Problems? See this thread at archive.org.
Hello everyone. i was not sure where to put this because i can not make a thread in the how to section so i have it here for now...
first off i had to make some updates to the how to make a bootable usb stick thread so im writing a whole new how to. we will discuss how to do it and the different types of bios' and some commands for each. i will not get to technical so people can follow but this should cover almost any type you want to flash. im writing this all now and hope to have it done this weekend. so check back. we will cover ami, award, and phoenix and ill have both the utility and bootme files as well as some bios tools for download. ill try to discuss a bit on slic's and how they work but i can not get into how to modify or edit them as that is not appropriate for nbr even though many members have asked me how to. i mainly want to make people aware of what they do and how they work with windows activation. so please check back and if you have a request you can post it and ill try to add it to the thread for you.
mods i dont really want this merged with the old one as i want this be for all types not just really for clevo type bios' if thats okay ill be adding to it daily. once this one is done we can delete the old on if thats okay. thank you
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First get yourself a usb stick. they are so cheap now imo everyone should have at least one of them instead of a floppy drive. i do not recc personally larger than maybe a 2gb for this. sometimes the larger 4 or gb sticks will not be found under a dos prompt. this is rare but something to think about. perosnally i use a couple cheap 512mb ones i have that are held strictly for this purpose and i keep all my main bios' i use on them in case i need them later.
Next you will need to download 3 pieces of software in order to do this. ive uploaded 2 of them for you i can not upload winrar as its a paid program but this or somthing similar will be needed to extract the files you download. also note if you do not have winrar or a similar tool to extract you will need that also like winzip etc..
the first is a small utility from hp to make a usb stick bootable:
http://rapidshare.com/files/112382685/SP27608.zip
The second is the actual bootable files you need to add to the usb stick:
the one i personally use is this one its a win98 boot img that is already extracted and i have yet to have a mobo i was not able to flash with this method:
http://rapidshare.com/files/350597650/zfactorwin98.rar
this is another way to do it. this will normally work for most but i have had a few mobo's not like these files as much:
http://rapidshare.com/files/112382778/bootme.zip
this can also be done with any burning program that can burn a bootable cd/dvd disc. For this i recc imgburn which is a a fantastic program. when doing this you would select the advanced tab and check make bootable and then direct it to the boot folder from the download using the bootable .img. ill be adding more on this later with how to and pics. ill be posting some boot images as well for dos and win98 to just plug into imgburn to make it easy.
Making a bootable DOS USB Key:
First: Extract and nstall the HP USB Drive program. this will give you a icon on your dekstop for the hp usb disk storage tool.
second: Extract the DOS boot files somewhere just remember where you extracted them. Let's for now say we extracted them to C:\bootme\ it really makes no difference just as long as you know where they are located to direct the hp tool to find them. so you may place them anywhere you like just remember where they are for the next steps.
third: Now run the hp utility. VISTA AND WIN7: You need to start the HP Drive Key Program as an administrator by RIGHT CLICKING the icon and selecting "Run as Administrator" unless you have uac turned off then you can simply start the program.
fourth: Insert a USB stick and it should install the drivers for the usb stick automatically if this is the first time using it, if not they should already be installed now.
fifth: in the hp "drive key" program Choose FAT32 as the filesystem. call the volume whatever you want i call mine dosboot, but it doesn't matter. Under "Format Options" check the box next to "Quick Format" and "Create a DOS startup disk" . Choose the button next to "Using DOS system files located at:" and click the little browse button "..." next to the blank and navigate to C:\bootme (or wherever you extracted the DOS boot files earlier this is why i told you to remember where you placed them). Click OK.
Now click "Start" and the HP Drive Key utility will turn your USB device into a bootable DOS disk! It will popup a window asking you to confirm! answer ok and it will continue.
now if you check the usb stick there should be 3 files installed on it. command.com, io.sys and msdos.sys. if you do not see them you may have to unhide them if they are "hidden" files. or just simply dont worry about it they are there now so no big deal just up to you is you want to check or not.
personally i like to make a folder on the stick for my new files. as a example say we are flashing a dell. i make a folder called "dell" and then place the bios files in there. for my msi i have a folder called msi. and if i have different models i then make another folder inside msi with the name of the system, so then it would be c:\msi\gx620 as a example. this was if you have more then one system you can simply keep the bios' on that stick for future use in case you need them or so you can flash all your systems with one stick. my one stick has prob 30-40 bios' on it at any one time.
now you are ready to flash. next we will discuss some different types of bios' and their commands they use. and what to type as a starting guidline for each. ill be adding more later today. as well as adding pictures to the top part
how to flash your bios with a usb stick and other bios discussions.
Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by zfactor, Feb 13, 2010.
