Flashing Your BIOS

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The README.TXT - included in download file flashcd1.zip, previously named flashcd.zip before I added the SATA CDrom driver in the boot menu.

Flash your bios on a pc with no floppy drive.

flashcd.iso is an image of a bootable DOS7 floppy. In order to make it usable to also handle your bios flash files it has a cdrom driver and mscdex.exe loaded. What you will be doing is adding your bios flashing program and bios file to the .iso and then burning the .iso to CD.

It has 4 IDE and 1 SATA driver in the boot menu.
and,
An option to boot with NO CDrom driver if required in case you don't want any drivers loading up at all.

BEGIN WARNING

The best way to flash a bios is using a clean booting 1.44 floppy disk but most PCs are built these days without one.

If you have another pc with a floppy drive, you should really first try copying your bios flash files to a clean, bootable dos floppy and then burning a boot CD from the boot floppy that contains the flash utilities and using that CD on your floppyless pc.

If the above are not options then using this utility and instructions is another way to address your dilemma.

Please be aware of the possible implications of flashing before you proceed and ALSO make sure that:

1. The bios flash upgrade from your motherboard maker actually addresses the problem you are trying to solve.

2. You make a backup of your bios which you should be able to do on your hard drive but also save the backup to a CD like this one so you can get to it later with a bootable CD such as this. Many bios flashing utilities have a choice for backing up your existing BIOS should the flash not work.

3. Keep in mind tho, if a flash goes bad, or doesn't work afterwords as planned, you _may_ not be able to "reflash" with the original saved copy of your original/saved/previous BIOS.

4. So be as sure as you can be that you "really" need to flash.

END WARNING

There are 2 files in this zippack, this readme and the flashcd.iso file. If you just burn the .iso as a test you'll see the bootfiles as drive A: What you are going to do is add your bios flash files to flashcd.iso and then burn your bootable cd which will inlcude your bios files which will be seen in drive R: after you boot. I'd also add the bios backup file you made to your flash CD.

I use UltraISO to do this. It's a free trial. www.ezbsystems.com

To add bios files:

File | Open | Select flashcd.iso | Open | Image windows shows bootable | Select your bios files in the lower window | Drag to the top window | File | Save

or,

Actions | Add Files | Open | File | Save
Note that oddly, the file size of flashcd.iso may not change.

To burn:

File | Open | Click on flashcd.iso | Open | You'll see your bios flash files on the right | Tools | Burn

When you boot with the CD the startup files will be seen as drive A: and the bios files you added will be seen in drive R:

This is not a guaranteed science.

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DOWNLOAD flashcd1.zip

Bootable CD ISO to flash your BIOS which you will add your bios flashing utils and bios backup to. Click HERE to purchase for $4.00 and also get access to many other nice utilities.

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Thanks for visiting and remember: Don't fix a system that's not broken :)

Kindest regards,
Ed Jablonowski
Bootdisk.Com

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