Compaq Diagnostics/hibernation FAT partition
2. Intel ROM-DOS Service Partition
3. EISA partition
Reliable Systems FTFS
1. (resulted from using Novell DOS 7.0 FDISK to delete Linux Native part)
2. OS/2 Boot Manager hidden FAT16 DOS partition up to 32 MB
Extended partition hidden
OS/2 Boot Manager hidden over 32 MB FAT16 DOS partition
1. OS/2 Boot Manager hidden HPFS partition
2. Windows NTFS hidden
AST Windows swap file (Zero-Volt Suspend/SmartSleep partition)
size is 2 MB+amount of memory
Value
19h
1Bh
1Ch
1Eh
20h
21h
22h
23h
24h
26h
31h
32h
33h
34h
35h
36h
38h
39h
3Ah
3Bh
3Ch
3Dh
40h
41h
42h
43h
44h
45h
Name/Description
[http://www.ast.com/]
Willowtech Photon coS
Windows FAT32 partition hidden
Windows FAT32 partition LBA-mapped hidden
(using LBA-mode INT 13h extensions)
Windows FAT16 partition hidden (LBA VFAT)
Willowsoft Overture File System (OFS1)
1. officially listed as reserved
(HP Volume Expansion, SpeedStor variant)
2. FSo2 (Oxygen File System)
Oxygen Extended Partition Table
officially listed as reserved
NEC MS-DOS 3.x
officially listed as reserved
officially listed as reserved
NOS (Alien Internet Services in Melbourne Australia)
officially listed as reserved
officially listed as reserved
JFS on OS/2 or eComStation
(non-bootable file system)
officially listed as reserved
Theos version 3.2 (2 GB)
1. Theos version 4 spanned partition
2. Plan 9 from Bell Labs
Theos version 4 (4 GB)
[http://www.theos-software.com/]
Theos version 4 extended partition
PowerQuest PartitionMagic/DriveImage recovery partition
Hidden NetWare
VENIX 80286
A very old Unix-like operating system for PCs.
1. Personal RISC Boot
2. PowerPC Reference Platform Boot
3. Linux/MINIX (sharing disk with DRDOS)
Very old FAQ has recommended using 41h etc. instead of 81h. etc on a disk
shared with DRDOS because DRDOS allegedly disregards the high order bit of
the partition type.
1. Windows 2000 dynamic extended partition marker (pure dynamic disks)
2. Linux swap (sharing disk with DRDOS)
3. SFS (Secure File System) for DOS
SFS is an encrypted file system driver for DOS on 386+ PCs, written by Peter
Gutmann.
Linux native (sharing disk with DRDOS)
GoBack partition
GoBack is a utility that records changes made to the disk, allowing you to
view or go back to some earlier state. It takes over disk I/O like a Disk
Manager would, and stores its logs in its own partition.
[http://www.goback.com/]
1. Boot-US boot manager
Occupies a single cylinder below 8 GB.
This partition does not contain file system only boot manager.
[http://www.boot-us.com/]
2. Priam
3. EUMEL/Ergos L3 Elan
(Elan was the programming language used.)
Page 47
Value
46h
47h
48h
49h
4Ah
4Ch
4Dh
4Eh
4Fh
50h
51h
52h
53h
54h
55h
56h
57h
5Ch
61h
63h
Page 48
Name/Description
[http://os.inf.tu-dresden.de/L4/l3elan.html]
EUMEL/Ergos L3 Elan
EUMEL/Ergos L3 Elan
EUMEL/Ergos L3 Elan
Phoenix Protected Area (PPA)
1. AdaOS Aquila primary
2. ALFS/THIN lightweight file system for DOS
(Mark Aitchison)
Oberon
This partition type (decimal 76) is used for the Aos file system. Type 4Fh is
used for the Nat file system. One may have several partitions of this type.
(see http://www.oberon.ethz.ch/betadocu.html#PM)
QNX 4.x
QNX 4.x 2nd part
1. QNX 4.x 3rd part
QNX is a POSIX-certified, microkernel, distributed, fault-tolerant OS for the
386 and up, including support for the 386EX in embedded applications. ID
07h is outdated - QNX2 used 07h, QNX4.x uses 4Dh, and optionally 4Eh and
4Fh for additional QNX partitions on a single drive.
