BootMedium
BootMedium refers to any storage device or medium that contains data used to initialize a computer's operating system or system firmware during the boot process. Common examples include USB flash drives, optical discs, internal or external hard drives, solid-state drives, and network-based resources used in PXE boot. The term is often used to distinguish bootable media from disk volumes that contain data only.
During boot, the system firmware (BIOS in older systems or UEFI in modern machines) identifies a boot
Boot media are formatted to fit various purposes: optical media often use ISO 9660; USB or hard
Creation and testing of boot media are supported by dedicated tools such as Rufus and balenaEtcher for
Security considerations include Secure Boot, which may require signed bootloaders and kernels, and the risk of
Related topics include boot drive, live USB, PXE, bootloader, and firmware updates.