Need expert knowledge on Windows XP Boot Process! :)

Hi there people, I'm currently working on a school assignment and deseperately need some help from professionals in the hardware field. - I did my research and to my horror, all of the websites could give different details on the "BIOS", "MBR", "CMOS", "NTLDR" part, some of the websites didnt even mentioned anything about MBR at all and I'm particular about getting only the right information from the web, other wise it's pretty much pointless to what I'm learning.

I've read through them, did some summary on my own and here's what I know about Win XP Boot Process so far but I'm not sure if I'm 100% right on this, please correct me or fill me up on more details if I'm lacking any.


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1. POST
Power Supply to check if power being supplied to the machine is at the right level. A 'Power Good' signal is sent to the CPU if it's alright. CPU (AKA microprocessor) will then initialize the BIOS (a firmware that resides on a ROM (usually Flash memory now) found on the motherboard; it's the first code that's run by a PC when powered on))

2. BIOS Phase (I read many many variations of this phase, not sure if I'm right)
// Pretty much about BIOS identifying, performing POST on each hardware, hardware's BIOS then perform SMART test individually before hardware are initialized by the BIOS. BIOS will check CMOS for settings to locate the bootloader?) <-- not sure if it's correct

Another version that I read:

BIOS will perform the following actions:

i) Check CMOS for custom settings

ii) Load the interuppt handlers and device drivers

iii) Initialize registers and power management

iv) perform POST on all identified hardware and peripherals, of which each hardware will perform SMART inidvidually
[Self-monitoring, analysis and reporting technology] and then initialize them (hardwares)

v) Display system settings

vi) Determine which devices are bootable and load them base on the sequence stored in BIOS (or is it CMOS actually?)
(It'll start by reading the first bootup device (usually floppy). If no diskette is detected, then it'll skip and read the 2nd bootup device which is usually the hard disk. Otherwise if a floppy disk is detected, it'll check if it's a disk containing the OS files for booting up. If it's not a bootable disk, then error will display along with one short beep sound.)

vii) initiate the boot sequence for loading OS



3. Bootloader phase (very unclear on this one)
Here's the version I've heard:
BIOS locates the location of bootloader from CMOS, bootloader will then check with Master Boot Record (MBR) which will inturn initiate the NTLDR and boot.ini for the software loading sequence inorder to load the main OS. Bootloader then loads the OS.



4. OS Config Phase
// I heard about "XP Kernel" but I'm not sure whats that yet.


5. Security & Logon Phase
// Heard about Ntosml.exe,winlogon.exe and lsass.exe, havent read about them yet.
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I would really really really appreciate if any experts out there can share his knowledge with me. Might even pay you a little via paypal to teach me more on hardwares and security if you're really good at it.


Thanks alot for reading!


With Regards,
Felix