How to make extra space on flash-BIOS XP boot floppy? 3

[torandson]

Hi,

BIOS flash instructions state to write 3 files onto an XP-made DOS startup floppy.

To save the existing BIOS there needs to be 512K of free space on the floppy,

but with the DOS startup files and BIOS flash files on the floppy, there is now only 312K of free space.

The DOS startup files appear to have configuration-dependent redundancies. For example there are 3 EGA.CPI files, including EGA2.CPI and EGA3.CPI, and 4 KEYBOARD.SYS files, including KEYBRD2.SYS, KEYBRD3.SYS and KEYBRD4.SYS.

In addition, there are MODE.COM, DISPLAY.SYS, and
KEYB.COM which are not included on a DOS6.22 startup floppy.

Which of these files may I safely delete without interfering with the flashing of the BIOS?

Keeping only one each of EGA.CPI and KEYBOARD.SYS would free up 192KB, and deleting MODE.COM would free up another 29KB yielding the needed 512K. Can I safely do this?

If the alternately named EGA and KEYBRD files are for different configurations, then presumably I could discover which specific files are needed to boot this system and delete the others, correct?

Could I use a Windows 98 boot floppy instead? i.e., why should a DOS-based BIOS flashing routine need to run in an XP-type environment?

(Certainly, I don't want it all to hang in the middle of a BIOS flash!)

Thanks in advance.

--torandson

 

[ImpetusEra]

I've always used win 98se boot floppies for bios flash

 

[Freestone]

Create this disk from

http://www.bootdisk.com/

and see if it has enough free space:

Driver Free Disk For BIOS Flashing

 

[Frank4d]

Make a boot floppy and then delete all files from it except: IO.SYS, MSDOS.SYS, and COMMAND.COM. Then add your .BIN file and flash utility to it. That's all you should need.

 

[torandson]

Thanks all,
I got impatient and tried some experiments.
After checking in DOS to see what MODE.COM did, and determining that it was likely optional, I deleted MODE.COM with no problem. DOS booted OK.
Deleting KEYB.COM, however left my system unbootable from the floppy.
I restored KEYB.COM, and deleted the numbered EGA2.CPI, etc., and KEYBRD2.SYS, etc. files, giving the requisite room, and flashed the BIOS.

After all that trouble, the flash utility never did ask if I wanted to save the old BIOS, it just went ahead with the flash with no user action at all.

Whether it might have been different with a Win98 DOS boot floppy, or the 3 file DOS 6.22 boot floppy, I may never know.

The mobo drivers will only install under XP SP2, so I don't know so I wouldn't consider it a given that the flash utility will work with a DOS 6.22 boot floppy. I know, because I downloaded the mobo driver updates, and the video software complained that I didn't have dotnet2.0 installed. When I tried to install dotnet2.0 from the other folder in the download package, it complained that I didn't have the Windows Installer 3.0. After installing SP2 the mobo driver updates went fine.

The instructions only described creating a flash boot floppy in XP, so it's anyone's guess whether a DOS6.22 or DOS7 boot floppy would run Intel's flash utility.

Thanks for your input anyway.

--torandson