Apparatus and a method for allowing an operating system of a computer system to persist across a power off and on cycle

In a computer system having a nonvolatile memory and an operating system, a method of allowing the operating system to persist across a system power off and on cycle, comprising the steps of:

• (A) detecting if the computer system is to be powered off;
• (B) preserving a state of the computer system by storing data representing the state of the computer system in a designated area of the nonvolatile memory if the computer system is detected to be powered off;
• (C) changing a system initialization code of the operating system by
• (i) creating a new system initialization code of the operating system that stores an entry address to a code for restoring the system state from the designated area of the nonvolatile memory;
• (ii) storing the new system initialization code in a boot sector of a mass storage device of the computer system where the system initialization code is designated to be stored such that when the computer system is again powered on, the new system initialization code causes access to the designated area of the nonvolatile memory for the data to restore the computer system to the state before the computer system was powered off;
• and
• (D) restoring the computer system to the state before the computer system was powered off by accessing the designated area of the nonvolatile memory for the data when the computer system is again powered on.