boot virus

An MS-DOS virus that infects the boot record program on hard disks and floppy disks or the master boot record on hard disks. The virus gets loaded into memory before MS-DOS and takes control of the computer, infecting any floppy disks subsequently accessed. An infected boot disk may stop the computer starting up at all.

Nearby terms:
BOOTP « bootstrap « bootstrap loader « boot virus » Border Gateway Protocol » borf » Borland International, Inc.