العربية
中国
Français
Deutsch
Ελληνική
हिन्दी
Italiano
日本語
Português
Русский
EspañolBOOT DISK
A 'boot disk' is a removable digital data storage medium, normally read-only, that can load (boot) an operating system or utility program.
Boot disks may create and use a RAM disk for temporary file storage, to eliminate the need to write to the fixed storage media of the computer where the boot disk is used.
Boot disks are used for:
★ Operating system installation.
★ Data recovery.
★ Data purging.
★ Hardware or software troubleshooting.
★ Customizing an operating environment.
★ Software demonstration.
★ Administrative access in case of lost password (a Windows boot disk does not always permit this, but a Linux or specialist boot disk can sometimes be used for this purpose instead, even if only Windows is installed)
Floppy disks and CD-ROMs are the most common forms of media used, but other media, such as tape drives, zip drives and more recently, USB flash drives can be used. What can be booted depends on whether a computer's BIOS supports booting from that device. For example, some BIOSes do not support booting from a CD-ROM and require a boot floppy to run the software from the CD-ROM.
Bootable floppies for PCs usually contain MS-DOS or miniature versions of Linux. The most commonly available floppy disk can hold only 1.44MB of data in its standard format, making it impractical for loading large operating systems. The use of boot floppies is in decline, due to the availability of other higher-capacity options, such as CD-ROMs or USB flash drives.
A modern PC is configured to attempt to boot from various devices in a certain order. If your computer is not booting from the device you desire, such as the floppy drive, you must enter the BIOS setup function, by pressing a special key when the computer is first turned on -- Delete, F1, F2, F10 or F12. There will be a menu option for changing the boot order.
Modern Apple computers will boot from an appropriate disk if the user presses the C key while the machine is starting.
'Windows 95/98, Me, NT/2000/XP/2003 Floppy Boot Disk (MS-DOS)'
★ COMMAND.COM
★ IO.SYS
★ MSDOS.SYS
''Along with the boot files, usually a Boot sector is also required. This is generally created with the same tool that prepares the boot disk, such as SYS.EXE in early Windows systems.''
★ Live CD
★ Boot sector
★ Booting
★ Darik's Boot and Nuke
★ AllBootDisks - Providing Free Boot Disks from MS-DOS to Windows XP
★ BootDisks - PC Support - Essential Utilities
★ ''Ultimate Boot CD''
★ ''NetBootDisk - Universal TCP/IP Network Bootdisk''
Boot disks may create and use a RAM disk for temporary file storage, to eliminate the need to write to the fixed storage media of the computer where the boot disk is used.
Boot disks are used for:
★ Operating system installation.
★ Data recovery.
★ Data purging.
★ Hardware or software troubleshooting.
★ Customizing an operating environment.
★ Software demonstration.
★ Administrative access in case of lost password (a Windows boot disk does not always permit this, but a Linux or specialist boot disk can sometimes be used for this purpose instead, even if only Windows is installed)
Floppy disks and CD-ROMs are the most common forms of media used, but other media, such as tape drives, zip drives and more recently, USB flash drives can be used. What can be booted depends on whether a computer's BIOS supports booting from that device. For example, some BIOSes do not support booting from a CD-ROM and require a boot floppy to run the software from the CD-ROM.
| Contents |
| Boot floppies |
| Booting from a disk |
| Required Files |
| See also |
| External links |
Boot floppies
Bootable floppies for PCs usually contain MS-DOS or miniature versions of Linux. The most commonly available floppy disk can hold only 1.44MB of data in its standard format, making it impractical for loading large operating systems. The use of boot floppies is in decline, due to the availability of other higher-capacity options, such as CD-ROMs or USB flash drives.
Booting from a disk
A modern PC is configured to attempt to boot from various devices in a certain order. If your computer is not booting from the device you desire, such as the floppy drive, you must enter the BIOS setup function, by pressing a special key when the computer is first turned on -- Delete, F1, F2, F10 or F12. There will be a menu option for changing the boot order.
Modern Apple computers will boot from an appropriate disk if the user presses the C key while the machine is starting.
Required Files
'Windows 95/98, Me, NT/2000/XP/2003 Floppy Boot Disk (MS-DOS)'
★ COMMAND.COM
★ IO.SYS
★ MSDOS.SYS
''Along with the boot files, usually a Boot sector is also required. This is generally created with the same tool that prepares the boot disk, such as SYS.EXE in early Windows systems.''
See also
★ Live CD
★ Boot sector
★ Booting
★ Darik's Boot and Nuke
External links
★ AllBootDisks - Providing Free Boot Disks from MS-DOS to Windows XP
★ BootDisks - PC Support - Essential Utilities
★ ''Ultimate Boot CD''
★ ''NetBootDisk - Universal TCP/IP Network Bootdisk''
This article provided by Wikipedia. To edit the contents of this article, click here for original source.
psst.. try this: add to faves
