What is a BIOS?

BIOS is an acronym which stands for Basic Input Output System. It is a set of firmware instructions installed in personal computers that provides an operating system like Linux or Windows with a way to access to the system's hardware.

Since every piece of personal computer hardware can be dramatically different, whether it is a video card, a DVD drive or a sound card, even between models of the exact same device, something like a BIOS is necessary in order to provide a consistent framework within which the computer's operating system can make all of the different types of hardware work together.

Most users will never need to work with a system BIOS, since almost all new computers have pre-installed and pre-configured hardware. Sometimes installation of a larger hard drive will require configuration of the BIOS, but now, unlike the dark times, most BIOS can automatically detect hard drive geometry and automatically configure the drive as well