This section presents general requirements for controllers and peripherals.
Note: It is recognized that OEMs supply systems with specific feature requirements to corporations, which can include providing servers that do not include any disks installed before shipping to a particular corporate client. However, the system must include at least the minimum required configuration for testing.
Required
Bus master capabilities must meet the related specification for the particular controller.
The host controller must not use the ISA bus. An exemption exists for ISA-based, ATA-connected CD drives used solely for the purpose of installing software on a server system. Such devices cannot be used for any other purpose, including access to data by client systems.
Note: This requirement does not apply to legacy FDCs and will not become a requirement for the FDC in the future.
Required
The Int 13h Extensions ensure correct support for high-capacity drives. Support for the fixed-disk access subset of Int 13h Extensions must be provided in the system BIOS and in any option ROMs for storage devices that include BIOS support. For information about the Int 13h Extension APIs, see the Windows NT 5.0 DDK.
Support for drives with capacities greater than 8.4 GB must be provided through the extended services—functions 4xh and greater—of the Int 13h Extensions as defined in Information Technology Enhanced BIOS Services for Disk Drives [T13-1226DT], Revision 7 or later, (available at ftp://fission.dt.wdc.com/pub/standards/x3t13/project/). The system BIOS should support the use of logical block addressing (LBA) from drives with LBA addressable area greater than 16,515,072 sectors.
Recommended: BIOS interrupt services should provide a protocol-independent method using the Int 40h extension to support ATAPI floppy drives as specified in the ARMD Specification, Version 1.0.
Required
The SFF 8070i standard defines the requirements for block rewritable ATAPI devices (optical storage devices), including specifications for logical unit number (LUN) implementation, media status notification, and device write protection. This definition includes required support for the Read Format Capacities command.
Required
The following list shows the required specifications for implementing media status notification, depending on device type.
| Device type | Media status notification implementation |
| CD and DVD devices |
Required. Comply with ANSI NCITS T10 Multi-Media Command Set-2 (MMC-2) standard for Media Status Event Notification. |
| ATA non-ATAPI removable storage devices |
Required. Comply with Media Status Notification, Version 1.03. |
| ATAPI floppy/optical direct access drives | Required. Comply with either ANSI NCITS T10 Multi-Media Command Set-2 (MMC-2) standard for Media Status Event Notification or SFF 8070i Version 1.1. |
| Other ATA/ATAPI devices, including tape drives | Recommended. If implemented, comply with Media Status Notification, Version 1.03 or SFF 8070i. |
| Other types of SCSI removable devices | Recommended. If implemented, support based on NCITS Reduced Block Commands (RBC; T10/97-260r0) standard is recommended. |
| IEEE 1394 storage devices |
Required. Comply with NCITS Reduced Block Commands (RBC; T10/97-260r0) standard. |
Required
The implementation of boot-drive determination in multiple-drive systems is defined in Section 5.0 of the Compaq, Intel, Phoenix BIOS Boot Specification, Version 1.01. This is the format that Windows NT uses for determining the boot drive when new bootable devices are introduced for servers. The system designer can use an equivalent method for boot-drive determination, but the method must ensure that the boot drive is recognized by the Windows NT operating system.
Required
If a USB-based mass-storage device (including tape, UHD floppy drive, and CD drive) is implemented in a server system, it must meet the requirements in this design guide and the requirements defined in Universal Serial Buss Device Class Definition for Mass Storage Devices, Version 1.0 or later.
Required
If an IEEE 1394 storage device is implemented in a server system, it must meet any 1394 requirements in this design guide and must comply with 1394 Open Host Controller Interface Specification, Revision 1.0 (OpenHCI).
A removable IEEE 1394 mass storage device must not be the primary boot device.