If I create a partition with start CHS 0/0/1 and end CHS 0/60/1, will that roughly create a partition that spans a physical platter or does BIOS completely recalculate head values and I there are no guarantees where data will actually end up.
Reported CHS has been different than actual CHS since PC hard drives started exceeding 1024 cylinders. Today, using the physical geometry would be difficult because the number of sectors per track would vary.
Also, you wouldn't want to put a partition on a single platter, since all the heads (on almost all drives) are linked together and you'd spend a lot of time seeking. With variable sectors per track, the outside edge of the disk is faster (sometimes double!) so you want to use that first.
