Boot Code

Characteristics:

• located in the first 446 bytes of the first sector of 512 bytes (MBR).

• the boot code from Microsoft processes the partition table:

  • searches the bootable partition (with the boot flag on).

  • the partition code is specific to each OS.

• some viruses are known to install themselves in MBR.

• multiple OS:

  • boot selector from Windows.

  • or MBR replaced by a specific application, like GRUB, LILO, ...