A bootable floppy is a floppy disk that contains an operating system and programs to load it during system bootstrapping. Other media can also be used for this purpose, and collectively are called boot disks. A floppy disk is a data storage device that is composed of a disk of thin, flexible (floppy) magnetic storage medium encased in a square or rectangular plastic shell. ... An operating system (OS) is a computer program that manages the hardware and software resources of a computer. ... In computing, Bootstrapping refers to a process where a simple system activates another more complicated system that serves the same purpose. ... A boot disk is a removable media, normally read-only, that can boot an operating system or utility. ...

The most commonly available floppy disk can hold only 1.44MB of data, making it impractical for loading large operating systems. Bootable floppies usually contain MS-DOS or miniature versions of Linux. They are generally used to run system tests, install hardware, and assist the installation of larger operating systems. As of 2007, they are no longer in common use due to the availability of other higher-capacity options, such as CD-ROMs or USB flash drives. A megabyte is a unit of information or computer storage equal to exactly one million bytes. ... An operating system (OS) is a computer program that manages the hardware and software resources of a computer. ... Microsofts disk operating system, MS-DOS, was Microsofts implementation of DOS, which was the first popular operating system for the IBM PC, and until recently, was widely used on the PC compatible platform. ... Linux (IPA pronunciation: ) is a Unix-like computer operating system family. ... System testing is testing conducted on a complete, integrated system to evaluate the systems compliance with its specified requirements. ... Hardware is the general term that is used to describe physical artifacts of a technology. ... The CD-ROM (an abbreviation for Compact Disc Read-Only Memory (ROM)) is a non-volatile optical data storage medium using the same physical format as audio compact discs, readable by a computer with a CD-ROM drive. ... A USB drive, shown with a 24 mm US quarter coin for scale. ...