BIOS-level floppy boot-sector virus prevention

A system for implementing a BIOS-level floppy boot protection system on a computer, the system comprising:

• means for reading a boot table and identifying a first device in the boot table;
• means for determining whether the first device is a floppy disk drive;
• means for detecting the presence of a bootable floppy disk in the floppy disk drive of the computer;
• means for determining whether a floppy boot protection is enabled;
• means for querying a user concerning whether to boot the computer from the floppy disk;
• means for determining whether the user has responded to the query;
• means responsive to an affirmative response to the query for booting the computer from the floppy disk;
• and
• means responsive to a negative response to the query for booting the computer from another bootable device connected to the computer.

A computer program product comprising:

• a computer program processable by a computer system for causing the computer system to:
• read a boot table and identifying a first device in the boot table;
• determine whether the first device is a floppy disk drive;
• detect the presence of a bootable floppy disk in a floppy disk drive of the computer;
• determine whether a floppy boot protection system is enabled;
• query a user concerning whether to boot the computer from the floppy disk;
• determine whether the user has responded to the query;
• boot the computer from the floppy disk responsive to an affirmative response to the query;
• and
• boot the computer from another bootable device connected to the computer responsive to a negative response to the query;
• and
• the computer system processing the computer program for implementing a BIOS-level floppy boot protection system.