
Originally Posted by
SomeGuy
Right, Compaqs of this era did not have a BIOS setup program in ROM like normal clones. Instead they ran a software based BIOS setup program from a hidden partition on the hard drive. This partition had to be set up and installed prior to the installation of the OS. An OS could run without this partition, but then it would be difficult or impossible to change the machine's settings. This made upgrading hard drives and deploying standardized images an extra headache.
Never made any sense why they chose to do it like that.
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