Printable Flashcards

Master Boot Record, the first sector of a computer's hard drive that contains information about the organization and partitioning of the drive.	The program that runs first when a computer boots up and manages the system's hardware and firmware.
Unified Extensible Firmware Interface, a modern replacement for BIOS that provides better security and support for newer hardware.	A program that loads the operating system into computer memory at boot time.
Software that is permanently stored on hardware, such as the BIOS or a hard drive controller.	Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor, small amount of memory that stores system configuration settings.
A partition that can be booted from, used to store operating system files.	A section of a hard drive that is treated as a separate storage device by the operating system.

A partition within an extended partition, used to store data files.	A partition that can't be booted from, used to create more logical partitions.
The ability to boot into two different operating systems on the same machine.	The partition that is currently being used for booting.
A table located at the beginning of a hard drive that contains information about the location and size of each partition.	GRand Unified Bootloader, a popular bootloader used on Linux and Unix systems.
Creating an exact copy of a hard drive, including the operating system and all data files, as an image file that can be used to restore the original system or to create multiple identical systems.	Copying an entire hard drive to another hard drive while preserving data and file structure.

A component of a hard drive that reads and writes data to the platters.	The smallest unit of storage on a hard drive, usually 512 bytes.
A set of tracks on a hard drive that are at the same distance from the center of the platter.	A disk-shaped component of a hard drive that stores data.