boot CD (no floppy) for BIOS update?

M

mavis

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Hey guys!!

In the process of getting my rig built (see sig) and I'm almost done - supposed to get my monitor delivered tomorrow, which is the last thing I need ... :D

Anyway, I've decided to NOT get a floppy for my system because I never use them - except for when I flash my BIOS, that is. Any suggestions on how to create a bootable CDROM? I've searched the forums but can only find references to the WinXP CDROM, which I already have :) ... I guess I need to make a CDROM which can boot into DOS? I only need it for flashing my BIOS ...

Thanks for any suggestions you guys (and girls) might have!

mavis
 
floppy drive

I understand what you are saying, that you don't use a floppy drive much, but they are so cheap why wouldn't you include one? They are only about $15.
 
yeah, I see your guys' point ... it's just that I spent a fair amount of time stealthing my CDR/DVD drive, and I really hate to have an ugly floppy screw the whole thing up (looks wise) ... I'll attach a pic so you can see what I'm talking about. Bear in mind that the whole thing is about the size of a shoebox - looks are important! ;) ... anyway the pic shows my rig with the CDR/DVD installed.

I'm sure it's possible to create a boot CD, I just need help actually doing it ... :D

mavis
 
Most times a boot CD won't work. For example my Soyo board has to write a backup of the old BIOS back to the floppy disk, and i cant choose not to. Obviously it cant write back to the CD. Why not just get a $9 floppy, hook it up temp just hanging outside the case, flash the BIOS, and remove it

JJB
 
why not get an external floppy drive to hook up when you need it and remove when you dont... or even better how about a zip drive??
 
Floppy flashes are inherently dangerous

Some folks will boot into DOS and set up a RAMdrive for flashing BIOS.

I prefer to leave a little 360MB FAT Partition on the drive hooked up to IDE 1. Then load the BIOS and flash utility on the FAT partition, boot into DOS and voila!
 
Don't forget you are going to need a floppy to recover from virus attack, imaging software ect. A lot of programs still require boot floppies for emergencies.
 
Anyway, I've decided to NOT get a floppy for my system because I never use them - except for when I flash my BIOS, that is. Any suggestions on how to create a bootable CDROM? I've searched the forums but can only find references to the WinXP CDROM, which I already have ... I guess I need to make a CDROM which can boot into DOS? I only need it for flashing my BIOS ...

I realize this is an oooold thread but I also realize that nobody actually came up with an answer to this question, and it's exactly what i want to do....does anyone have a solution OTHER THAN "buy a floppy drive, they're cheap?"

C'mon guys! A challenge!
 
I would think that making a small FAT32 partition for stuff like this would be a good idea. I have one on my main harddrive just to make dual booting and sharing with linux easier. Of course, to do this, you would probably have to reformat. :huh: As for the bootable cd, you can make one through nero, but you must first have a boot image to use. Find a computer that has a floppy drive and a cd burner. Make the floppy bootable. Use that floppy as your boot image and then put on whatever else you need. Now then, for a BIOS update, this might not work since some BIOS updates need to write stuff back somewhere. I guess what you could do is have the cd boot up and make a RAM drive like some of the 98 boot disks do and copy the BIOS update to it from the CD and run it from there.
 
Thanks, Zyfos, I think I'll try creating a bootable partition first. This can be done with Partition Magic.

I see Nero looking for a "Boot-Image File (*.IMA)" or an image file (*.IMG); suppose I could download one from somewhere?

I would really like to do this without resorting to using a floppy! Just to prove a point; I don't even need the update, actually. I do recall that my bios update program queries for backup, as in it's optional (I think).
 
While I've not tried it, why not a a dual boot? WinXP as the primary, and DOS as the second? A tiny fat32 partition would be more than enough.

In Windows, you put what ever you need on the partition, the flasher, bios rev, etc. Set the boot menu to 0 secs when not using
it.

Of course, you'd need a floppy to set it up most likely, if for nothing else but doing a sys.

-Ryandor
 
There is a great (but technical) article about creating a bootdisk @ Bart's way to create bootable CD-Roms.

Normally a floppy is used to create a boot file so that you can test things out, before you burn it on cd... You have to do it the hard way :)

Gert-Jan
 
Normally a floppy is used to create a boot file so that you can test things out, before you burn it on cd... You have to do it the hard way :)

[/B]
The easy way out would be to just buy a floppy drive...it's just that I occasionally see articles touting "The Death of the Floppy" and it strikes me as strange that nobody with a floppy-less setup is able to update their bios without going out and purchasing a piece of hardware that they don't need for anything else!
 
Newer bios versions do allow a boot from a usb device: (e.g. some hp biosses; dell optiplex; etc.)

So i imagine in the near future that a diskless system has got a bios which can be booted from a usb device...

Then you can have a 32mb usb key and use it just as if it were a floppy...

Gert-Jan
 
Don't what that attachment is supposed to be, but it sure is ugly.
 
EWWWWW...it sure is gross. Hadn't looked until you mentioned it, Gus!

Guess what, everybody! I popped a floppy drive in my rig! I made a bootable CD! I put the bios update files on it! I ran the update program! I chose not to save a backup of the original! It tried to write to CD anyway! I blew my motherboard!!!!!!

So now we know.

Please post your recommendations for a new motherboardhere.
 
:eek: Ouch! Guess the floppy drive would have been the easier and cheaper way out.
Oh yeah, I once used my floppy drive to do an unattended install of XP! But that's about it. :rolleyes:
 

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