Select the correct order of events after power is initialized on a system.

A. Bootstrap loader is loaded from the disk

B. Kernel is loaded onto the memory

C. Firmware ROM loads boot block

Choose the correct answer from the options given below:

Question

Question

This question was previously asked in

UGC NET Computer Science (Paper 2) 11 March 2023 Official Paper

Answer 1

The correct answer is C, A, B

Key Points

C. Firmware ROM loads boot block:
- When you turn the power on in a computing system, a built-in piece of software called firmware, which is stored in ROM (Read-Only Memory), is activated first.
- This firmware includes a program called BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) or UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) in modern systems.
- These programs start the boot process by performing a power-on self-test (POST) to check the health of the system's hardware.
- Then, they look for a bootable device (like a hard disk, USB drive, etc.). From this device, it loads the boot block, also known as the Master Boot Record (MBR) or GUID Partition Table (GPT) in UEFI systems. This boot block contains information about the layout of the storage device and points to the location of the bootloader.
A. Bootstrap loader is loaded from the disk:
- The boot block points to the location of the bootloader in secondary storage (hard disk, SSD, USB, etc.). The firmware loads this bootloader, known as a bootstrap loader, into memory. The job of the bootloader is to load and initiate the operating system.
B. Kernel is loaded onto the memory:
- Once the bootloader is in memory, it loads the operating system kernel into memory.
- The kernel is the core component of an operating system and interacts directly with the system's hardware. When the kernel is ready, it starts the operating system – bringing us to a state where the system is ready to run applications.