boot process

BIOS

routines are the first thing that begin when the computer is turned on. They are made up of 3 main operations:

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Power On Self Tests (POST) are conducted These tests verify that the system is operating correctly and will display an error message and/or output a series of beeps known as beep codes depending on the BIOS manufacturer.

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of initialization in which the BIOS looks for the video card In particular, it looks for the video card's built in BIOS program and runs it. The BIOS then looks for other devices' ROMs to see if any of them have BIOSes and they are executed as well.

Initiate the boot process The BIOS looks for boot information that is contained in file called the master boot record (MBR) at the first sector on the disk. If it is searching a floppy disk, it looks at the same address on the floppy disk for a volume boot sector. Once an acceptable boot record is found the operating system is loaded which takes over control of the computer The order that the BIOS looks for devices can be determined in your BIOS settings. Usually it searches in this order CD Drive, Floppy