(see http://www.qnx.com/, ftp://ftp.qnx.com/, QNX Partitions, Neutrino file
systems)
2. Oberon boot/data partition
[http://www.oberon.ethz.ch/native/]
1. OnTrack Disk Manager (older versions), read-only partition
Disk Manager is program from OnTrack to access ATA disks larger than 504
MB under DOS. Linux kernel version older than 1.3.14 cannot be used
together with DM.
[http://www.ontrack.com/]
2. Lynx RTOS
[http://www.lynuxworks.com/]
3. Native Oberon (alt)
1. OnTrack Disk Manager (DM6 Aux1), read/write partition
2. Novell52
1. CP/M
2. Microport System V/386
OnTrack Disk Manager 6.0 Aux3, write-only partition?
OnTrack Disk Manager 6.0 DDO (Dynamic Drive Overlay)
StorageSoft EZ-BIOS - EZ-Drive, Maxtor, MaxBlast, and DriveGuide
(see also INT 13h/AH=FFh "EZ-Drive")
EZ-Drive is another disk manager (MicroHouse, 1992). StorageSoft is a
new mark for EZDrive and DrivePro.
[http://www.storagesoft.com/]
Linux kernel version older than 1.3.29 cannot be used with EZD.
1. GoldenBow VFeature Volume (Disk Manager type)
This is non-standard DOS volume.
2. StorageSoft DM converted to EZ-BIOS
1. StorageSoft DrivePro
2. Netware VNDI Partition
Priam EDISK (Disk Manager type)
SpeedStor (Disk Manager type)
1. Unix System V/386, 386/ix (SCO, ISC Unix, UnixWare…)
A Unixware 7.1 partition must start below the 4GB limit. (If the
/stand/stage3.blm is located past this limit, booting will fail with "FATAL BOOT
ERROR: Can't load stage3".)
2. Mach, MtXinu BSD 4.3 on Mach
Value
64h
65h
66h
67h
68h
69h
70h
71h
73h
74h
75h
76h
77h
78h
7Eh
80h
81h
82h
83h
84h
85h
86h
87h
8Ah
8Bh
8Ch
8Dh
8Eh
90h
91h
92h
93h
94h
95h
97h
98h
Name/Description
3. GNU HURD
1. Novell Netware 286/2.xx
2. PC-ARMOUR protected partition by Dr. A. Solomon
3. SpeedStore
Novell Netware 386/3.xx/4.xx
Novell Netware SMS Partition
SMS (Storage Management Services)
Novell/Wolf Mountain
Novell
Novell Netware 5+, Novell Netware NSS Partition
NSS (Novell Storage Services)
DiskSecure Multi-Boot
officially listed as reserved
officially listed as reserved
1. officially listed as reserved
2. Scramdisk partition (disk encryption software)
IBM PC/IX
officially listed as reserved
1. M2FS/M2CS partition
2. Novell VNDI Partition
XOSL Boot loader file system
F.I.X.
Minix v1.1 - 1.4a
Minix is a Unix-like operating system for PC (8086 and up).
