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When the OS is completely corrupted, what does the computer run? How does it detect bootable devices?

ruakh
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Semi Colon
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  • See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BIOS. – ruakh Sep 20 '15 at 17:13
  • This might be useful... http://stackoverflow.com/questions/32640801/how-are-applications-and-data-accessed-by-the-cpu-from-ram/32644057#32644057 – displayName Sep 20 '15 at 17:59
  • The important thought is to understand what do you mean by 'computer' when you say "When the OS is completely corrupted, what does the computer run?". – displayName Sep 20 '15 at 18:00

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The computer bios will have a list of bootable devices. It will check them in a specified order to look for a boot sector. If it finds a boot sector it will boot whatever os the boot file in the boot sector tells it to. If the os is corrupt the user will have to either repair it or tell the bios to boot from a different device.

Jason B
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