Windows® 7 Resource Kit

Important Startup Files

For Windows to start, the system and boot partitions must contain the files listed in Table 29-4.

Table 29-4. Windows Startup Files

FILE NAME	DISK LOCATION	DESCRIPTION
BootMgr	Root of the system partition	The Windows Boot Manager.
WinLoad	%SystemRoot%\System32	The Windows Boot Loader.
BCD	\Boot	A file that specifies the paths to operating system installations and other information required for Windows to start.
Ntoskrnl.exe	%SystemRoot%\System32	The core (also called the kernel) of the Windows operating system. Code that runs as part of the kernel does so in privileged processor mode and has direct access to system data and hardware.
Hal.dll	%SystemRoot%\System32	The HAL dynamic-link library (DLL) file. The HAL abstracts low-level ...