Upgrading BIOS for Win2k/XP

MSX · Oct 27, 2002, 03:07 PM

Hey anyone know of a utility out there to upgrade the BIOS of well, anything that is supposed to be in pure dos mode when that is done? I know updating BIOS can be done under 2k/XP because ASUS MB's do it... But what I was more looking for is a utility that tricks the app or whatever for older dos flashing utilities.

There is a few utilities I've found Caldera DR-DOS, but I havent played with it. IS it any good?

If there isint one there really should be, because its a pain in the ass to have to go install Win98 or pure dos partition.

MSX

UberLord · Oct 27, 2002, 03:49 PM

Windows XP can create an MS-DOS boot floppy when you format a floppy. Comes in very handy for flashing when they don't provide a Win32 flasher

MSX · Oct 27, 2002, 05:02 PM

Well, I run into two problems there. One. I'm running 2k, which mite have one but I'm unsure of where... The second is that I dont have an actual floppy drive. I have a zip 100, and most programs have issues with creating a boot disk onto them.

MSX

reno · Oct 27, 2002, 07:58 PM

If your program doesn't create it's own disk to boot off of, then try this...

Format your zip through windows and have it copy system files (if that's possible, if not forget this entire post).

Reboot your computer

Set your BIOS to boot from ZIP drive.

Go to the directory where you have your bios file,

Run it.

Or put your BIOS file onto the zip disk along with the windows system files.

You could also buy a copy of norton system works (like 12 bucks at newegg.com) and create a bootable cd-r (if you have a burner) and just boot from cd-rom.

Man, it would be so much easier if you just found a floppy somewhere...

MSX · Oct 27, 2002, 11:42 PM

Well, nope I cant really do that... there is a repair mode for 2k installations. But thats a different type of command prompt and doesent have the same function calls.

So, I suppose till I go buy a cheap floppy I'll go and make a partition and install window's 98SE. That will do it. Hmm, whats the function call to install another os to the OS boot manager? I remember it used to be something like \b for NT... Anyone know the right way for me to go about doing this in W2K?

MSX

reno · Oct 27, 2002, 11:50 PM

Can't you get into the command prompt? You know, type "cmd" in the run thingy....you could do a "format (zip drive letter) /s" jobby...maybe

MSX · Oct 28, 2002, 01:04 AM

Nope. I checked the function calls for format in the command prompt and came up with nothing that will suit my needs. I really wish it was that easy.

I looked around the net and found that all the tutorials out there recommend installing win98 first. Even the win2k help manager says I should do it as well, but thats more trouble than its worth. To think anyone would want to downgrade...

Anyone know how to do that without haivng to start over? I'm thinking I could just install win98 on a fat32 partition and use a boot manager program and add 2k... I dont want to go through all the trouble if its not going to work anyway.

MSX