Fix for Error: Incompatible BIOS translation detected

Contributed by AlexTheBeast July 9, 2004  
Tagged: Windows installation

This common error message can pain you unless you know the fix.

When you try to run hard drive setup program and have both a disc overlay installed and LBA mode enabled in bios, you will see the following error message:

Incompatible BIOS translation detected

Disc overlay programs, such as ONTRACK, overcome weaknesses in past bios settings to allow larger hard drives to be recognized by the system. LBA (Logical Block Address) in your bios attempts to do the same thing. Therefore, having both LBA and a disc overlay both enable at once will typically give you the error.

To correct it, either remove the disc overlay or disable LBA. Frequently the problem is that the disc overlay is actually corrupted. If that is the case, it may not be possible to remove it first. Disable LBA and then reinstall your hard drive utilities. After the disc overlay is repaired, you can usually remove it and then re-enable your LBA.

(If you are reading this recipe, I am sorry. This is not a good error message to be trying to debug.)