Updating the GB BIOS using a Floppy Disc Drive

[John_VanKirk]

Hi everyone,

A technical question regarding flashing the Gigabyte BIOS using a "Floppy Disc" drive

Gigabyte's user manual recommends as first choice using a Floppy Disc and Floppy Disc drive for downloading and storing a BIOS Update File for flashing the BIOS, but as as an alternative location, of course a USB flash drive, or even the HDD may be used.

The direct way to accomplish that would be to "Enable" Drive A in the Standard CMOS setup, and connect a 34 pin ribbon cable from the floppy disc controller header to an internal FDD. The Q-Flash BIOS utility sees that as a FDD 1.44/3.5", on drive A.

When you use a Flash Drive connected on a USB port, the Q-Flash BIOS update utility sees that as HDD 1-0, since it is recognized as a mass storage device. Seems logical.

However, most folks who use the Floppy Disc route won't have an older 34 pin cabled FDD with a Berg power connector for that purpose, but will use a USB cabled external Floppy Disk drive, which is readily available.

So when you connect a Floppy Drive using a USB cable for data & power, won't that be seen just as a USB device (HDD 1-0), not a Floppy , and make updating the BIOS this way no different than just using a Flash Drive directly in the first place?

 

[treefrog07]

Yes. And remember to plug the USB device into an empty slot before you boot, so the BIOS can find it.

 

[i7cpu3d]

So when you connect a Floppy Drive using a USB cable for data & power, won't that be seen just as a USB device (HDD 1-0), not a Floppy , and make updating the BIOS this way no different than just using a Flash Drive directly in the first place?

While not an answer, there can be problems using a USB floppy because some BIOS fail to recognize the drive. The last FDD I installed was for an XP machine years ago, and then only as a floppy with ribbon connector, plus USB media reader. Pertinent to your question, as I recall the USB floppy I returned still showed-up as a "Floppy A" in both driver and BIOS installation. While my flash drive appears as a "HDD...". I have made the mistake as treefrog07 mentioned, plus it must also be formatted FAT32.

Now a days it seems very impractical to use anything but a USB flash drive for installing BIOS, and if you update your BIOS prior to installing an OS then HDD installation is impossible. Related to subject matter I leave the BIOS alone unless I either have no other choice or if there's an improvement/s worth the risk. Another FDD CON to consider are read & write errors associated with and prone to the floppy vs. flash drive.

While I am thinking about it, an excellent FDD substitute to the F6 driver install is nLiteOS - http://www.nliteos.com/

 

[John_VanKirk]

Best answer selected by John_VanKirk.

 

[JDFan]

One other thing to keep in mind on the Flash drive is that the BIOS file should be in the root directory not a sub folder or the system will not find it !