A prior art mass storage device for bootstrap loading of a computer operating system must be configured on a set-up computer whose BIOS has the same geometrical translation scheme as the BIOS of the host computer where the storage device is intended to be installed and used. The present invention provides a mass storage device capable of bootstrap loading the computer operating system despite differences between the BIOS geometrical translation scheme of the set-up computer and that of the host computer, along with methods for implementing and preparing such a device. The present invention provides executable code on the storage device itself, which resolves the geometrical translation of the set-up configuration to comply with that of the host computer, independent of the respective BIOS translation schemes used for set-up and host computers.