(see ftp://ftp.cs.vu.nl/pub/minix)
1. Minix v1.4b+
2. Linux (early version)
3. Mitac Advanced Disk Manager
1. Linux Swap partition
2. Prime
3. Solaris x86
Linux native file system (usually ext2fs/xiafs)
1. Hibernation partition (Microsoft APM 1.1f, MKS2D utility)
2. OS/2-renumbered type 04h partition (related to hiding DOS C: drive)
Linux EXT (extended) partition
1. Windows NT Legacy Fault Tolerant or volume/stripe set FAT16 volume
2. Old Linux RAID partition super block
1. HPFS Fault-Tolerant mirrored partition
2. Windows NT Legacy Fault Tolerant or volume/stripe set NTFS volume
Linux Kernel Partition (used by AiR-BOOT)
Windows NT Legacy Fault Tolerant FAT32 volume
Windows NT Legacy Fault Tolerant FAT32 volume using BIOS ext. INT 13h
FreeDOS FDISK hidden Primary DOS FAT12 partition
Linux Logical Volume Manager (LVM) partition
(see http://linux.msede.com/lvm)
FreeDOS FDISK hidden Primary DOS FAT16 partition
FreeDOS FDISK hidden DOS extended partition
FreeDOS FDISK hidden Primary DOS large FAT16 partition
1. Hidden Linux native partition
2. Amoeba file system
Amoeba bad block table (BBT)
MIT EXOPC native partitions
[http://www.pdos.lcs.mit.edu/exo/]
FreeDOS FDISK hidden Primary DOS FAT32 partition
1. FreeDOS FDISK hidden Primary DOS FAT32 partition (LBA)
Page 49
Value
99h
9Ah
9Bh
9Fh
A0h
A1h
A3h
A4h
A5h
A6h
A7h
A8h
A9h
AAh
ABh
AEh
AFh
B0h
B1h
Page 50
Name/Description
2. Datalight ROM-DOS Super Boot
[http://www.datalight.com/rom-dos-v.htm]
3. Intel ROM-DOS Service Partition
Mylex DCE376 EISA SCSI logical drive beyond the 1024th cylinder
(like DOS extended partition)
FreeDOS FDISK hidden Primary DOS FAT16 partition (LBA)
FreeDOS FDISK hidden DOS extended partition (LBA)
BSD/OS [http://www.bsdi.com/]
Laptop hibernation partition
Reported for various laptops like IBM ThinkPad, Phoenix Note BIOS, Toshiba
under names like zero-volt suspend partition, suspend-to-disk partition, saveto-disk partition, power-management partition, and hibernation partition.
Usually at the start or end of the disk area. (This is also the number used by
Sony on the VAIO. Recent VAIOs can also hibernate to a file in the file
system, the choice being made from the BIOS setup screen.)
Phoenix Note BIOS Power Management "Save-to-Disk" partition
1. officially listed as reserved
2. Laptop hibernation partition
Reportedly used as "Save-to-Disk" partition on a NEC 6000H notebook. Types
A0h and A1h are used on systems with Phoenix BIOS; the Phoenix PHDISK
utility is used with these.
3. HP Volume Expansion (SpeedStor variant)
According to PowerQuest ID’s 21h, A1h, A3h, A4h, A6h, B1h, B3h, B4h, B6h
are for HP Volume Expansion (SpeedStor variant).
1. officially listed as reserved
2. HP Volume Expansion (SpeedStor variant)
1. officially listed as reserved
2. HP Volume Expansion (SpeedStor variant)
BSD/386, 386BSD, NetBSD, FreeBSD
OpenBSD [http://www.openbsd.org/]
NextStep [http://www.next.com/]
Based on Mach 2.6 and features of Mach 3.0, is a true object-oriented
operating system and user environment.
Mac OS-X
Apple's OS-X uses this type for its file system partition (a UFS file system, in
NeXT flavor, only differing from the BSD formats in the first 8 KB). See also
type ABh.
NetBSD [http://www.netbsd.org/]
NetBSD is one of the children of BSD. It runs on PCs and a variety of other
hardware. Since 19-Feb-98, NetBSD uses A9h instead of A5h. It is freely
obtainable - see http://www.netbsd.org/Sites/net.html.
Olivetti FAT 12 1.44Mb Service Partition
Contains a bare DOS 6.22 and a utility to exchange types 06h and AAh in the
partition table.
1. MAC OS-X boot partition
2. GO! partition
ShagOS file system
ShagOS swap partition
BootStar Dummy
The boot manager BootStar manages his own partition table, with up to 15
primary partitions. It fills unused entries in the MBR with BootStar Dummy
values. If you use this, do not use a disk manager, do not put LILO in the
MBR and do not use fdisk.
