What is this section of the disk called?

During the installation process, Windows writes a portion of the boot instructions to the first sector of the hard drive in the system. What is this area of boot information called?

A) File allocation table

B) Registry

C) NT loader

D) Master boot record

The answer: D) Master boot record

The master boot record (MBR) is the area of the hard drive that starts the operating system after the BIOS is finished with the normal power-on self test (POST) process. If the MBR doesn’t exist, the system will not boot.

The incorrect answers:

A) File allocation table
The file allocation table is one of many file system architectures. The operating system can use the FAT architecture to manage the files that exist on the hard drive. The FAT file system architecture is not part of the master boot record.

B) Registry
The registry is an area of the Windows operating system that’s used to save operating system and application preferences. The registry is accessed by Windows after the operating system begins to load, and it is not part of the master boot record.

C) NT loader
The NTLDR.EXE file is one of the first files used by the Windows 2000 and Windows XP operating system to start the OS boot process.

Want to know more? Watch “The Windows Boot Process.” When most people start Windows, they see a graphical “splash” screen and a moving status bar. Under the surface, Windows is initializing hardware, loading configuration files, and handing off control to the Windows kernel. In this video, we’ll look at this process in-depth and review some utilities that can assist with troubleshooting the Windows startup process.