Mini White Paper

SATA DOS Boot

The purpose of this document is to discuss S-ODD (Serial-ATA Optical Disk Drive) compatibility
and capabilities with Microsoft DOS 6.22 and FreeDOS on the xw8400, xw6400, xw8600,
xw6600, and xw4600, released workstations.

Description:

Advances in computer hardware technologies make it more difficult to maintain

compatibility between newer computer systems and legacy operating systems. An example
of this is the ability to boot a system to DOS via DVD and CD media and DOS DLA (Drive
Letter Access) with S-ODDs.
In order for media installed in an S-ODD to be accessible in DOS, a drive letter must be
assigned to the S-ODD. Assigning a drive letter to an S-ODD requires a driver that is
compatible with the chipset SATA controller as well as proper system and DOS configuration
file setup.
By working closely with our vendors HP has been able to maintain this compatibility on the
workstations mentioned above. The following is what is required for this functionality. The
BIOS contains an updated Serial ATA option ROM to allow booting from the S-ODD, the
AHCI.sys driver allows for DLA. The following option ROM or newer is required: Serial ATA
AHCI BIOS iSrc 1.17_D 03112008. The version can be verified on the post screen. If the
version on the machine is older, then the BIOS will need to be updated. This can be done by
visiting the HP Support web site. The AHCI.sys driver can be found on HP’s support website as
SoftPaq #SP39596. The proper option ROM along with the AHCI .sys driver will allow for both
S-ODD boot and DOS DLA. The following are examples on how to implement this solution.

Note that though the AHCI.sys driver provides DLA, it does not support Insert/Eject
notification.

Examples:

System Setup
SATA Emulation Mode must be set to ‘RAID+AHCI’

DOS Configuration File Setup

CONFIG.SYS -
DEVICE=AHCI.SYS /D:CDROM
AUTOEXEC.BAT (MS-DOS) -
MSCDEX.EXE /D:CDROM /L:<drive letter>
AUTOEXEC.BAT (FreeDOS) -
SHCDx86.COM /D:CDROM /L:<drive letter>
1 © 2008 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. HP shall not
be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.
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2 © 2008 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. HP shall not
be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.
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