Hard Disk Predelay Allows disk predelays from 3 to 30 seconds to be set.
Typically, this option is disabled.IDE Configuration Submenus
The IDE Configuration menu contains submenus for configuring the Primary and Slave
IDE drives. The options found on these submenus are as follows:
Type Sets the IDE device types installed.
Maximum Capacity Sets the capacity of the hard disk.
Multisector Transfers Controls the sectors per block size for hard disk data
transfers to system memory.
LBA (Logical Block Addressing) Mode Control Enables the use of LBA
mode for hard disk drives larger than 528MB.
Transfer Mode Designates the mode to be used when moving data from one
disk to another.Security and Passwords
The Advanced Features menu also includes the Security menu. This menu is used to set
two passwords:
User password The user password controls the boot process of the PC. If the
user password has been set, the PC will not boot until the proper password is
entered and verified.
Supervisor password The purpose of the supervisor password is to protect the
BIOS configuration settings. After the supervisor password is set, if you access
the setup program the configuration settings require the correct password. The
system will boot, provided the user password is provided or not set, but access
to the CMOS data is prohibited without the supervisor password.There is one very strict rule that must be observed if either, or both, of these two pass-
words is set: you absolutely must remember the passwords. If you ever forget the user
password, you will not be able to boot the system. Forgetting the supervisor password
restricts you from the BIOS setup.
If you forget both passwords, your only recourse is to open the computer and reset
the default values with the password-clear jumper (see Figure 6-6), which is located on
the motherboard. On most motherboards, this jumper is near either the CMOS battery or
the BIOS ROM chip. Another option is to clear all of the CMOS settings, including ad-
vancedsettingsandthepasswords,byremovingtheCMOSbatteryforafewseconds(see
Figure 6-7).
Your best bet is to keep a written copy of the system setup in a safe place and update it
as changes are made. I don’t recommend writing down passwords, but if you have a very
Chapter 6: The BIOS and the Boot Process^125