What information is contained on the first sector of a hard drive and contains a table of primary partitions, disk signature information, and directions for starting the operating system?
A) MBR
B) BIOS
C) RAID
D) NTLDR
The answer: A) MBR
The Master Boot Record is usually only about 512 bytes of information, but it contains everything your hard drive needs to get the operating system up and running.
The incorrect answers:
B) BIOS
The computer’s Basic Input/Output System firmware contains the core software to manage the hardware of your PC. Once the BIOS firmware identifies the hard drives, your computer can then access the MBR.
C) RAID
A Redundant Array of Independent Disks is designed to increase the performance and/or redundancy of data across multiple hard drives.
D) NTLDR
Windows relies on the NT Loader (NTLDR) to start the operating system.
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Want to know more? Watch “Storage Technology Overview.” Understanding the fundamentals of personal computer storage is an important CompTIA A+ topic. In this module, we’ll provide you with an overview of computer storage systems, an explanation of disk geometry, and a description of how the master boot record manages to get your operating system started. |