Re: BIOS update from a DOS box inside Windows XP?

"Andrew Hamilton" <Ahamilton90900@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:glccf4l4ua9prutleu72bj5r376qsp7opl@xxxxxxxxxx
| I just downloaded the firmware updates for my Adaptec SA 2410
| SATA-RAID card. The instructions are as follows:
|
| Once the files are extracted please copy each *.ufi file
individually
| to a separate floppy disk. If this is not done, you may encounter
read
| errors from one of the files when flashing the controller.
| Shut down the operating system and reboot to DOS from a bootable
| floppy disk. Insert the floppy with the update files. Run the flash
| utility program named AFU.EXE included in this download and flash
the
| new Firmware/BIOS image.
|
| My question, based on the fact that it's a pain in the arse to
connect
| up a floppy AND the fact that my hard drives are all SATA:
|
| Instead of following the instructions, can I open up a DOS box in
| Windows XP and run the AFU.EXE utility from there? If so, do I
still
| need to have a floppy drive attached, or can I somehow "map" the A:
| drive to a folder on one of my hard drives?
|
| IF I can use a DOS box for updating my drive controller, can I also
do
| the same to update the BIOS on my video card?
|


DOS box in XP not a good approach, may not work as virtualization of
the hardware is not complete or "transparent" to programs such as
flash utilities.

A good alternative to a floppy is to use a bootable USB memory stick.
Since the sticks are quite cheap now one might have a USB stick just
for this purpose. I downloaded an HP utility some time back that will
format a USB stick to make it bootable, and I use the stick quite
often now for Ghost backup creation, BIOS flashes, troubleshooting
etc. Another tip: I put a NTFS DOS tool on the USB stick to enable
reading NTFS files.

Here's more info:
http://www.bootdisk.com/pendrive.htm
--
Best regards,
Kyle

.

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