--- title: "Booting - starting the system — ZEBR.ai" description: "Booting is a procedure that is performed every time a computer is switched on, when the operating system finishes its work, or when the reset button is…" url: "https://zebr.ai/en/knowledge-base/booting" markdown_url: "https://zebr.ai/en/knowledge-base/booting.md" language: "en" alternates: cs: "https://zebr.ai/cs/knowledge-base/booting.md" sl: "https://zebr.ai/sl/knowledge-base/booting.md" sk: "https://zebr.ai/sk/knowledge-base/booting.md" hr: "https://zebr.ai/hr/knowledge-base/booting.md" sr-Latn: "https://zebr.ai/sr-latn/knowledge-base/booting.md" bs: "https://zebr.ai/bs/knowledge-base/booting.md" sq: "https://zebr.ai/sq/knowledge-base/booting.md" fr: "https://zebr.ai/fr/knowledge-base/booting.md" es: "https://zebr.ai/es/knowledge-base/booting.md" de: "https://zebr.ai/de/knowledge-base/booting.md" pt-BR: "https://zebr.ai/pt-br/knowledge-base/booting.md" pl: "https://zebr.ai/pl/knowledge-base/booting.md" it: "https://zebr.ai/it/knowledge-base/booting.md" nl: "https://zebr.ai/nl/knowledge-base/booting.md" hu: "https://zebr.ai/hu/knowledge-base/booting.md" ro: "https://zebr.ai/ro/knowledge-base/booting.md" tr: "https://zebr.ai/tr/knowledge-base/booting.md" id: "https://zebr.ai/id/knowledge-base/booting.md" --- [Home](https://zebr.ai/en/) [Knowledge base](https://zebr.ai/en/knowledge-base) Booting - starting the system # Booting - starting the system Booting is a procedure that is performed every time a computer is switched on, when the operating system finishes its work, or when the reset button is pressed. Simply put, booting is the loading (starting) of the operating system. **Booting a computer consists of the following phases:**\ – Hardware diagnostics\ – Memory check\ – Initialization of the built-in BIOS\ – Initialization of additional hardware components and their BIOSes\ – Booting the operating system **Booting into Windows**\ For the advanced operating system startup menu, press the F8 key when starting the computer. You can choose to start normally, start the system in safe mode, start the system with diagnostics, and more. **Choosing from multiple Windows operating systems**\ If you want to install multiple operating systems on your computer, first install the older system and then install the newer system on another disk partition. The reverse procedure – installing an older system over a newer one – would result in the original system being unable to start. An older version of the system does not recognize the boot method of the new system and overwrites it, which prevents the original system from starting. **Boot manager**\ The option to install an older operating system alongside a newer one (a classic example is installing Windows 10 alongside Windows 7) is provided by the boot management utility – Boot Manager. The main function of the boot manager is to allow you to select the system or drive from which booting will take place at startup. **What if the machine does not boot into the operating system?**\ It may happen that after installing updates, installing software, or being infected by a virus, the boot section of the operating system becomes damaged and the machine is unable to boot. In such a case, you need to use the operating system's repair tools and perform startup repair or repair the entire operating system installation. These situations can be effectively prevented by backing up. The backup tools [Acronis True Image](https://www.acronis.cz/produkt/true-image/) (for households) and [Acronis Backup](https://www.acronis.cz/produkt/acronis-backup/) (for organizations) allow you to create backups from which both the necessary data and partitions and entire disks, including the boot sector, can be restored. After a failure, simply boot from the [Acronis rescue media](https://www.acronis.cz/kb/boot-medium/) and perform the recovery. --- - Source: - Site overview for AI agents: