March 2000
Beginner to intermediate
672 pages
20h 8m
English
Content preview from The Multi-Boot Configuration Handbook
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The Handoff to the OS
Perhaps the most important aspect of what the BIOS does is to transfer control of the computer to programs stored on some other medium. These programs are simple boot loader programs—programs that boot one or more OSs. Boot loaders can exist on several different media:
Floppy disk— When you boot from a floppy disk, the BIOS loads the boot loader from the first sector of the floppy disk. This sector is often referred to as the boot sector.
Hard disk— A hard disk's boot sector is referred to as the master boot record (MBR). It contains information beyond that normally stored in a floppy disk's boot sector, such as information on how the disk is partitioned.
Network boot server— If a computer is configured as a diskless workstation, ...
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