INCITS 346-2001

This standard describes a BIOS firmware layer that may be used to both place andexecute system diagnostics on a protected area of the system hard disk. The purposeof these diagnostics is to accurately determine for both the user and a technical supportengineer that the hard drive is functioning correctly. These diagnostics are placed in aprotected area of the disk drive because they are less vulnerable to attack from viruses,system software corruption, and the user. The firmware layer described herein mayalso be used to run DOS-based rescue utilities once the drive has been shown to beworking by the diagnostics described above. The net effect of these capabilities is thata system may ship with embedded diagnostic and rescue capabilities, and that thesecapabilities are known to be reliable by the system manufacturer and may not be easilycorrupted by the user.

The BIOS firmware described in this standard may be implemented for any disk drivethat conforms to ANSI NCITS 317-1998 (ATA/ATAPI-4) and implements the SET MAXcommand. The SET MAX command as it is defined in ANSI NCITS 317-1998 providesa great deal of security for hiding data on the disk drive. If the system is unable to bootthe primary operating system, the area protected by the SET MAX ADDRESScommand remains bootable.

All the fields described in this standard are designed to last at least 20 years, given adoubling in capacity each year.

This standard describes a method for the BIOS to do the following:

Find the start of the reserved area boot code and issue SET MAX ADDRESS command

Emulate the reserved area boot code as a bootable floppy

This standard employs a method that is flexible enough to allow the reserved area bootcode to be seen as the primary floppy drive.

Published:

03/13/2001

ANSI:

ANSI Approved

Number of Pages:

31