Flashing the BIOS in ntfs

hey guys i'm alittle confused about something.

i just installed win2k on my spare pc and not i'm trying to install xp on another hard drive and it keeps giving me errors.

so the solution is to update the BIOS, ok fine thats easy enough, or so i thought...... the directions say use a win98 boot disk and when you get to the a:\ change to c:\ but the file system is ntfs ans when i boot with the windows 98 disk it says there is no OS installed or maybe a virus. but it just cant read ntfs.

if i try to flash it from the floppy i get
NTLDR is missing
Press any key to restart

***? Do i need to install win 98 just to flash the bios?

BTW......it's an amreican megatrends BIOS ( amibios )

any ideas?

 

Download a basic DOS boot disk from http://www.bootdisk.com/ and run the update from the floppy.

 

the files i need to flash the BIOS are stored on the hard drive. A dos boot disk wont work let me see the hard drive

 

So the files are too big to fit on a floppy?

 

dude are you reading what i'm writing?

i have the files on a floopy but when i try to boot from a floppy i get the ntldr error.

dos cannot read ntfs so i cant access the c drive when i boot from a floppy

 

well I dont think you have it right

Get a boot disk and (add flash BIOS utiliy on the boot disk).
You cant see the hard drive until your OS completly comes up.
If you want to do it that way, boot into safe mode.
Ive nerver done it that way but So I'm still not sure if you can run the flash utiliy from your HD. You should be able to run it one way or the other from Safe Mode.
Standard way is 1st mentioned
insert floppy with computer of turn on computer from A prompt
type( A:/FlashUtility exe. bin. 123 )thats what the command should be simmular to every utility command is a little differnt
Now if you dont understand you might not be experience enough to try it. IF you do Please becareful and back up your old BIOS when requested during the BIOS ugrade Good Luck

 

one more time...... WHEN I BOOTED FROM THE FLOPPY WITH THE BIOS UTILITY IT GAVE ME THE ERROR MESSAGE "NTLDR IS MISSING ", I'M NOT AN IDIOT I KNOW HOW TO BOOT FROM A FLOPPY!!!

WHEN YOU BOOT WINDOWS 2000 FROM A 98 BOOT DISK IT LOADS RAMDRIVE ON THE C DRIVE, YOU CAN CD C: BUT THE ONLY THING THERE IS THE CONTENTS OF RAMDRIVE.

for the people who actually read what is posted,

how i flashed the bios was ..... i booted the pc with a win 98 disk and when it came to the a prompt i took out the boot disk and put IN the BIOS update disk. I ran the the update utility and it worked.

 

Hey bob, show a little respect, please. Thesse guys are just trying to help you out. If they can't understand what you are saying, maybe you need to restate it.

Also, if you read their posts, I think that they were suggusting that you put the BIOS files on a floppy, which is what ended up working for you anyways.

-Brad Larson

 

FOR THE LAST TIME!

Bob, *read* what these people are telling you to do! FIRST, go to a machine that is working properly. Download a basic boot disk as unixfan said. Create a basic boot disk. THEN, download the files needed to do the bios update...which is usually two files: 1. the flash bios utility, as aziefel said, and 2. the new bios file (usually a .bin or .awd file). Copy these two files to the bootable floppy that you created. At this point you have everything you need on the floppy...no need to see your ntfs partition!!!!!!

Boot from the floppy and follow whatever instructions were on the mfg's website for flashing the bios!!! Don't worry about changing to any other drive....everything is on the floppy!!!!!

 

ok you know what i'm not going to fight with you people i came here asking for help.

POSTED BY: mjg1973
Boot from the floppy and follow whatever instructions were on the mfg's website for flashing the bios!!! Don't worry about changing to any other drive....everything is on the floppy!!!!!


