question 1 research the master boot record Question 1 Resear

question: 1. research the master boot record. Question: 1. Research the Master Boot Record. Write a long paragraph and answer the following:

a). How does this file play into the BIOS and its attempt to load the operating system?

b). Can you think of a situation in which this knowledge would help diagnose a failure to boot?

c). Why is it that the installation of Linux in a dual-boot configuration can cause problems for the Windows OS?

2: The use of solid state memory in lieu of a hard drive is starting to receive some attention.

a). What benefits or drawbacks could crop up for this new type of secondary storage?

b). In what way is solid state memory subject to the same failure as a hard drive?

Solution

Question 1

Answer a) :- The Master Boot Record (MBR) is the information in the first sector of any hard disk or diskette that identifies how and where an operating system is located so that it can be boot(loaded) into the computer\'s main storage or random access memory. The Master Boot Record is also sometimes called the \"partition sector\" or the \"master partition table\" because it includes a table that locates each partition that the hard disk has been formatted into. In addition to this table, the MBR also includes a program that reads the boot sector record of the partition containing the operating system to be booted into RAM. In turn, that record contains a program that loads the rest of the operating system into RAM.

Answer c) :- Technical issues

In a multi-boot computer each of the multiple operating systems can reside on its own storage device, or some storage devices might contain more than one operating system in different partitions.

An example of a computer with one operating system per storage device is a dual-booting computer that stores Windows on one disk drive and Linux on another disk drive. In this case a multi-booting boot loader is not strictly necessary because the user can choose to enter BIOS configuration immediately after power-up and make the desired drive first in the boot-order list. However, it is more convenient to have a multi-booting boot loader on one of the drives, set BIOS once to always start booting from (i.e., load the boot loader from) that drive, and then allow the user to choose an operating system from that boot loader\'s menu. No special disk partitioning is necessary when each operating system has its own dedicated disk drive.

An example of a computer with multiple operating systems per storage device is a dual-booting computer that stores both Windows and Linux on the same disk drive. In this case a multi-booting boot loader isnecessary. Also, the disk must be partitioned to give each operating system its own partition on the disk drive.

Windows and Linux

One popular multi-boot configuration is to dual-boot Linux and Windows operating systems, each contained within its own partition. Windows does not facilitate or support multi-boot systems, other than allowing for partition-specific installations, and no choice of boot loader is offered. However, most current Linux installers accommodate dual-booting (although some knowledge of partitions is desirable). Commonly installations proceed without incident but upon restart, the boot loader will recognize only one of the two operating systems