[http://www.star-tools.com/english/]
1. officially listed as reserved
Value
B3h
B4h
B6h
B7h
B8h
BBh
BEh
C0h
C1h
C2h
C3h
C4h
C5h
C6h
C7h
C8h
C9h
CAh
CBh
CCh
CDh
CEh
D0h
D1h
D4h
D5h
D6h
D8h
DAh
DBh
Name/Description
2. HP Volume Expansion (SpeedStor variant)
1. officially listed as reserved
2. HP Volume Expansion (SpeedStor variant)
1. officially listed as reserved
2. HP Volume Expansion (SpeedStor variant)
1. officially listed as reserved
2. HP Volume Expansion (SpeedStor variant)
3. Windows NT mirror set (master), FAT16 file system
1. Windows NT mirror set (master), NTFS file system
2. BSDI BSD/386 file system (secondarily swap)
BSDI BSD/386 swap partition (secondarily file system)
Boot Wizard hidden
Solaris 8 boot partition
1. DR-DOS/Novell DOS secured partition
2. Novell NTFT Partition
3. CTOS (Convergent Technologies OS)
4. REAL/32 (DR Multiuser DOS) secure small partition up to 32 MB
DR DOS 6.0 LOGIN.EXE-secured FAT12 partition
1. Linux hidden
2. Reserved for DR-DOS 7+
According to PowerQuest Id’s C2h, C3h, C8h, C9h, CAh, CDh are reserved
for DR-DOS 7+.
Linux swap hidden
DR-DOS 6.0 LOGIN.EXE-secured FAT16 partition up to 32 MB
DR-DOS/secured (extended)
1. Windows NT FAT16 volume/stripe set (corrupted)
2. Windows NT FAT16 mirror set (slave)
3. DR-DOS 6.0 LOGIN.EXE-secured Huge FAT16 partition over 32 MB
DR-DOS 6.0 will add C0h to the partition type for a LOGIN.EXE-secured
partition (so that people cannot avoid the password check by booting from an
MS-DOS floppy). Otherwise, it seems that the types C1h, C4h, C5h, C6h and
D1h, D4h, D5h, D6h are used precisely like 01h, 04h, 05h, and 06h.
1. Windows NT NTFS volume/stripe set (corrupted)
2. Windows NT NTFS mirror set (slave)
3. Syrinx Boot
Reserved for DR-DOS 7+
Reserved for DR-DOS 7+
Reserved for DR-DOS 7+
Reserved for DR-DOS/OpenDOS secured FAT32
Reserved for DR-DOS secured FAT32 (LBA)
1. CTOS Memdump ?
2. Reserved for DR-DOS 7+
Reserved for DR-DOS secured FAT16 (LBA)
REAL/32 (DR Multiuser DOS) secured FAT over 32 MB
Old Multiuser DOS secured FAT12
Old Multiuser DOS secured FAT16 (< 32M)
Old Multiuser DOS secured extended partition
Old Multiuser DOS secured FAT16 (>= 32M)
CP/M-86
Non-FS Data
1. Concurrent DOS, Digital Research CP/M, Concurrent CP/M
2. CTOS (Convergent Technologies OS - Unisys)
3. KDG Telemetry SCPU boot
KDG Telemetry uses type DBh to store a protected-mode binary image of the
code to be run on an x86-based SCPU (Supervisory CPU) module from the
Page 51
Value
DDh
DEh
DFh
E0h
E1h
E2h
E3h
E4h
E5h
E6h
EBh
EDh
EEh
EFh
F0h
F1h
F2h
F3h
F4h
F5h
F6h
F9h
FAh
Page 52
Name/Description
DT800 range.
[http://www.telemetry.co.uk/]
Hidden CTOS Memdump ?
Dell PowerEdge Server utilities (FAT file system)
DG/UX virtual disk manager partition
STMicroelectronics file system ST AVFS [http://www.st.com/]
SpeedStor FAT12 extended partition (DOS access)
DOS read-only (Florian Painke's XFDISK 1.0.4)
1. DOS read-only
2. Storage Dimensions/SpeedStor
SpeedStor FAT16 extended partition up to 1024 cyl.
1. officially listed as reserved
2. Tandy DOS with logical sectored FAT
officially listed as reserved
BeOS BFS (BFS1) [http://www.be.com/]
Reserved for Matthias Paul's Sprytix
Sprytix is currently a project name for an OS related project of mine, partially
based on DOS and Linux technologies.
Indication that this legacy MBR is followed by an EFI header
Partition with an EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface) file system
MS plans to use EEh and EFh in the future for support of non-legacy BIOS
booting. These types are used to support the Extensible Firmware Interface
specification (EFI); go to developer.intel.com and search for EFI. (For the
types EEh and EFh, see Tables 16-6 and 16-7 of the EFI specification,
EFISpec_091.pdf.)
