Editing Parallel ATA (section)

=== ATAPI Removable Media Device (ARMD) ===
{{main|ATA Packet Interface}}
ATAPI devices with removable media, other than CD and DVD drives, are classified as ARMD (ATAPI Removable Media Device) and can appear as either a super-floppy (non-partitioned media) or a hard drive (partitioned media) to the [[operating system]]. These can be supported as bootable devices by a BIOS complying with the '''ATAPI Removable Media Device BIOS Specification''',<ref>
{{cite web
 | url = http://www.phoenix.com/NR/rdonlyres/EDD1AAA0-177E-4024-A0B1-E4BD06B673F7/0/specsatapi.pdf
 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100102024104/http://www.phoenix.com/NR/rdonlyres/EDD1AAA0-177E-4024-A0B1-E4BD06B673F7/0/specsatapi.pdf
 | title = ATAPI Removable Media Device BIOS Specification, Version&nbsp;1.0
 | date = 1997-01-30 | access-date = 2015-08-25 | archive-date = 2010-01-02
 | author1 = Curtis E. Stevens | author2 = Paul J. Broyles
 | website = phoenix.com
}}</ref> originally developed by [[Compaq|Compaq Computer Corporation]] and [[Phoenix Technologies]]. It specifies provisions in the [[BIOS]] of a [[personal computer]] to allow the computer to be [[booting|bootstrapped]] from devices such as [[Iomega Zip drive|Zip drives]], [[Iomega Jaz drive|Jaz drives]], [[SuperDisk]] (LS-120) drives, and similar devices.

These devices have removable media like [[Floppy disk|floppy disk drives]], but capacities more commensurate with [[hard drive]]s, and programming requirements unlike either. Due to limitations in the floppy controller interface most of these devices were [[ATA Packet Interface|ATAPI]] devices, connected to one of the host computer's ATA interfaces, similarly to a hard drive or [[CD-ROM]] device. However, existing BIOS standards did not support these devices. An ARMD-compliant BIOS allows these devices to be booted from and used under the operating system without requiring device-specific code in the OS.

A BIOS implementing ARMD allows the user to include ARMD devices in the boot search order. Usually an ARMD device is configured earlier in the boot order than the hard drive. Similarly to a floppy drive, if bootable media is present in the ARMD drive, the BIOS will boot from it; if not, the BIOS will continue in the search order, usually with the hard drive last.

There are two variants of ARMD, ARMD-FDD and ARMD-HDD. Originally ARMD caused the devices to appear as a sort of very large floppy drive, either the primary floppy drive device 00h or the secondary device 01h. Some operating systems required code changes to support floppy disks with capacities far larger than any standard floppy disk drive. Also, standard-floppy disk drive emulation proved to be unsuitable for certain high-capacity floppy disk drives such as [[Iomega Zip drive]]s. Later the ARMD-HDD, ARMD-"Hard disk device", variant was developed to address these issues. Under ARMD-HDD, an ARMD device appears to the BIOS and the operating system as a hard drive.