edit:
well, vernon beat me to it. i'll leave the post here anyway.
original post:
disclaimer: this is my understanding. i am open to constructive criticism; feel free to pick this apart and point out anything incorrect - i'll appreciate it.
Quote:
if you have an empty hdd where are you getting the operating sys from---you see the hdd is not empty---primary dos and the dos sys. are still on the hdd ---if they weren't you would not be able to get past the A: drive
an empty hard drive is just that: empty. there is no information on it. 'primary dos' is a type of bootable partition. by 'bootable' i mean that the computer has the ability to load an operating system from it, not that it actually contains an operating system - it doesn't unless one is installed. as vernon stated, running fdisk and creating partitions on the hard drive creates letters for those partitions; a partition can have a letter without having an operating system installed on it. as alaricd stated, you are getting the operating system (and fdisk in this case) from the installation diskettes.
is ms-dos the only operating system? can you imagine the royalties hard drive manufacturers would have to pay if they included proprietary operating system code on all of their hard drives?
Quote:
when there is nothing on the hdd you are running on the bios setup
in this case, the bios itself is firmware in a chip on the motherboard - it is the most basic software. the bios contains instructions for initializing, testing and communicating on a basic level (directly, if you will) with hardware. though it doesn't need to, it also contains instructions for loading an operating system from bootable media such as floppy diskettes, hard drives and cd-roms (this is probably treading a fine line, but technically a computer with a functional bios can function without an operating system - not that it'd be of much use. the operating system and subsequent software give it certain functionality and allow the user to communicate with it in a way the user will understand. this is kinda like removing the tires and steering wheel from a car: it'll run, but it won't go very far.). the bios setup is a secondary utility which allows the user to configure certain alterable bios options such as drive parameters, the boot order, resource settings, etc. the alterable information is stored in something called the cmos. bios and motherboard manufacturers haven't always provided bios setup utilities.
how do you think we used computers before there were hard drives?
Quote:
---and a blank bios chip still has the information to tell it to go to the A: drive to receive more information
a blank bios chip is just that: blank. there is no information, the computer will not even post, much less load an operating system. it can't because it doesn't know how (remember the 'instructions' part of my second paragraph?). there are certain instances where the bios can become corrupt and a little piece of bios code called a 'bootblock' might allow one to reflash with a system (bootable) diskette that has the proper utility and bios image. but that isn't even close to being related to this discussion so i don't know why i'm even including it...
Quote:
--this information is setup information thats loaded into the operating sys.
this information is the operating system which is loaded into, well, ram (remember the 'bootable media' part of my second paragraph?). nothing is 'loaded into the operating system'.
Quote:
---now if the dos 6.22 has setup information on it --fine and dandy if not it will sit at the A: till it receives the proper setup information
in this case, ms-dos 6.22 is the operating system. when you boot off of the installation diskette you are loading an operating system which in turn runs an installation program that installs an operating system to the hard drive, which is what the machine hopefully loads when you remove the diskette, restart and attempt to boot off of the hard drive. if there is no operating system there will be no way for the user to communicate with the computer (the prompt).