THIS IS IT ....... AMI FLASH BIOS PROCEDURE (RIPPED FROM THEIR WEB SITE )

pay special attention to number 5 ,6 and 7

AMI Flash BIOS Procedure
(Special Thanks to Forum Moderator Bas for his valuable contribution)
1. Check your BIOS for BIOS FLASH Protection & DISABLED it, some boards have this function.
For Example:
K7T266 Pro (MS-6380) -BIOS setup/chipset setup/BIOS protection/disabled

2. Know Your model number
a. Open your case and look for the MS-XXXX number on the motherboard between the PCI slots, also check the version number that is written there as well. (some motherboards are named like K7T Turbo, make sure you have the right version number)
b. Boot up your system & take a look at the top left screen during POST, you should see something like "A6380MS v1.7 122101" This means the board is MS-6380 with BIOS version 1.7
Hint : Many systems are clearing this message very fast, the bios version is then unreadable, you can either press "PAUSE" or disable the "Quick Boot" in the BIOS setup.

How do you know your Products version [ Mainboard / VGA / Slim PC ]
3.
4. Download the BIOS that matches your motherboard AND version number (some motherboards are named like K7T Turbo, make sure you have the right version number). BIOS can be found according to the CPU type of your board like if your CPU is Intel P4 478 type then look here
http://www.msi.com.tw/support/bios/socket_478.php
if you cannot find the BIOS that matches your board, try here http://www.msi.com.tw/support/bios/more.php

5. Extract the BIOS-archive that you have downloaded by double clicking to c:\test

6. Boot your system from a Win98 or WinME boot-floppy.
How to make boot floppy in case your don't have it ready:
For Win9X, You can type [C:\ format a:/s] from the DOS prompt.
For WinMe, You can make a boot floppy from control panel--> add/remove program-->make boot floppy. Remove autoexec.bat & config.sys file if there's any.
For Win2000, there's no way to make boot floppy, so you have to either use Win9X or WinME boot floppy.
For WinXP, you can make a DOS boot disk. Go to Your Computer, right click drive A:, select Format, select copy system files.

7. When you get the A:\ prompt, type the following sequence:
C: <enter>
cd\test <enter>
C:\test> amifl827 a6380vms.330 <enter>
(a6380vms.330 refers to BIOS file, this will depend on the board model)
(to save or not to save old BIOS is the user's decision)

8. Reboot your system when prompted

P.S. If your system doesn't boot after you flashed, please refer to the BIOS recovery method as described
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now, when i boot my WINDOWS 2000 from a windows 98 cd ( because windows 2000 does not have a bootable floppy ) i cant access C:\test

When i put the flash files on the floppy and tried to boot from that, it gave me the ntldr error!!!!

if you dont believe me DO IT YOURSELF

 

If you are still having trouble with this, I would suggust the following:

1. Make a win 98 boot disk
2. Put the flash files on another floppy
3. Boot off the 98 disk
4. After you have booted into DOS, take out the boot floppy
and put in the flash disk
5. Run the utilities off the disk

Try that and let us know if it works

-Brad Larson

 

Blarson

That is the method that I have used several times on different computers.

F Y I all
If one needs to access NTFS drives for reasons other that Flash the bios .....
This is a 32bit dos that works.
http://www.winternals.com/products/repairandrecovery/ntfsdospro.asp
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New! If you need to access NTFS drives from MS-DOS, NTFSDOS Professional 4.0 is the solution. NTFSDOS Professional allows you to create a boot diskette with which to boot NT systems. The diskette contains an MS-DOS environment where you can easily mount NTFS
drives with drive letters and run DOS programs to read, write, repair or otherwise modify the drives just as you would on FAT drives. NTFSDOS Professional is a powerful tool to repair corrupt files or configuration problems that prevent Windows NT/2000/XP systems from booting.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
cheers

 

Wow...I've flashed the BIOS on dozens of NT/2000/XP machines...all running NTFS...without any problems. Not to mention the unix boxes....

But I guess the point here may be, if you don't really understand what you are doing, then you need to bring your machine to someone who does. Flashing the BIOS is one of those things that is real easy to do if you know what you're doing and real easy to ***** up if you don't!!! Keep in mind that the mfg instructions are nothing more than a piece of reference material. What you're looking for in there is maybe a funky command line function that they require you to use.

I still don't understand exactly what your problem is, though. Go to a friend's house and ask him to make you a bootable floppy. Copy your files to it. Boot to the floppy and run:

A:\> amifl827 NEW_BIOS_FILE_NAME

Please don't post a reply that says that it couldn't find the file named "NEW_BIOS_FILE_NAME "!!!!!!

If you're still stumped, post your motherboard type and bios rev and we'll hold your hand through the whole thing!!!!