A system is provided for rebooting a computer having a volatile memory device capable of storing operating information. The system reboots the computer using the operating information stored in the memory device if the memory device contains a valid copy of the operating information. The computer reboots the computer by reloading the operating information into the memory device if the memory device does not contain a valid copy of the operating information. The system determines whether the memory device contains a valid copy of the operating information by calculating a checksum for the operating information stored in the memory device and compares the checksum to a previously calculated checksum.