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What is a DCO in regards to hard disk drive technology?
The host protected area (HPA) and device configuration overlay (DCO) are two areas at the end of SATA and IDE hard disk drives that are only accessible via special utilities but not the operating system, BIOS or general user.
How do I check my Hdparm disk?
Graphical method
- Go to System -> Administration -> Disk Utility. Alternatively, launch the Gnome disk utility from the command line by running gnome-disks.
- Select your hard disk at left pane.
- Now click “Benchmark – Measure Drive Performance” button in right pane.
- A new window with charts opens.
What does Jbod mean?
Just a Bunch of Disks
JBOD, which stands for Just a Bunch of Disks or Just a Bunch of Drives, is a storage architecture consisting of numerous disk drives inside of a single storage enclosure. JBOD enclosures are usually not configured to act as a RAID, but they can be. By their very nature, JBOD enclosures are storage capacity monoliths.
Where is the device configuration overlay ( DCO ) located?
Device configuration overlay (DCO) is a hidden area on many of today’s hard disk drives (HDDs). Usually when information is stored in either the DCO or host protected area (HPA), it is not accessible by the BIOS, OS, or the user. However, certain tools can be used to modify the HPA or DCO.
Can a DCO be removed from a hard drive?
Most major tools will remove the DCO in order to fully image a hard drive, using the DEVICE_CONFIGURATION_RESET command. This permanently alters the disk, unlike with the host protected area (HPA), which can be temporarily removed for a power cycle.
What is the host protected area on a hard drive?
The Host Protected Area (HPA) is an area of memory on a hard drive that is not normally visible to a computer’s Operating System (OS) – for example, it would not be available for the user to store files on. It was implemented so information could be stored that is not easily modified, changed, or accessed by the user, BIOS, or the OS.
Can a DCO be used to change the HPA?
However, certain tools can be used to modify the HPA or DCO. The system uses the IDENTIFY_DEVICE command to determine the supported features of a given hard drive, but the DCO can report to this command that supported features are nonexistent or that the drive is smaller than it actually is.