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athlonfan
08-13-2003, 11:41 AM
Hello,
I was trying to do a BIOS update on my pavilion 540n running winXP home (it's one of those updates where you put it on a floppy and then boot from floppy). When I restart the computer with a floppy in the drive, it just tells me to take out any disks and press a key. I thought maybe I need to enter the special situations startup by pressing F8 but that doesn't do anything. Any idea on how to boot from floppy?
Thanks,
Richard
sm8000
08-13-2003, 11:45 AM
First, you have to go into your BIOS and set the boot order for the floppy first. Assuming that's already done, it sounds like the disk isn't bootable. Re-download the BIOS update and make sure the floppy is freshly formatted first (a full format, not a quick one). Extract the files to the floppy exactly as per the instructions and try it again.
Sterling_Aug
08-13-2003, 12:45 PM
And if the HDD is formatted using NTFS you will have a whole other host of questions and issues.
athlonfan
08-13-2003, 12:49 PM
Originally posted by Sterling_Aug
And if the HDD is formatted using NTFS you will have a whole other host of questions and issues.

So, naturally the HDD is formatted using NTFS.
Richard
fishybawb
08-13-2003, 01:47 PM
Originally posted by Sterling_Aug
And if the HDD is formatted using NTFS you will have a whole other host of questions and issues.

Just put the flash files on the floppy you're booting off, and there won't be problems or issues ;)
sm8000
08-13-2003, 01:53 PM
There shouldn't be....flashing the BIOS has nothing to do with hard drive data. The hard drive doesn't play a role in BIOS updates, unless of course this is one of those system with the BIOS stored on the hard drive as opposed to the usual ROM chip on the board.
BipolarBill
08-13-2003, 02:09 PM
Just formatting the floppy doesn't cut it. You must select "Create an MS-DOS startup disk". Once done, copy the BIOS files over and run it.
fishybawb
08-13-2003, 02:21 PM
Originally posted by sm8000
There shouldn't be....flashing the BIOS has nothing to do with hard drive data.

... unless your BIOS image file is on the HD that is, which I think was what Sterling_Aug was assuming ;)