flashing bios to NTFS any diff than to FAT32 Win XP?

[Randyman]

I just flashed a bios to an older Epox 8KHA+ MB that will be used for
emergency replacement and extra storage, etc(I'll be replacing an Athlon
1600+ with a 2400+ cpu------never wanted to chance a bios change until now
because everything was working very smooth). That system had a FAT32
formatted Win XP system, and I used a abrev. DOS boot floppy with the
awdflash utility and correct bin file; all went smooth. Tomorrow I receive
my new MB replacement(a P4P800 deluxe) for a new system with a Pent 4 2.8c
processor , and I will start assembling it probably tomorrow night. The
system will be formatted NTFS this time.

Will my approach to flashing a bios be much different? Can a person use a
Dos boot floppy to flash a NTFS formatted system? I know there are
instructions at the ASUS site, and I sort of looked them over (not much
yet). Can CDROMS be used in place of the floppy for a flash -- just
curious( I know I would need to change boot order --- my NTFS system of my
father was set up with CDROM boot first by me)? Floppies seem to be the
chief bios flashing media --is this for NTSF too?

The bios instructions at any site never seem to address if there are any
different aspects to flashing different systems formatted differently, and
what precautions to take. Most bios instructions never mention things like
being case sensitive when typing in awdflash xxxxx.bin commands in some
cases or if you need to use switches, clear cmos jumpers, etc. Its almost
dangerous to read too much on bios flashing on the Net-- it could lead one
down a dreary bios chip wasted path, but it does show a person there are
many reasons bios flashes fail.

Sincerely -- Randyman

 

[Strontium]

You can use a Win98 bootdisk. Or, like me, take an image of a Win98
bootdisk (www.bootdisk.com) and use Nero to create a Win98 bootdisc (CD).
But, all of that might be irrelevent if your new board can be flashed by a
utility that runs in Windows, reboots, does the flash for you. That's how
Intel boards are doing it, these days. Kinda nice, actually. As for
filesystem, that's really not relevant. A Win98 bootdisk works, just fine,
in an NTFS box. Just hit F5, when it asks whether you want to boot with
CDROM support . This is the equivalent of 'safemode' for DOS. Insert your
floppy. Type B: to switch over to the floppy drive, if you used a bootCD
like I do.

-
Randyman stood up at show-n-tell, in (e-mail address removed), and
said:

 

[Larc]

| I just flashed a bios to an older Epox 8KHA+ MB that will be used for
| emergency replacement and extra storage, etc(I'll be replacing an Athlon
| 1600+ with a 2400+ cpu------never wanted to chance a bios change until now
| because everything was working very smooth). That system had a FAT32
| formatted Win XP system, and I used a abrev. DOS boot floppy with the
| awdflash utility and correct bin file; all went smooth. Tomorrow I receive
| my new MB replacement(a P4P800 deluxe) for a new system with a Pent 4 2.8c
| processor , and I will start assembling it probably tomorrow night. The
| system will be formatted NTFS this time.
|
| Will my approach to flashing a bios be much different? Can a person use a
| Dos boot floppy to flash a NTFS formatted system? I know there are
| instructions at the ASUS site, and I sort of looked them over (not much
| yet). Can CDROMS be used in place of the floppy for a flash -- just
| curious( I know I would need to change boot order --- my NTFS system of my
| father was set up with CDROM boot first by me)? Floppies seem to be the
| chief bios flashing media --is this for NTSF too?

If you're concerned about flashing directly from a floppy (and some motherboard
manufacturers do advise against it), boot with a Win9x startup diskette. It
will create a RAM drive. Use a second diskette to copy the flash files to the
RAM drive and flash from there.

Larc



§§§ - Please raise temperature of mail to reply by e-mail - §§§

 

[Conor]

I just flashed a bios to an older Epox 8KHA+ MB that will be used for
emergency replacement and extra storage, etc(I'll be replacing an Athlon
1600+ with a 2400+ cpu------never wanted to chance a bios change until now
because everything was working very smooth). That system had a FAT32
formatted Win XP system, and I used a abrev. DOS boot floppy with the
awdflash utility and correct bin file; all went smooth. Tomorrow I receive
my new MB replacement(a P4P800 deluxe) for a new system with a Pent 4 2.8c
processor , and I will start assembling it probably tomorrow night. The
system will be formatted NTFS this time.

