How many different BIOS "levels" exist?

C

chrstrbrts

Member
Hi,

My question is about the BIOS, so I thought that I'd post it here as I couldn't find a sub-forum specifically geared toward questions regarding the BIOS.

How many "levels" to the BIOS are there? How many ways are there to access the BIOS?

Here is what I mean exactly.

I knew that if I pressed F12 repeatedly upon startup, I would enter the BIOS and be able to change the boot order, set the system time and date, change the boot type (UEFI vs. legacy) etc. This BIOS "level" is GUI on my computer, a new Toshiba laptop.

However, recently I had to start my computer in safe mood. I realized that I couldn't access the start up-type menu from the BIOS level I was used to. I did some research, and I realized that if I pressed F8 repeatedly upon start-up, I would enter another type of BIOS screen.

This start-up screen had no GUI and was much larger regarding menu options; it looked like the old DOS interface. It was obvious that this level of the BIOS lies much deeper than the other GUI one.

So how many "levels" are there to the BIOS? Also, how many different ways are there to access them? Can I go directly from one level to another?

Thanks.
 
bkribbs

bkribbs

New Member
chrstrbrts said:
Hi,

My question is about the BIOS, so I thought that I'd post it here as I couldn't find a sub-forum specifically geared toward questions regarding the BIOS.

How many "levels" to the BIOS are there? How many ways are there to access the BIOS?

Here is what I mean exactly.

I knew that if I pressed F12 repeatedly upon startup, I would enter the BIOS and be able to change the boot order, set the system time and date, change the boot type (UEFI vs. legacy) etc. This BIOS "level" is GUI on my computer, a new Toshiba laptop.

However, recently I had to start my computer in safe mood. I realized that I couldn't access the start up-type menu from the BIOS level I was used to. I did some research, and I realized that if I pressed F8 repeatedly upon start-up, I would enter another type of BIOS screen.

This start-up screen had no GUI and was much larger regarding menu options; it looked like the old DOS interface. It was obvious that this level of the BIOS lies much deeper than the other GUI one.

So how many "levels" are there to the BIOS? Also, how many different ways are there to access them? Can I go directly from one level to another?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Every computer is different in which buttons to press. There is a BIOS (on just about all PC's) which you access to change the startup hard drive, change certain settings, etc. That's the first one you mentioned.

You have also discovered safe mode, which is built into windows.

Many computers also have a "recovery" partition, for when someone screws up their install, and you want to start over with a fresh install.

All of these you probably hit esc or one of the "f" keys at the top to access, but again, it depends on the computer how to access certain features.
 
beers

beers

Moderator
Staff member
As stated, that wasn't the BIOS. The F8 menu is part of Windows specifically.

Just because something has a shell or looks old doesn't make it a BIOS prompt ;)
 
Okedokey

Okedokey

Well-Known Member
Actually, the BIOS contains parts, including a small version of BASIC called, Cassette Basic, the language if only minimally useful, is used to prompt the user with a message like “Non-System Disk or Disk Error” when booting without a system disk or going into safe mode. Most people never use cassette BASIC, but its there just in case. The distinct parts of the BIOS operate separately and distinctly although the code for each is contained inside the same silicon chip. The BIOS operates like a set of small terminate and stay-resident programs that are always in memory.

These days, however BIOS is actually UEFI, a different beast, but commonly called the BIOS.

FYI... F8 doesn't work in Windows 8 any more.
 
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beers

beers

Moderator
Staff member
chrstrbrts said:
Thanks.

Incidentally, within the context of computer science, what's a shell?
Click to expand...

Officially the term is something along the lines of 'a method of interacting with the OS' which can either be a GUI or CLI (command line).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_(computing)

If you ran Linux you would see something like this at boot which looks BIOS-esque from a certain perspective:
redhat.png
 
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