Comparison of boot loaders
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The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of available bootloaders.
[edit] Features
| Name | Software license | It can reside in | Boot from | Can boot | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MBR only | MBR / VBR | Floppy | Hard Disk | Second Hard Disk | Logical partitions | CD-ROM | Floppy | USB | Zip | LAN | MS-DOS | Windows 9x/Me | Windows NT series | Windows Vista | Linux | ReactOS | MenuetOS | OpenBSD | ||
| Acronis OS Selector | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
| Boot Camp | Proprietary | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| BootIt Next Generation | Shareware | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
| BootKey | Freeware[1] / Shareware | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
| bootman | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| BootX | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Das U-Boot | GPL | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
| GAG | GPL | Yes (SafeBoot) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | No (calls NTLDR) | No (calls Windows Boot Manager) | No (calls GRUB or LILO) | No (calls bootloader) | No (calls bootloader) | No (calls bootloader) |
| GRUB | GPL | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No (calls NTLDR) | No (calls Windows Boot Manager) | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
| Gujin | GPL | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
| LILO | BSD license | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
| loadlin | GPL | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | ? |
| Madboot | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| MasterBooter | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| NTLDR | ? | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | No | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| OSL2000 Boot Manager | Freeware[2] / Shareware | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No (calls GRUB or LILO) | ? | ? | ? |
| Smart Boot Manager | Open source | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| SPFdisk | Open source | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Syslinux | GPL | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
| XOSL | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| zBoot Manager | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Windows Boot Manager | ? | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | No (calls NTLDR) | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
| Name | Software license | It can reside in | Boot from | Can boot | ||||||||||||||||
| MBR only | MBR / VBR | Floppy | Hard Disk | Second Hard Disk | Logical partitions | CD-ROM | Floppy | USB | Zip | LAN | MS-DOS | Windows 9x/Me | Windows NT series | Windows Vista | Linux | ReactOS | MenuetOS | OpenBSD | ||
