What is best way to Flash Bios Update on a computer?

[Joe Donaldson]

What is best way to Flash Bios Update on a computer?


I have run into a few scenarios helping my friends to flash their
Bios. Gateway makes it a bit difficult for their older computers.

However to make it simple.
If I am running Windows 2000 with NTFS, can I take a WIN 98 DOS Boot
diskette with the system on it and then copy all the bios update files
to it and reboot the computer?

I ask this since Windows 2000 and am not sure about XP do not (to my
knowledge) have a way to create a DOS Bootable Diskette. I have of
course been to www.bootdisk.com

...however I am wondering if my proposed solution would work for all
Windows computers since we are flashing the BIOS and this a a pre
Windows load event.

Thanks, Joe

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Joe.

As you know, "how to flash a BIOS" is not a Windows question because the
BIOS flash happens long before Windows begins to load.

In WinXP, it's very easy to make an MS-DOS startup diskette. (I haven't
used Win2K in nearly 3 years, so I've forgotten how to do it there.) Just
make sure a blank (or expendable) diskette is in the floppy drive. Then
right-click on Drive A: in My Computer (or Windows Explorer). Choose
Format..., then on the next menu, choose "Create an MS-DOS startup disk".

This creates an MS-DOS boot floppy that just boots MS-DOS - and quits at the
A:> prompt. You can then add whatever drivers, utilities or other programs
that you need or want on that floppy. If your hard drive volumes are
formatted FAT (any version), you can read them after booting from the
floppy, but you can't read any NTFS volumes (without a third-party program).

The only BIOS flashes I've done have been for mobos with Award BIOS - never
a Gateway. I download a self-extracting .exe file of about 256 KB; this
extracts into a .bin file containing the actual BIOS code, and AWDFLASH.EXE,
which writes that .bin to the EEPROM, plus a .bat file with the proper
command, and a Readme. All these extracted files fit comfortably on the
boot floppy, so I just extract them to there, then set my computer to boot
from the floppy and reboot. After the flash completes, I remove the floppy
and reboot to my HD - and check the opening screen to be sure that the BIOS
line at the bottom has been updated. Usually, the only part of that line
that has changed is the date. Then the boot continues to load Windows as
before.

If I am running Windows 2000 with NTFS, can I take a WIN 98 DOS Boot
diskette with the system on it and then copy all the bios update files
to it and reboot the computer?

Sure. The BIOS flash procedure does not need to read the HD at all. It
needs just MS-DOS itself (io.sys and msdos.sys) and the files extracted from
the BIOS package.

RC

 

[Joe Donaldson]

Thanks. My big problem now is to create a boot disk for DOS that can read NTFS.

THanks, Joe

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Joe.

Why? You certainly don't need it for the BIOS flash.

But there are MS-DOS programs that can read NTFS. I haven't tried them, but
the one I've heard most about is NTFSDOS by Sysinternals, available at:
http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/utilities.shtml.

RC

 

[Overlord]

What is best way to Flash Bios Update on a computer?


I have run into a few scenarios helping my friends to flash their
Bios. Gateway makes it a bit difficult for their older computers.

However to make it simple.
If I am running Windows 2000 with NTFS, can I take a WIN 98 DOS Boot
diskette with the system on it and then copy all the bios update files
to it and reboot the computer?

Yes, that'll work fine. I've always used a DOS 6.2 disk for that.
Asus has a utility that I used once to flash the BIOS from Winders 2000.
It worked fine but feels un-natural. These days I run a hacked BIOS to get
around some Asus BIOS "features" so I haven't flashed it in a while.

Most flash utils have an option to save the current BIOS to disk.
To minimize fubar eeprom flashes, I Always choose the menu options
to save the current bios as a file. If it doesn't go right, the whole deal is
off because something is already wrong. I don't flash it that boot.

With the older flash utils, I always killed off himem.sys and emm386
along with ansi.sys and whatever other junk wound up on the disk.

I ask this since Windows 2000 and am not sure about XP do not (to my
knowledge) have a way to create a DOS Bootable Diskette. I have of
course been to www.bootdisk.com

..however I am wondering if my proposed solution would work for all
Windows computers since we are flashing the BIOS and this a a pre
Windows load event.

No, this is an instead of Windows load event.
And of course there are some more recent systems that have no floppy drive.
You might consider making a bootable 3" 200meg CDRW for DOS 6.2.
You'd avoid all the issues that floppies sometimes have, it'd be more durable,
and you're gonna have to copy the binary file over to something in any case,
be it floppy or CDRW. And, done right, you'd have enough room for a full range
of external DOS command files, a small DOS based file manager (like Directory Master),
and a bunch of subdirectories holding a shit load of .bin files sorted according
to the directory names, ie; a:\binaries\Asus\P4G8X\1005.bin ...... 1006.bin ....
running manufacturer's flash utils a:\utils\Asus\Flash106\FlashIt.exe.

All depends on your purpose, if you want to put the effort into it, if you can
remember the paths to the files you need for that boot/flash....

Thanks, Joe

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[Joe Donaldson]

Thanks,
Joe

What is best way to Flash Bios Update on a computer?


I have run into a few scenarios helping my friends to flash their
Bios. Gateway makes it a bit difficult for their older computers.

However to make it simple.
If I am running Windows 2000 with NTFS, can I take a WIN 98 DOS Boot
diskette with the system on it and then copy all the bios update files
to it and reboot the computer?

Yes, that'll work fine. I've always used a DOS 6.2 disk for that.
Asus has a utility that I used once to flash the BIOS from Winders 2000.
It worked fine but feels un-natural. These days I run a hacked BIOS to get
around some Asus BIOS "features" so I haven't flashed it in a while.

Most flash utils have an option to save the current BIOS to disk.
To minimize fubar eeprom flashes, I Always choose the menu options
to save the current bios as a file. If it doesn't go right, the whole deal is
off because something is already wrong. I don't flash it that boot.

With the older flash utils, I always killed off himem.sys and emm386
along with ansi.sys and whatever other junk wound up on the disk.

I ask this since Windows 2000 and am not sure about XP do not (to my
knowledge) have a way to create a DOS Bootable Diskette. I have of
course been to www.bootdisk.com

..however I am wondering if my proposed solution would work for all
Windows computers since we are flashing the BIOS and this a a pre
Windows load event.

No, this is an instead of Windows load event.
And of course there are some more recent systems that have no floppy drive.
You might consider making a bootable 3" 200meg CDRW for DOS 6.2.
You'd avoid all the issues that floppies sometimes have, it'd be more durable,
and you're gonna have to copy the binary file over to something in any case,
be it floppy or CDRW. And, done right, you'd have enough room for a full range
of external DOS command files, a small DOS based file manager (like Directory Master),
and a bunch of subdirectories holding a shit load of .bin files sorted according
to the directory names, ie; a:\binaries\Asus\P4G8X\1005.bin ...... 1006.bin ....
running manufacturer's flash utils a:\utils\Asus\Flash106\FlashIt.exe.

All depends on your purpose, if you want to put the effort into it, if you can
remember the paths to the files you need for that boot/flash....

Thanks, Joe

~~~~~~
Bait for spammers:
root@localhost
postmaster@localhost
admin@localhost
abuse@localhost
postmaster@[127.0.0.1]
(e-mail address removed)
~~~~~~
Remove "spamless" to email me.