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Most programs are loaded by the operating system. The operating system obviously can't be used to load itself when it hasn't been loaded yet, so a special "bootstrap" program is used that provides just enough functionality to load and start the operating system.

This sounds like an infinite recursion, but it's not: the bootstrap program is simple enough that very basic routines in the ROM can be used to load it.

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11y ago

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Q: Why does an operating system need special bootstrapping procedure?
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