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A P P E N D I X

Hard Disk Drive

Types (Standard,
Extended, and
Phoenix)

BM defined the first 15 hard disk drive types within the

BIOS for the IBM-AT and similar systems in January 1984.
The table was expanded to include the following drive types:
22 types for the PC/AT in June 1985
23 types for the PC/AT in November 1985
24 types for the XT/286 in April 1986
26 types for the PS/2-30 in December 1986
32 types for the PS/2-80 in October 1987
33 types for the PS/2-50Z in April 1988
This information is stored in the CMOS RAM chip during system setup as part of the hard drive configuration and software
handling. It is used in 80286, 80386, and 80486 and higher systems. However, this is a CMOS memory- and ROM BIOSrelated item, not necessarily related to the installed CPU.
Most non-IBM systems have adopted these first 15 drive
types and the subsequent additional drive types from 16
to 32. Compaq and others have defined their own drive
types beyond this.
Some manufacturers or BIOS publishers have even made a
provision for defining your own drive type with individual
parameters in order to suit special situations or the use of
drives not known at the time of BIOS distribution.

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Appendixes

You should verify the drive type for your particular system with the BIOS or system
board manufacturer or if this information is not otherwise available, consult the
hard drive manufacturer.
The drive type is the number that should be keyed in during the setup process of
your system. If this number does not match your drive, you will either not be able
to access the drive or not be able to use all of the space available.
The number of cylinders, heads, and tracks refers to the physical and format characteristics of the drive. The write precompensation (WPC) value refers to a parameter used by the disk controller to allow for different data writing characteristics of
the drive. Some format programs will also ask for a reduced-write-current (RWC)
value. This should be obtained from the disk drive information, if necessary.
The drive capacity is typical of the space available after completing the DOS formatting process. The landing zone/head park track specifies the safe or nondata area
on the disk where the heads automatically rest when the drive is not in use or
where a head parking program will move the head on command. Table E-1 lists
the IBM drive types.

Table E-1
IBM Drive Type Table
Drive
Type
Number

Number
of Tracks

Number
of Heads

Number
of Sectors
Per Track

Write
Precompensation Track

Drive
Size (MB)

Landing
Zone Track
Number

306

17

128

10

305

615

17

300

20

615

615

17

300

32

615

940

17

512

64

940

940

17

512

48

940

615

17

65535

20

615

462

17

256

30

511

733

17

65535

30

733

900

15

17

65535

110

901

10

820

17

65535

20

820

11

855

17

65535

35

855

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Appendix E Hard Disk Drive Types (Standard, Extended, and Phoenix)

Drive
Type
Number

Number
of Tracks

Number
of Heads

Number
of Sectors
Per Track

Write
Precompensation Track

Drive
Size (MB)

Landing
Zone Track
Number

12

855

17

65535

50

855

13

306

17

128

20

319

14

733

17

65535

40

733

15

DO

NOT

USE

16

612

17

20

663

17

977

17

300

40

977

18

977

17

65535

56

977

19

1024

17

512

60

1023

20

733

17

300

30

732

21

733

17

300

42

733

22

733

17

300

30

733

23

306

17

10

336

24

612

17

305

21

663

25

306

17

65535

10

340

26

612

17

65535

21

670

27

698

17

300

41

732

28

976

17

488

41

977

29

306

17

10

340

30

611

17

306

21

663

31

732

17

300

43

732

32

1023

17

65535

43

1023

33

614

25

65535

30

663

Types 3447 are reserved for future allocation by IBM. They are otherwise
unused, often allocated by other manufacturers (as shown in Table E-2), and
not necessarily supported by IBM.
A type 0 indicates no hard disk drive or special BIOS supported drive specifications, usually on the controller.

729

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Appendixes

A write precompensation value of 65535 or 1 equates to none. A value of 0 indicates write precompensation applies to all tracks or cylinders. Any other cylinder
number indicates the cylinder at which write precompensation begins. Table E-2
shows IBM-extended BIOS drive types.

Table E-2
IBM-Extended BIOS Drive Types
Drive
Type
Number

Number
of Tracks

Number
of Heads

Number
of Sectors
Per Track

Write
Precompensation Track

Drive
Size (MB)

Landing
Zone Track
Number

24

925

17

54

925

25

925

17

None

69

925

26

754

17

754

44

754

27

754

11

17

None

69

754

28

699

17

256

41

699

29

823

10

17

None

69

823

30

918

17

918

54

918

31

1024

11

17

None

98

1024

32

1024

15

17

None

133

1024

33

1024

17

1024

43

1024

34

612

17

128

10

612

35

1024

17

None

77

1024

36

1024

17

512

68

1024

37

615

17

128

41

615

38

987

17

987

25

987

39

987

17

987

58

987

40

820

17

820

41

820

41

977

17

977

41

977

42

981

17

981

41

981

43

830

17

512

49

830

44

830

10

17

None

69

830

45

917

15

17

None

115

918

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Appendix E Hard Disk Drive Types (Standard, Extended, and Phoenix)

Later versions of AMI BIOS allow a define your own drive type as Type 47, which
is quite advantageous, considering the variety of drives available. Table E-3 lists
Phoenix BIOS drive types.

Table E-3
Typical Phoenix BIOS Drive Types
Drive
Type
Number

Number
of Tracks

Number
of Heads

Number
of Sectors
Per Track

Write
Precompensation Track

Drive
Size (MB)

Landing
Zone Track
Number

24

DO

NOT

USE

25

615

17

20

615

26

1024

17

35

1024

27

1024

17

44

1024

28

1024

17

70

1024

29

512

17

256

35

512

30

615

17

615

10

615

31

989

17

42

989

32

1020

15

17

130

1020

33

615

26

32

615

34

820

26

65

820

35

1024

17

1024

80

1024

36

1024

17

512

44

1024

37

1024

26

512

68

1024

38

823

10

17

256

70

824

39

615

17

128

21

664

40

615

17

128

42

664

41

917

15

17

120

918

42

1023

15

17

132

1024

43

823

10

17

512

71

823

44

820

17

42

820

45

1024

17

44

1023

46

925

17

71

925
Continued

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Appendixes

Table E-3 (continued)

Drive
Type
Number

Number
of Tracks

Number
of Heads

Number
of Sectors
Per Track

Write
Precompensation Track

Drive
Size (MB)

Landing
Zone Track
Number

47

699

17

256

42

700

48

User

49

User