Re: OptiPlex GX400 BIOS A05 supports 48-bit LBA

Hi!

That PING software looks mighty interesting and useful.  Thanks for the
tip.

Thank The Register. :-)

I'm typing this on the OptiPlex GX400 whose 10GB disk I cloned to a
40GB replacement. It definitely worked, but I just noticed that the
partition was not resized to fit the new drive.

Oh well, that's a small chore for Easeus Partition Manager or
PartitionMagic.

Omission of 48-bit LBA from the Latitude D800 might not be that
surprising if one assumes that Dell (or its ODMs) has different
project teams to "write" BIOSes for laptops, desktops, and servers.

The way the BIOS presents itself at startup still makes me think that
Dell has a significant hand in this, and that they aren't just
layering their look and feel over a modern Award or PhoenixBIOS. In
particular, the Dell BIOS of all but the most recent machines appears
to be based on a very old PhoenixBIOS code base that Dell has updated.
It always shows a PhoenixBIOS copyright from the late 80s and a much
newer Dell copyright.

Modern Dell machines (with the exception of the OptiPlex and servers)
do appear to be nothing more than modern, generic BIOS software with a
Dell logo set to show up at POST time.

What I haven't done is tried to disassemble any Dell BIOS to find out
what's underneath. I could be wrong in my suspicions...maybe they do
just put their look and feel on a modern, generic BIOS.

William
.

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