Linux/PA-RISC boot loader
The F0h partition will be located in the first 2GB of a drive and used to store
the Linux/PA-RISC boot loader and boot command line, optionally including
a kernel and ramdisk.
[http://www.parisc-linux.org/]
Storage Dimensions/SpeedStor
DOS 3.3+ secondary partition
(Unisys DOS with logical sectored FAT)
1. officially listed as reserved
2. Storage Dimensions/SpeedStor
1. SpeedStor large partition
2. Prologue single-volume partition
Prologue multi-volume partition
The type F4h partition contains one volume, and is not used anymore. The
type F5h partition contains 1 to 10 volumes (called MD0 to MD9). It supports
one or more systems (Prologue 3, 4, 5, Twin Server). Each volume can have
as file system the NGF file system or TwinFS file system. NGF (old): volume
size at most 512 MB, at most 895 files per directory, at most 256 directories
per volume. TwinFS (new): volume size up to 4 GB. No limit in number of
files and directories.
[http://www.prologue-software.com/]
1. officially listed as reserved
2. Storage Dimensions/SpeedStor
pCache [http://www.alcpress.com/articles/pcache.html]
We propose using the F9h partition type as a pCache partition, which is our
name for an "ext2/ext3 persistent cache partition“.
Bochs
MandrakeSoft's Bochs x86 emulator (similar to VMWare) uses FAh as a
partition identifier.
[http://bochs.sourceforge.net/]
Value
FBh
FCh
FDh
FEh
FFh
Name/Description
VMware File System partition
VMware Swap partition
Linux raid partition with auto detect using persistent superblock
1. Windows NT Disk Administrator hidden partition
Windows NT Disk Administrator marks hidden partitions (i.e. present but not
to be accessed) as type FEh. A primary partition of this type is also used by
IBM to hold an image of the "Reference Diskettes" on many of their machines,
particularly newer PS/2 systems (at a rough guess, anything built after about
1994). This clash can cause major confusion and grief if running NT on IBM
kit. When this Reference Partition is activated, it changes its type into 1
(FAT12) and hides all other partitions by adding 10h to the type.
2. SpeedStor over 1024 cyl.
3. LANstep
4. IBM PS/2 IML (Initial Microcode Load) partition (image of the Reference
Diskettes) (located at the end of disk)
5. Linux LVM (Logical Volume Manager) partition (old)
This has been in use since the early LVM days back in 1997, and has now
(Sept. 1999) been renamed 8Eh.
Xenix bad block table (BBT)
Page 53
G. Glossary
G.1 Buses
ISA (Industry Standard Architecture)
8- or 16-bits bus
EISA (Extended ISA)
32-bits bus, compatible with ISA slots
MCA (Micro-Channel Architecture)
16- or 32-bits bus, IBM, from 1987
VL-Bus (VESA Local Bus)
32-bits bus, bus mastering, uses ISA slots + special connector
PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect)
PCI is the not terminated bus, the signal relay on signal reflections to attain there final
value.
32-bits bus, PCI is so-called „root technology" (AGP, CardBus, SmallPCI, PCI-X); bus
mastering, uses PCI slots
1. PCI: the original specification 'Peripheral Component Interface'
2. PCI-X (PCI extended): the Next Generation of Backward-Compatible PCI
PCI-X is backward compatible with existing PCI cards. It improves upon the speed of PCI
from 133 MBps to as much as 1 GBps. PCI-X was designed jointly by IBM, HP and
Compaq to increase performance of high bandwidth devices, such as Gigabit Ethernet
and Fibre Channel, and processors that are part of a cluster.
To achieve the very high frequencies of PCI-X 2.0, lower voltage signal swings were
required. As a result, PCI-X 266 and PCI-X 533 require new 1.5V signaling. However, to
maintain compatibility with previous-generations of 3.3V PCI technologies, the I/O
buffers have been carefully designed to support both signal levels.
The PCI-X 2.0 specification includes ECC (Error Correcting Codes) to provide additional
fault tolerance.
