Updating your BIOS in DOS w/ Window 7 / Vista using a USB Drive
Written by max on 2009-11-22
Problem
You need to update your BIOS using a DOS boot disk and you’re running Windows 7, or Vista. Chances are you haven’t seen a DOS floppy, much less the floppy drive to put it in, since 1985.
Solution
I found many sites telling you how to make a USB stick bootable for installing Windows 7, but none on how to make it bootable for DOS for upgrading the BIOS or other diag.
Here is one solution I found :
- Download a Windows 98 Bootable CD image from http://www.allbootdisks.com/download/iso.html and burn it to a CD.
- Download the HP Flash Drive Format program that you will find mentioned on tons of differents sites : http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&swItem=MTX-UNITY-I23839&jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN and install it.
- Using that utility, format your flash drive with FAT32, Make it Bootable, and point the utility to your CDROM drive with the CD you made in Step 1.
- Copy your BIOS and flash utility to the USB drive
- Boot the computer using the USB stick. This may require entering a Boot Menu w/ F11 or F12, and/or changing some settings in the BIOS such as “Enable Legacy USB Support”. Chances are it will just work by putting the USB stick in and rebooting.
- Follow the motherboard manufacturer instructions on how to flash the BIOS.
Good luck and enjoy!
-m