A method for accessing a protected area of a magnetic storage device via firmware control. During early system initialization, various firmware components are loaded and executed to initialize a computer system. These components include a firmware driver for accessing magnetic storage devices connected to the computer system. The system firmware enables a protected area on a magnetic storage device to be accessed under firmware control. After firmware accesses, the protected area is closed from access by non-firmware entities (e.g., operating systems) by "hiding" the true size of the media. Mechanisms are disclosed for providing firmware access to the protected area only during pre-boot, and for both pre-boot and run-time operations. The firmware-controlled media access scheme may be used to load firmware stored on magnetic media during pre-boot and to store system information in the protected area during pre-boot and/or run-time operations.