COMPTIA A+ Practice Exam 2026 – 400 Free Practice Questions to Pass the Exam

POST routines, which stand for Power-On Self-Test routines, are stored in the BIOS. The BIOS is firmware that initializes and tests the system hardware components during the startup process before loading the operating system. During POST, the BIOS conducts several checks on the hardware, such as the CPU, memory, and storage devices, to ensure they are functioning correctly.

Since the BIOS is a type of non-volatile memory, it retains the POST routines even when the computer is powered off. This is crucial for ensuring that the testing and initialization of hardware occur every time the computer boots up. Understanding that POST routines are specifically part of the BIOS firmware highlights their essential role in the system's boot process and overall hardware health checking.