OS detection

Discussion in 'Computer Science & Culture' started by curioucity, Oct 21, 2003.

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  1. curioucity

    curioucity Unbelievable and odd Registered Senior Member

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    Hello

    I wonder how a PC detects any existence of OS.
    I once got hit by the problem of My Windows directory going corrupt, and how the heck the sytem knows that I'm running Windows? Plus, I just saw a thread on troublesome HD, in which the OS said that no HD was present during bootup. Also, I once installed Windows and Unix on the same PC and it knew that there were two OS to deal with.
    How?
     
    curioucity, Oct 21, 2003
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  3. malkiri

    malkiri Registered Senior Member

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    This will answer your questions:
    http://www.syrlug.org/contrib/boot-loaders.html

    Boot managers are what allow you to select from multiple OS's installed on the same machine:
    http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/bootmgr.htm

    Basically, the first part of your disk contains some instructions on how to load the OS. When your computer boots up, the BIOS reads those instructions and makes sure they're valid, then executes them. When you installed Windows, it modified those instructions so that running them will start Windows.
    That's a very simplified version of what happens. For more info, check out the links.

    Edit: Here's another link:
    http://cdsmith.twu.net/professional/osdesign/ch02.html
     
    Last edited: Oct 21, 2003
    malkiri, Oct 21, 2003
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