Do I need BIOS or OS drivers to support the ATA-2 data transfer rates?
Warning: Read the previous two questions before reading this one. Maybe, probably, yes. The answer to this very complex and will be discussed in detail in Part 2. Here is the brief answer… If you have a new ATA drive that supports the advanced PIO or DMA data transfer rates (ATA-2 PIO Mode 3 or 4, or, ATA-2 DMA Mode 1 or 2) then you also must have a new ATA host adapter that attaches to the VL-Bus or PCI bus or some other high speed bus (probably a 32-bit bus) in your system. That host adapter has I/O registers of its own that are used to control its advanced features. Controlling those advanced features requires software – either in the system INT 13 BIOS or in a INT 13 BIOS on the host adapter card or in a driver loaded via the boot record or later by your OS. Depending on how that host adapter works you may also need a Windows FastDisk replacement in order to use the high speed data transfer modes in Windows. Buyer beware!
