The NT Booting Process: NTLDR
First thing NT server loads is NTLDR which looks for
- BOOT.INI
- NTDETECT.COM
- BOOTSECT.DOS
- NTBOOTDD.SYS
NTLDR does these things:
- Shifts processor to 386 mode
- Starts a simple file system based on either a standard disk interface or uses NTBOOTDD.SYS to boot from the SCSI drive.
- reads BOOT.INI to find out if there are other operating systems to offer and places these options on the screen
- Accepts user’s decision on OS to load or does default