//flex table opened by JP
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BFlurie
12-05-2000, 09:45 PM
Ok, guys. In the BIOS setup, when I hit "Auto Detect" HDs after the CMOS has been cleared, the IDE drives show up. But "32-bit mode" shows OFF. I've always just tabbed to that & changed to ON. The main HD is partitioned as FAT16.
This happened again, so out of curiousity I left it OFF. When Windoz comes up, nothing is changed (no problems), benchmarks are the same. So, question is, what exactly is this setting? I've read a bit, but found nothing definitive.
BFlurie
12-06-2000, 08:46 AM
^bumpty-bump^
Peter M
12-06-2000, 11:26 AM
Not much, really. As long as BIOS is doing PIO mode access to a drive, it can do so by pumping 16-bit data, or if the IDE controller allows that, 32-bit data.

For BIOSes that run the IDE controller in busmaster mode, and later when the operating system uses its own drivers, it's no longer relevant.

Regards, Peter