During the boot process, which of the following is commonly performed by BIOS?

• A. It initializes the disk drives and loads user programs
• B. It runs the OS kernel before loading BIOS settings
• C. It copies the operating system into RAM to start it
• D. It formats the hard drive

Answer: (C)

During boot, firmware on the motherboard (the BIOS) initializes hardware, performs a short self-test, and then locates a bootable device. It loads the initial bootstrap code from that device into RAM and transfers control to it. That bootstrap loader is responsible for loading the operating system into memory so it can run. In this sense, the BIOS participates in bringing the OS into RAM to start it by moving the boot code into memory and handing off execution to it, which ultimately leads to the OS kernel being loaded into RAM. The other statements describe actions that aren’t what BIOS does during the boot process: it doesn’t load user programs directly at boot, it doesn’t run the OS kernel before configuring BIOS settings, and it doesn’t format the hard drive.