Glossary
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Glossary
ATA
Advanced Technology Attachment. ATA (also known as Integrated Drive Electronics,
or IDE) is a popular internal interface standard for computer peripherals
BIOS
Basic Input/Output System. A low-level program that controls a computer's basic
functions.
Boot
To start or restart your computer; loading the operating system.
Boot Drive
The drive from which the operating system loads to start up your computer.
Cable Select (CS)
Used in place of setting master/slave jumpers to identify hard drives in a dual-drive
configuration. On systems that support cable select, both hard drives on a single ATA
channel can be set to the cable select jumper setting, and the system will automatically
configure the hard drives as master and slave based on the physical position of the hard
drives on the cable. This eliminates the need for unique jumper configurations
between the master and slave hard drives.
Capacity
The amount of information, measured in bytes, that can be stored on a hard drive.
Also known as Storage Capacity.
CMOS Setup
Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor. A program accessible at startup in
Windows-compatible PCs that allows you to configure your motherboard and device
settings.
EIDE
Enhanced Integrated Drive Electronics. Improves the ATA/IDE standard interface by
overcoming device support and capacity limitations, improving data transfer rates, and
allowing connection of CD-ROM and other devices.
FDISK
A software utility used to partition a hard drive. This utility is included with DOS,
Windows 95, 98, and ME operating systems.
