A windows server 2003 startup process requires three startup files: Ntldr.exe, Ntdetect.com and boot.ini. The following is the steps when it starts up.
- Press the Power Key on the computer, the Power-On Self Test (POST) loads the system BIOS into memory.
- The BIOS reads the MBR (Master Boot Record) contents.
- MBR reads the contents of the boot sectors of each partition until it finds a bootable sector.
- The boot sector program reads the boot directory and loads Windows Server 2003 Loader, also called Ntldr, into memory.
- Ntldr loads the basic memory configuration and then loads itself into high memory.
- Ntldr switches the server to the 32-bit mode, which is a protected mode.
- Ntldr reads the boot.ini startup file and loads the OS. C:\Windows.
- Ntldr loads Ntdetect.com, which is a 16-bit application and is also called Ntdetect. To do this, Ntldr switches the server back to the 16-bit mode, which is a real mode, from the protected mode.
- Ntldr loads itself into memory and reads the resource map.
- Ntldr switches the server to the protected mode again to creates the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/HARDWARE register key. To do this, it sets up the ring 0 mode for the kernel and then loads the appropriate Ntoskrnl kernel file, the hardware abstraction layer (HAL硬件抽象层), and the boot drivers for the server.
- Ntldr starts the run process for NtosKrnl. This enables Win Server 2003 to start and run normally.
