The boot process
The last step in the PC start-up is reading the operating system. The start-up program is
instructed to find the Master boot sector. The boot sector is the very first sector on either hard
disk (C) or floppy drive A.
By default, the PC will look for a boot sector in floppy drive A. That is why the PC "drops dead" if
there is a different diskette in A drive. If there is no diskette in A drive, the start-up program will
search for the boot sector on hard drive C. When the boot sector is found, a small program
segment (boot-strap) is read from there. The boot-strap then takes over control of the PC. The
start-up program has done its job. Now DOS, Windows, or another operating system takes
control.
The last step in the PC start-up is reading the operating system. The start-up program is
instructed to find the Master boot sector. The boot sector is the very first sector on either hard
disk (C) or floppy drive A.
By default, the PC will look for a boot sector in floppy drive A. That is why the PC "drops dead" if
there is a different diskette in A drive. If there is no diskette in A drive, the start-up program will
search for the boot sector on hard drive C. When the boot sector is found, a small program
segment (boot-strap) is read from there. The boot-strap then takes over control of the PC. The
start-up program has done its job. Now DOS, Windows, or another operating system takes
control.
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