Most modern BIOS's allow automatic detection of hard disk drive parameters. These are some of the primary CMOS settings that apply to hard drives (and CD/DVD-ROM drives, etc.). This setting can be individually configured for the primary master and primary slave device and the secondary master and secondary slave device.
S.M.A.R.T. for Hard Disks
Some BIOS's have a specific BIOS setting to enable monitoring of hard disks that support the SMART (Self-Monitoring And Reporting Technology) feature, which can allow the hard disk to report impending failures of the hard disk, under some circumstances. The default for this setting is “Disabled”.
Common S.M.A.R.T Settings are as follows:
1. Type
This setting determines the "type" of the IDE device.
* Auto: This setting activates dynamic IDE auto detection for the device. The device will be auto detected by the BIOS each time the system boots.
* CD-ROM: To tell the BIOS that you are using a CD-ROM in that IDE device position.
* Disabled/None: Use this option to tell the BIOS that there is no drive at all in this IDE device position.
2. Size
Determines the capacity of the drive.
3. CHS values
Where 'C' is Cylinder which is the cylindrical surface formed by identical track numbers on vertically stacked discs.
'H' stands for Head. The head is the device which rolls across the platters in a hard disk and either lays down information (in write mode) or reads it (in read mode).
And finally 'S' is Sectors, which are divisions on a hard drive used for storing digital information: a single sector is the smallest contiguous unit of information; multiple sectors make up a track. Not able to get any better image
4. Landing Zone
It specifies the cylinder to which the BIOS should send the heads of the hard disk when the machine is to be turned off. It is here that the heads will “land” after they finish their operation of either reading or writing.
5. Boot Sector Virus protection
This option when enabled gets the computer to make a beep sound each time a write operation is requested on the boot sector of the hard disk.
