Dell PowerEdge 1400SC User Manual

Page 44

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3-10

User’s Guide



Reset SCSI Bus at IC Initialization — Enables the SCSI bus to be reset when
the controller is initialized. The default is Enabled.



Display <Ctrl><a> Message During BIOS Initialization — Determines whether
the

Press <CTRL><A> for SCSISelect (TM) Utility!

message appears

on your screen during system start-up. The default setting is Enabled. If this
setting is disabled, you can still run the SCSISelect utility by pressing <Ctrl><a>
after the host adapter BIOS banner appears.



Extended BIOS Translation For DOS Drives > 1 GB — Determines whether
extended translation is available for SCSI hard-disk drives with capacities greater
than 1 gigabyte (GB). The default setting is Enabled.

          

  !   "      

 

The standard translation scheme for SCSI host adapters provides a maximum
accessible capacity of 1 GB. To support hard-disk drives larger than 1 GB, the
78xx series host adapters include an extended translation scheme that supports
hard-disk drives as large as 8 GB, with a maximum partition size of 2 GB under
the DOS operating system.

It is not necessary to enable the Extended BIOS Translation setting if you are
using another operating system, such as Novell NetWare.

When you partition a hard-disk drive larger than 1 GB, use the DOS fdisk utility as
you normally would. Because the cylinder size increases to 8 MB under extended
translation, the partition size you choose must be a multiple of 8 MB. If you
request a size that is not a multiple of 8 MB, fdisk rounds up to the nearest
whole multiple of 8 MB.



Silent/Verbose Mode — Displays the host adapter information during system
start-up. The default is Verbose.



Host Adapter BIOS — Enables or disables the host adapter BIOS. The default
setting is Enabled.

NOTE: Several SCSISelect options are not valid unless the host adapter BIOS is
enabled.

If you are booting from a SCSI hard-disk drive connected to the host adapter, the
BIOS must be enabled. You should disable the host adapter BIOS if the peripher-
als on the SCSI bus (for example, CD-ROM drives) are all controlled by device
drivers and do not need the BIOS.



Domain Validation — Instructs the host adapter not to accept a negotiated
speed until a validation test is successfully performed. After determining the
speed that a target device is capable of, the host adapter sends a Write Buffer
command to the target device. The data transfer occurs at the full speed initially.
The initiator reads and tests the data, and identifies any parity or cyclic
redundancy check (CRC) errors. If the test fails, the initiator lowers its speed
and repeats the test. In this manner, a compatible speed will be found and locked
in before user data transfers begin. The default is Enabled.

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