What is the difference between cold and hot start?

The main difference between cold and warm boot is that the cold boot is the process of starting the computer that shuts down while the warm boot is the process of restarting the computer without interrupting power.

Booting is a process or set of operations involved in loading and starting the operating system from the point where the user turns on the power button. Also called reset, boot, bootstrap, or bootstrap. At boot, the boot instructions are loaded from the computer’s ROM. The operating system is then loaded from the current boot disk. Typically, the boot disk can be an internal hard drive. After the operating system loads, the boot process is complete and the computer is ready to use. Cold and hot boot are two types of boot.

Key Areas Covered

1. What is cold start?
     – Definition, Functionality
2. What is Warm Booting
     – Definition, Functionality
3. What is the difference between cold and warm booting?
     – Comparison of key differences

Key terms

Boot, Cold Boot, Operating System, Warm Boot

What is cold start?

Cold booting is the process of starting a computer that is turned off. It is usually done by pressing the power button on the computer. Cold start performs the “Power On Self Test” (POST). It is a series of system checks at the beginning of the boot sequence. In other words, it checks if all the requirements are met and if the hardware is working properly before starting the operating system.

When troubleshooting the computer, the user is prompted to shut down the computer completely. A cold start is then performed. It erases all temporary data from the system and eliminates problems that can affect the functionality of the computer.

What is Warm Booting

Warm booting is the process of restarting a computer. It can be initialized using the operating system. In Windows, the user can perform a warm boot by selecting the restart option from the boot menu. On Mac, the user can perform a warm boot by selecting restart from the Apple menu.

Usually, warm boot is performed more often than cold boot because users leave the computer in sleep mode when they are not working. The warm boot does not include power up in the self test, but does the rest of the boot sequence. It also loads all system files that were installed before the computer was restarted.

Difference between cold and hot start

Definition

Cold booting is the process of starting a computer from a shutdown or no-power state and setting it to normal working conditions. Warm booting is the process of restarting a computer that is already on without completely shutting it down. Thus, this explains the main difference between hot and cold boot.

initialized by

While cold boot is initiated by pressing the power button on the computer, warm boot is initiated by the operating system.

synonyms

Cold start is also known as hard start, cold start, dead start. Hot start is also called soft start.

Restart

A cold boot performs a more complete system reset than a warm boot. This is another difference between cold and warm boot.

power on self test

Also, cold boot includes Power On Self Test (POST) while warm boot does not include POST.

frequency of use

Another difference between hot and cold boot is that hot boot is more common than cold boot.

conclusion

The boot can be cold or warm depending on whether the system needs to start from the dead or on state. The difference between cold boot and warm boot is that cold boot is the process of restarting the computer without the need to interrupt power.

Reference:

1. Definition of “Cold Start”. P2P (Peer To Peer), available here.
2. Definition of “Hot Start”. P2P (peer-to-peer), available here.

Courtesy image:

1. “414059” (CC0) via Pixabay