A. A. Firstly the files required for NT to boot are
- Ntldr - This is a hidden, read-only system file that loads the
operating system
- Boot.ini - This is read-only system file, used to build the Boot
Loader Operating System Selection menu on Intel x86-based computers
- Bootsect.dos - This is a hidden file loaded by Ntldr if another
operating system is selected
- Ntdetect.com - This is a hidden, read-only system file used to
examine the hardware available and to build a hardware list.
- Ntbootdd.sys - This file is only used by systems that boot from a
SCSI disk.
The common Boot sequence files are
- Ntoskrnl.exe - The Windows NT kernel
- System - This file is a collection of system configuration settings
- Device drivers - These are files that support various device drivers
- Hal.dll - Hardware Abstraction Layer software
The boot sequence is as follows
- Power on self test (POST) routines are run
- Master Boot Record is loaded into memory, and the program is run
- The Boot Sector from Active Partition is Loaded into Memory
- Ntldr is loaded and initialized from the boot sector
- Change the processor from real mode to 32-bit flat memory mode
- Ntldr starts the appropriate minifile system drivers. Minifile system
drivers are built into Ntldr and can read FAT or NTFS
- Ntldr reads the Boot.ini file
- Ntldr loads the operating system selected, on of two things happen
* If Windows NT is selected, Ntldr runs Ntdetect.com
* For other operating system, Ntldr loads and runs Bootsect.dos and
passes control to it. The Windows NT process ends here
- Ntdetect.com scans the computer hardware and sends the list to Ntldr
for inclusion in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\HARDWARE
- Ntldr then loads Ntoskrnl.exe, Hal.dll and the system hive
- Ntldr scans the System hive and loads the device drivers configured
to start at boot time
- Ntldr passes control to Ntoskrnl.exe, at which point the boot process
ends and the load phases begin