3. PCI Express: is a third-generation, high-performance I/O bus used to interconnect
peripheral devices in computing and communication platforms. The PCI Express
architecture retains much of the PCI software interface, including the configuration and
device driver interfaces, to ease the transition from PCI to PCI Express. However, unlike
its predecessor, which is a parallel multi-drop bus, PCI Express is a serial point-to-point
bus. The already high PCI Express performance can be scaled up by increasing the data
path width and, later, by increasing the clock frequency as well. Currently, the aggregate
data transfer rates range from 0.5 GB/s to 16 GB/s.
While PCI Express will mainly be around in desktop systems, PCI-X will remain the
prevailing high-performance interface for high-end workstations and server systems.
Finally, PCI-X 1066 will be able to provide up to 8.5 GB/s. However, PCI Express is
intended to replace AGP.
PCI Express is also called 3GIO (Third Generation I/O) and occasionally Arapahoe.
Page 54
Table 19: Compare of PCI buses
Standard
PCI 2.3
Bus width
32 bit
PCI 64
64 bit
PCI-X 1.0
64 bit
PCI-X 2.0 (DDR)
PCI-X 2.0 (QDR)
PCI Express
PCI Express
PCI Express
PCI Express
PCI Express
PCI Express
64 bit
64 bit
1 line, 8 bits
2 lines, 8 bits
4 lines, 8 bits
8 lines, 8 bits
16 lines, 8 bits
32 lines, 8 bits
Clock
33 MHz
66 MHz
33 MHz
66 MHz
66 MHz
100 MHz
133 MHz
133 MHz
133 MHz
2.5 GHz
2.5 GHz
2.5 GHz
2.5 GHz
2.5 GHz
2.5 GHz
Transfer
133 MB/s
266 MB/s
266 MB/s
533 MB/s
533 MB/s
800 MB/s
1066 MB/s
2132 MB/s
4264 MB/s
512 MB/s
1 GB/s (duplex)
2 GB/s (duplex)
4 GB/s (duplex)
8 GB/s (duplex)
16 GB/s (duplex)
AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) – AGP is a PCI-like bus interface targeted for highperformance 3d graphic. AGP supports only memory read/write operation and singlemaster single-slave one-to-one only. The AGP uses both rising and falling edge of the 66
MHz clock and produces 66 MHz x 4 byte x 2 = 528 MB/s data transfer rate.
PCMCIA (PC card) – The Personal Computer Memory Card International Association
(PCMCIA) has created a standard for small form factor peripherals called PC Cards.
Standardizes packages for memory and input/output (modems, LAN cards, etc.) for
computers, laptops, palmtops, etc. For each there is a specific set for each bus to use.
As a bus it is the network/or circuitry's placement in which all the devices are attached to
it and all signals pass through each device, but only the targeted device will receive and
recognize the signal intended for it.
CardBus – The 32-bit version of the PCMCIA PC Card standard. In addition to supporting
a wider bus (32 bits instead of 16 bits), CardBus also supports bus mastering and
operation speeds up to 33 MHz.
USB (Universal Serial Bus) – A serial bus standard promoted by Intel for
communication between an IBM PC and external peripherals over an inexpensive cable
using biserial (in two rows or series) transmission. USB works at 12 Mbps with specific
cost consideration for low cost peripherals. It supports up to 127 devices and both
isochronous and asynchronous data transfers. Cables can be up to 5 meters long and it
includes built-in power distribution for low power devices. It supports daisy chaining
through a tiered star multidrop topology.
IEEE 1394 – serial bus. IEEE 1394, formerly FireWire. A 1995 Macintosh/IBM PC serial
bus interface standard offering high-speed communications and isochronous real-time
data services.
1394 can transfer data between a computer and its peripherals at 100, 200, or 400
Mbps, with a planed increase to 2 Gbps. Cable length is limited to 4.5 m but up to 16
cables can be daisy-chained yielding a total length of 72 m.
It cans daisy chain together up to 63 peripherals in a tree-like structure (as opposed to
SCSI's linear structure). It allows peer-to-peer device communication, such as
communication between a scanner and a printer, to take place without using system
memory or the CPU. It is designed to support plug-and-play and hot swapping. Its 6-wire
cable is not only more convenient than the SCSI cables but can supply up to 60 watts of
power, allowing low-consumption devices to operate without a separate power cord.
