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Boot Record
Boot Record
The boot record holds the code necessary to execute an operating system. On a storage device that is non-partitioned, it is found in the first sector. On partitioned storage devices such as an internal drive, the boot record is in the first sector of an individual partition - the first sector of the entire device is then considered to be the Master Boot Record.
The code of a boot record may be initiated by firmware of the machine, indirectly by the Master Boot Record or a boot manager utility. The process of invoking by way of a boot manager is called chain loading. Many dual boot systems will take copies of code for a single operating system, install it into a partition, and store them in files. The relevant boot records will be loaded from the file after the loader knows what operating system to bootstrap.
In other file systems, a boot record may hold a BIOS parameter that determines it’s location and structure.