Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The BIOS uses the boot devices set in Nonvolatile BIOS memory , or, in the earliest PCs, DIP switches. The BIOS checks each device in order to see if it is bootable by attempting to load the first sector (boot sector). If the sector cannot be read, the BIOS proceeds to the next device.
Prior to the development and ubiquitous adoption of the Plug and Play BIOS standard, an add-on device such as a hard disk controller or a network adapter card (NIC) was generally required to include an option ROM in order to be bootable, as the motherboard BIOS did not include any support for the device and so could not incorporate it into the BIOS's boot protocol.
BIOS interrupt calls perform hardware control or I/O functions requested by a program, return system information to the program, or do both. A key element of the purpose of BIOS calls is abstraction - the BIOS calls perform generally defined functions, and the specific details of how those functions are executed on the particular hardware of the system are encapsulated in the BIOS and hidden ...
The boot partition is a primary partition that contains the boot loader, a piece of software responsible for booting the operating system. For example, in the standard Linux directory layout ( Filesystem Hierarchy Standard ), boot files (such as the kernel , initrd , and boot loader GRUB ) are mounted at /boot/ . [ 1 ]
It is located on fixed disks and removable drives, and must fit into the first 446 bytes of the Master Boot Record in order to leave room for the default 64-byte partition table with four partition entries and the two-byte boot signature, which the BIOS requires for a proper boot loader — or even less, when additional features like more than ...
Double boot (also known as cold double boot, double cold boot, double POST, power-on auto reboot, or fake boot) is a feature of the BIOS, and may occur after changes to the BIOS' settings or the system's configuration, or a power failure while the system was in one of certain sleep modes.
In case a boot sector receives physical damage, the hard disk will no longer be bootable, unless used with a custom BIOS that defines a non-damaged sector as the boot sector. However, since the very first sector additionally contains data regarding the partitioning of the hard disk, the hard disk will become entirely unusable except when used ...
The active partition is the partition where the boot flag is set. DOS and Windows allow only one boot partition to be set with the boot flag. [4] Other boot loaders used by third-party boot managers (such as GRUB or XOSL) can be installed to a master boot record and can boot primary or extended partitions, which do not have the boot flag set.