As hard disk capacity has reached and then exceeded the various hard
disk size barriers, various methods have come about to allow these larger disks to be
used. These solutions include various hardware and software techniques, primarily aimed at
getting around limitations imposed by the system BIOS. This section looks at these in
detail.
It's important to realize that some of these solutions are simpler and more elegant
than others; some are based on fixing the BIOS problem, while others are oriented
more towards working around it. The simpler the solution, in general, the better.
More complex solutions, especially ones involving software drivers, tend to have a higher
incidence of incompatibilities and other issues.
Note: One solution to
overcoming BIOS size barriers that I don't discuss in detail here is to upgrade an older
motherboard to a new one. Needless to say, this is not a cheap or simple solution, and not
one that I would generally recommend solely to get around a size barrier problem. Still,
it's an option I wanted to mention, if but briefly. 
Next: BIOS Upgrades
