Boot loader

In computing, booting (or booting up) is the initialization of a computerized system. The system can be a computer or a computer appliance. The booting process can be "hard", e.g., after electrical power to the CPU is switched from off to on (in order to diagnose particular hardware errors), or "soft", when those power-on self-tests (POST) can be avoided. On some systems a soft boot may optionally clear RAM to zero. Both hard and soft booting can be initiated by hardware such as a button press, or by software command. Booting is complete when the normal, operative, runtime environment is attained.

A boot loader is a computer program that loads an operating system or some other system software for the computer after completion of the power-on self-tests; it is the loader for the operating system itself. Within the hard reboot process, it runs after completion of the self-tests, then loads and runs the software. A boot loader is loaded into main memory from persistent memory, such as a hard disk drive or, in some older computers, from a medium such as punched cards, punched tape, or magnetic tape. The boot loader then loads and executes the processes that finalize the boot. Like POST processes, the boot loader code comes from a "hard-wired" and persistent location; if that location is too limited for some reason, that primary boot loader calls a second-stage boot loader or a secondary program loader.

On modern general purpose computers, the boot up process can take tens of seconds, or even minutes, and typically involves performing a power-on self-test, locating and initializing peripheral devices, and then finding, loading and starting an operating system. The process of hibernating or sleeping does not involve booting. Minimally, some embedded systems do not require a noticeable boot sequence to begin functioning and when turned on may simply run operational programs that are stored in ROM. All computing systems are state machines, and a reboot may be the only method to return to a designated zero-state from an unintended, locked state.

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