The hard disk arguments are used to do special setup on IDE devices. This includes a number of CD-ROM devices as well as the normal hard drives. Drive-specific options have the form:
hda=, hdb=, hdc=, hdd=.
Non drive-specific options have the form: hd=. This option can be used to specify the next drive in the a, b, c, d order. Drive specific options can be used in place of non-specific ones with the expected result. In the following discussion the hd= will be used exclusively and can be replaced by any drive specific option that applies.