Boot process - help understanding it?

Question

what is the boot process?
how do you boot your pc?
what are the stages it goes through?
what is the difference between a cold and warm boot?

your help would be greatly helpful.

thank you. Em xXx

Answer 1

boot process - when you power up your computer, your system performs P.O.S.T - power on self test, after all hardware checks "ok" your os is loaded into memory ---- in short.



you boot your PC by powering it up.



performs post, loads os into memory and starts up any programs that are configured to load upon boot



a warm boot is basically a restart while a cold boot is from a powered down situation...

Answer 2

The boot process is the basic start up of the hardware that makes up the computer.



It starts with the BIOS (basic input output system) taking a stocktake of what is connected and running some tests to check that it is working.



When it is satified that it has the minimum hardware in working condition, then it starts looking for devices, in a preset order, that carry code that can use the basic hardware to load an operating system.



That boot code will also run more tests that it has hardware that it can use and that it has the basic drivers to start reading higher level code from long term storage devices, like hard disks, or floppies, cd/dvds or usb devices.



Then you start to get into loading the operating system, which is designed to give you all the bells and whistles.



A cold boot is generally a boot that starts with power being applied to the device. A warm boot is one where the power is already on. Mainly comes from older devices where some devices needed to literally warm up and align moving parts properly, or needed to simply accelerate moving parts, like hard disk platters to the correct speed,

Answer 3

First Phase

Hardware and software are prepared and checks for any errors, if errors occurr second boot phase doesn't occurr.

Second Phase

Operating System meaning Windows XP is booted with all the software and preferences being loaded.

Final Phase

Prompts user to enter password or goes straight to the account.

Answer 4

boot process is what happens when you turn on your computer.

You boot your PC by turning it on.

Cold=use power button

Warm=use Restart

Stages:

1. CPU initializes itself

2. run the power-on self test (POST)

3. check the inventoried hardware devices (such as the video card), secondary storage devices, such as hard drives and floppy drives, ports and other hardware devices, such as the keyboard and mouse, to ensure they are functioning properly

4. BIOS looks for an OS to load

5. Once the OS initializes, the BIOS copies its files into memory and the OS basically takes over control of the boot process

6. OS performs another inventory of the system's memory and memory availability (which the BIOS already checked) and loads the device drivers that it needs to control the peripheral devices, such as a printer, scanner, optical drive, mouse and keyboard

Answer 5

boot process is basically the steps that a computer takes from the moment you press the power buttom until windows is fully loaded and ready for you to work on.

boot pc = turing it on

stages:

loads bios, kernel, loads windows, loads programs needed at startup (very basic)

cold boot= start computer from 0 (it was off then on)

warm boot = restarting computer



hope this helps

Answer 6

All the boot process is, picking what you want to boot first. Hard drive or optical drives.