Page 55
Table 20: Compare of buses
Bus
AGP
Fire
Wire
1x
2x
4x
8x
a
b
USB
1.1
2.0
Bluetooth
802.11
PCI
a
b
Speed
[Mbps]
Bandwidth
Bits
Hz
2112
4224
8000
16000
100,
200,
400
800,
1600,
3200
1.5,12
180
1
(real 720K)
54
11
(real 7)
1060
32
64
Type
Topology
66M
parallel
bus
66M
serial
tree
serial
tree
3-5/30
wireless
0.1-10/
100
1-33.3
50/115
(in-out)
480
M
2.4G
Power
[W]
1.5
0.25
100m
5G
2.4G
32/64
33/
66M
wireless
parallel
Length
device/
total
[m]
bus
G.2 Basic terms
BIOS (Basic Input/Output Services)
CMOS (Complimentary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor)
PIO (Programmed Input Output)
DMA (Direct Memory Access)
(known like bus master access)
ST506 – first standard for hard disk introduced from Seagate in 1980; need physical
installation, setup configuration in CMOS, low-level and high-level formatting.
ESDI (Enhanced Small Device Interface)
This type was introduced in 1983. He has integrated controller in device drive.
Configuration is similar like at ST506.
IORDY (Input Output Ready) – IORDY is a bus-signal used for high-speed transfer
between drive-cache and system. Since local-bus adapters can often transfer data faster
then a drive can handle, the IORDY signal has been implemented. This signal can be
asserted by the drive to set wait-cycles on the bus.
As the drive will report the system when it is ready to receive or send a data-word, the
drive can process data at its own speed. On drives that do not support IORDY the worstcase scenario will determine the minimum transfer cycle (max. transfer per second).
PIO modes 3 and 4 use IORDY, so it's not clear what the average transfer speed will be,
since the drive can always assert the IORDY signal to slow down the total transfer.
EHCI (Enhanced Host Controller Interface)
Page 56
interface for host controller USB rev. 2.0
OHCI (Open Host Controller Interface)
OHCI for USB rel. 1.0a, 1996 – interface USB
1394 OHCI rel. 1.1, 2000 - interface IEEE 1394 to PC host
RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks)
A feature of a controller designed to protect against hard drive failure or improve storage
subsystem performance or both by making multiple hard drives act as a single hard
drive.
Page 57
Z. References
[1] ATA/ATAPI/SATA/SATAPI standards
[http://www.t13.org/]
[2] SCSI Storage Interfaces
[http://www.t10.org/]
[3] BIOS Enhanced Disk Drive Services (EDD) T13/1484D
[4] Standard BIOS 32-bit Service Directory Proposal
Revision 0.4, 18.06.1993
Phoenix Technologies Ltd., PC Division, Desktop Product Line
[5] Compaq/Phoenix/Intel: Plug and Play BIOS Specification
v1.0A 05.05.1994
[6] Compaq/Phoenix/Intel:
EXTENDED SYSTEM CONFIGURATION DATA SPECIFICATION (ESCD)
v1.02A 31.05.1994, Part Number 485547-001
[7] Compaq/Phoenix/Intel: BIOS Boot Specification (BBS)
v1.01 11.01.1996
[8] International System of Units (SI)
[http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/index.html]
[9] Enhanced S.M.A.R.T. - Get S.M.A.R.T. for Reliability, 07/1999
[http://www.seagate.com/docs/pdf/whitepaper/enhanced_smart.pdf]
[10] Enhanced Host Controller Interface (EHCI) specification rev. 1.0
[http://www.intel.com/technology/usb/download/ehci-r10.pdf]
[11] Partition types: List of partition identifiers for PCs
[http://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/linux/partitions/partition_types-1.html]
[12] ATA/ATAPI Host Adapters Standard (ATA-Adapter)
T13/1510D rev.1.0 17.01.2003
[http://www.t13.org/]
[13] S.M.A.R.T. Applications Guide for the ATA Interface SFF-8055i rev.1.2
26.04.1996
[14] Seagate Advanced SCSI Architecture II Technology Paper [HTML]
[15] Hale Landis: ATA-ATAPI
[http://www.ata-atapi.com/]
[16] G-Force Protection
[http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/disc/gf_protect.html]
[17] SMART Attribute Annex
[http://www.t13.org/docs2005/e05148r0-ACS-SMARTAttributesAnnex.pdf]
Page 58
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