Floppy Drive Died - How do I make a boot CD for new BIOS?

[stuman74]

I am trying to reconfigure my in-law's old PC (Dell Dimension 2350) and I see there is a "newer" BIOS for it. However, the floppy drive is not reading any of my floppy disks (I tested the same disks in another PC and they work fine). The Dell utility only makes floppys for the BIOS and I was wondering if there is any way to make a bootable CD so I can get this BIOS on this old machine. Thanks!

http://support.dell.com/suppor...l=en&catid=-1&impid=-1

 

[ecom]

You can get a virtual floppy drive program and then save the image that the program generates.

Integrate the image into UBCD and you should be able to update the BIOS.

 

[vailr]

If the machine can boot from a USB flash drive, it might be easier to go that route.

 

[stuman74]

The current A01 BIOS only lists floppy, CDROM, hard disk, and LAN.

 

[RebateMonger]

You can always connect another, working, floppy drive to your Dell. You don't need to install it in the case. Just temporarily connect the power and data cables.

 

[lxskllr]

You shouldn't really need to update BIOS unless you're having problems. Of the things that can be updated, BIOS is the one that's best left alone if things are working properly as is.

 

[vailr]

Originally posted by: stuman74
The current A01 BIOS only lists floppy, CDROM, hard disk, and LAN.

A USB drive will only show up as a bootable drive if it's connected during the same time while looking at the bios setup options. And with some motherboards, only the 2 USB ports immediately adjacent to the PS2 ports will show up as bootable.

 

[pcgeek11]

Originally posted by: lxskllr
You shouldn't really need to update BIOS unless you're having problems. Of the things that can be updated, BIOS is the one that's best left alone if things are working properly as is.

This is VERY GOOD advice! If it ain't broke, leave it the hell alone! I wish I had a nickle for every MB that was bricked by a BIOS update.

pcgeek11