Which type of virus is stored in the first sector of a hard drive?

A boot sector virus resides in the first sector of a hard drive, specifically the boot sector, which is a critical area used during the system's startup process. When the computer is powered on, the BIOS looks for the boot sector to load the operating system. If a boot sector virus is present, it can take control before the operating system loads, allowing it to execute its payload and potentially infect the system.

This kind of virus can be particularly damaging because it can be difficult to detect and remove through standard antivirus software since it operates at a low level, often even before the operating system has been initialized. Other types of viruses, such as macro viruses, program viruses, and multipartite viruses, target different areas or types of files and do not specifically infect the boot sector, which is why they do not fit this context.