boot

v.,n. [techspeak; from by one's bootstraps ] To load and initialize the
operating system on a machine. This usage is no longer jargon (having passed
into techspeak) but has given rise to some derivatives that are still
jargon. The derivative reboot implies that the machine hasn't been down for
long, or that the boot is a bounce (sense 4) intended to clear some state of
wedgitude. This is sometimes used of human thought processes, as in the
following exchange: You've lost me. OK, reboot. Here's the theory.... This
term is also found in the variants cold boot (from power-off condition) and
warm boot (with the CPU and all devices already powered up, as after a
hardware reset or software crash). Another variant: soft boot ,
reinitialization of only part of a system, under control of other software
still running: If you're running the mess-dos emulator, control-alt-insert
will cause a soft-boot of the emulator, while leaving the rest of the system
running. Opposed to this there is hard boot , which connotes hostility
towards or frustration with the machine being booted: I'll have to hard-boot
this losing Sun. I recommend booting it hard. One often hard-boots by
performing a power cycle. Historical note: this term derives from bootstrap
loader , a short program that was read in from cards or paper tape, or
toggled in from the front panel switches. This program was always very short
(great efforts were expended on making it short in order to minimize the
labor and chance of error involved in toggling it in), but was just smart
enough to read in a slightly more complex program (usually from a card or
paper tape reader), to which it handed control; this program in turn was
smart enough to read the application or operating system from a magnetic
tape drive or disk drive. Thus, in successive steps, the computer pulled
itself up by its bootstraps to a useful operating state. Nowadays the
bootstrap is usually found in ROM or EPROM, and reads the first stage in
from a fixed location on the disk, called the boot block. When this program
gains control, it is powerful enough to load the actual OS and hand control
over to it.

