What is the small non-dos partition on my hdd?
If you look at the partition structure of the HDD in a Compaq system you will see a small non-dos partition (Note Windows NT Disk adinistrator calls this an EISA config partition, more on this later). This is where the CMOS setup program is located along with diagnostic programs. If you go back in time a few years when IBM was on top of the PC world you will remember that Compaq among others adopted the open architecture of the IBM PC/AT. IBM, after noticing that everyone else was making more money selling ‘clones’ based upon their open ISA standard decided to bring out micro channel architecture. The big ‘clone’ makers joined together to create the EISA standard. Part of this standard was to have cards that were software configurable through the use of config files provided by the manufacturer of the cards. The configuration of these cards was done through a program called the EISA configuration utility by loading .cfg files which containes resource information about the card being in
