Patent ID: 8146093

Claim:
A switching method for a computer having at least a first and a second operating systems (OSs), in the computer a first data exchange region is provided for storing the running environment information of the first OS, and a second data exchange region is provided for storing the running environment information of the second OS, wherein the method comprises: A. saving a current running state information of computer hardware devices and the current running environment information of the first OS in a random access memory (RAM) after receiving a command for switching from the currently operated first OS to the second OS; B. copying the current running environment information of the first OS saved in the RAM to the first data exchange region, and copying the running environment information of the second OS previously stored in the second data exchange region to the RAM; and C. restoring the current running state information of the computer hardware devices based on the current running information saved in the RAM, and starting the second OS based on the running environment information of the second OS copied to the RAM and the state of the computer hardware devices; wherein before copying the running environment information of the second OS previously stored in the second data exchange region to the RAM in the step B the method further comprises: B 1. Judging by a basic input/output system (BIOS), whether there is running environment information of the second OS stored in the second data exchange region, and if there is, copying the running environment information to the RAM, while if there is not, the second OS is started for the first time, obtaining preset running environment information for the second OS from the hard disk, wherein the BIOS initializes the computer hardware devices, detects the hard disk and then start the second OS with the obtained running environment information, and the second OS is started after detection of the hard disk; wherein said process of step B is performed by the BIOS of the computer, and said process of step C is performed by the BIOS of the computer.