公开(公告)号：EP0941510A1

公开(公告)日：1999-09-15

申请号：EP97951501.0

申请日：1997-12-02

申请人： Gateway 2000, Inc.

发明人： ASSAF, Mahmoud

IPC分类号： G06F3 ,  G06F12 ,  G06F21 ,  G11B20 ,  G06F11

CPC分类号： G06F3/062 ,  G06F3/0644 ,  G06F3/0674 ,  G06F11/3485 ,  G06F21/56 ,  G06F21/80 ,  G11B20/1883 ,  G11B2220/20

摘要： A computer system having a monitor, disk drive, and central controller is disclosed. The computer manufacturer uses a method for expanding the reserve area of a disk drive to allow computer systems manufacturers to change the storage capacity of the reserve area. The method includes setting up a password with the disk drive manufacturer to enable two commands. One command reads the maximum address or largest track number that the user has access to. The second command allows for setting a new maximum address to which the user has access. The firmware of the disc drive is updated with the new maximum address. Once the two commands have been used to expand the reserve area, the computer system manufacturer can add critical data, and critical program instructions to the expanded or new reserve area. The computer manufacturer may decide to store a portion of a virus scan program in the expanded reserve area, or store a portion of the basic input output system (BIOS) so that a smaller BIOS read only memory (ROM) can be used for the computer system, or the computer manufacturer can store emergency boot up instructions in the reserve area in the event there is damage to the disk.