Will my approach to flashing a bios be much different? Can a person use a
Dos boot floppy to flash a NTFS formatted system?

Dead easy.

Stick a floppy in the drive. Go to Windows Explorer, right click on the
floppy, select format, ensure the "Create startup disk" is ticked and
away youu go. It'll create a bare bootable floppy. Copy the FLASH
utility and BIOS file to the floppy and boot off that.

The only time you'll have a problem is if you try and boot off a floppy
and want to read a BIOS file stored on a HDD partitioned using NTFS.

FWIW alot of motherboards now come with a flash utility that works in
Windows. You click on an icon, it goes to the mobo FTP site, downloads
the BIOS and flashes it.

--
________________________
Conor Turton
(e-mail address removed)
ICQ:31909763
________________________

 

[Randyman]

Thank you Strontium, Larc, and Conor(and anyone else who adds some insight )
for constructive advice and info. The last floppy for the Epox flash was
made right in Win XP "my computer or was it Win explorer like Conor. I
deleted a few unnecessary files in the Dos boot disk to make room the
expanded flash. I'm glad each of you added some detail You-all have a
great week. Any of you out there on the Net do a flash a Asus P4P800 Dx MB?
Any suggestions or things to watch out for when doing a bios flash on that
board besides not doing it in a thunder storm. Thanks ----- *<];o)]

Sincerely - Randyman
================================================

 

[Strontium]

Not me, sorry. I, really, wanted to run the P4C800. My overclocked
(BIOS-wise) Asus GF3Ti200 prevented that. I'm running the wIntel D865GBF,
because the shop (after frying 3 CMOS chips with my video card...yes I'm
sure they hate me, now) was not getting the 875 boards from wIntel until the
next day. After three days of HELL, I was not about to wait. Saved me
$100, to boot.

-
Randyman stood up at show-n-tell, in (e-mail address removed), and
said:

Thank you Strontium, Larc, and Conor(and anyone else who adds some
insight ) for constructive advice and info. The last floppy for the
Epox flash was made right in Win XP "my computer or was it Win
explorer like Conor. I deleted a few unnecessary files in the Dos
boot disk to make room the expanded flash. I'm glad each of you
added some detail You-all have a great week. Any of you out there
on the Net do a flash a Asus P4P800 Dx MB? Any suggestions or things
to watch out for when doing a bios flash on that board besides not
doing it in a thunder storm. Thanks ----- *<];o)]

Sincerely - Randyman
================================================

I just flashed a bios to an older Epox 8KHA+ MB that will be used for
emergency replacement and extra storage, etc(I'll be replacing an
Athlon 1600+ with a 2400+ cpu------never wanted to chance a bios
change until now because everything was working very smooth). That
system had a FAT32 formatted Win XP system, and I used a abrev. DOS
boot floppy with the awdflash utility and correct bin file; all went
smooth. Tomorrow I receive my new MB replacement(a P4P800 deluxe)
for a new system with a Pent 4 2.8c processor , and I will start
assembling it probably tomorrow night. The system will be formatted
NTFS this time.

Will my approach to flashing a bios be much different? Can a person
use a Dos boot floppy to flash a NTFS formatted system? I know
there are instructions at the ASUS site, and I sort of looked them
over (not much yet). Can CDROMS be used in place of the floppy for
a flash -- just curious( I know I would need to change boot order
--- my NTFS system of my father was set up with CDROM boot first by
me)? Floppies seem to be the chief bios flashing media --is this
for NTSF too?

The bios instructions at any site never seem to address if there are
any different aspects to flashing different systems formatted
differently, and what precautions to take. Most bios instructions
never mention things like being case sensitive when typing in
awdflash xxxxx.bin commands in some cases or if you need to use
switches, clear cmos jumpers, etc. Its almost dangerous to read too
much on bios flashing on the Net-- it could lead one down a dreary
bios chip wasted path, but it does show a person there are many
reasons bios flashes fail.

Sincerely -- Randyman

 

[Mickey Mouse]

When you flash a BIOS the hard drive has nothing to do with it. BIOS is
accessed before it reaches the hard drive bot stage.

The biggest danger is that the floppy drive will quit working in the middle.
It might be possible to make a bootable CDROM and put the files on a CDR.