System Configuration with the BIOS

The BIOS starts your computer by locating the operating system on a disk drive. So, you might be wondering, “How does the BIOS know what disk drives are installed?”

tip

Whenever you build a system or change major components, you need to restart the system and run the BIOS setup program to check or change settings (as described in the next section).

Disk drives are some of the most important items that must be configured in the BIOS. If the drive types are not correctly identified in the BIOS, the BIOS will not be able to start the system.

Starting the BIOS Setup Program

On most systems built since the late 1980s, ...

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