It is important to recognize that even though both enhanced CHS and LBA modes involve
the use of translated geometry, this does not mean that it is guaranteed that they will
work the same way. In particular, LBA translation may result in a different set of
geometries than ECHS translation. Similarly, different BIOSes can in theory use different
means of translating. Moving a hard disk that was formatted on one PC to another will usually
work OK, but sometimes may not. The chances of a problem increase as the difference in age
between the two systems increases.
Warning: If you change the
translation mode of your hard disk, you risk permanent loss of all the data on the drive.
Setting the translation mode should normally be done only once, when the disk is set up.
If you later discover that you set up originally using the wrong mode, make sure your data
is backed up before changing the mode. In many cases there will be no problem, but better
safe than sorry. This also applies to removing a dynamic drive
overlay (software translation) from a drive. Only attempt to remove a DDO using the
appropriate utility provided by the drive overlay company for this purpose, and only after
doing a full backup of the drive's contents.
Next: Overcoming BIOS
Disk Size Barriers
