Technical Reference Guide
Compaq Deskpro Personal Computers
Third Edition - April 2001
8-7
 
Table 8-3. Setup Utility Functions
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Heading Option  Description 
Storage 
(continued) 
Device 
Configuration 
(continued) 
Translation Mode (IDE disks only) 
Lets you select the translation mode to be used for the 
device. This enables the BIOS to access disks partitioned 
and formatted on other systems and may be necessary for 
users of older versions of Unix (e.g., SCO Unix version 3.2). 
Options are Bit-Shift, LBA Assisted, User, and None. 
CAUTION:  Ordinarily, the translation mode 
selected automatically by the BIOS should not 
be changed. If the selected translation mode is 
not compatible with the translation mode that 
was active when the disk was partitioned and 
formatted, the data on the disk will be 
inaccessible. 
 
Translation Parameters (IDE Disks only) 
Allows you to specify the parameters (logical cylinders, 
heads, and sectors per track) used by the BIOS to translate 
disk I/O requests (from the operating system or an 
application) into terms the hard drive can accept. Logical 
cylinders may not exceed 1024. The number of heads may 
not exceed 256. The number of sectors per track may not 
exceed 63. These fields are only visible and changeable 
when the drive translation mode is set to User. 
 
Multisector Transfers (IDE ATA devices only) 
Specifies how many sectors are transferred per multi-sector 
PIO operation.  Options (subject to device capabilities) are 
Disabled, 8, and 16.  
 
Quiet Drive (available on select drives only) 
Performance - Allows the drive to operate at maximum 
performance. 
Quiet (will not be displayed if not supported by drive)- 
Reduces noise from the drive during operation. When set to 
Quiet, the drive will not operate at maximum performance. 
 
 
Storage Options 
Removable Media Boot 
Enables/disables ability to boot the system from removable 
media. 
Note: After saving changes to Removable Media Boot, the 
computer will restart. Turn the computer off, then on, 
manually. 
 
Removable Media Write 
Enables/disables ability to write data to removable media. 
Note: This feature applies only to legacy diskette, IDE LS-120 
Superdisk, and IDE PD-CD drives. 
 
Primary IDE Controller 
Allows you to enable or disable the primary IDE controller. 
 
Secondary IDE Controller 
Allows you to enable or disable the secondary IDE controller. 
 
Diskette MBR Validation 
Allows you to enable or disable strict validation of the diskette 
Master Boot Record (MBR).   
Note: If you use a bootable diskette image that you know to 
be valid, and it does not boot with Diskette MBR Validation 
enabled, you may need to disable this option in order to use 
the diskette. 
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