boot sector
nounEtymology From boot + sector.
1
Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences A dedicated sector, usually at the beginning (first sector on first track) of a storage medium, that holds special data used to start a system.
- Some systems use a boot block of several physical sectors, while some use only one boot sector. Other manufacturers use the terms "boot block" and "boot sector" interchangeably.
- Synonyms
- boot block, bootblock