A floppy disk is necessary when flashing the BIOS with AWDFLASH.
"Flashing" BIOS updates the set of electronic instructions the computer uses to boot. AWDFLASH is a program that assists in flashing the BIOS, but it only works in DOS mode. The command prompt in Windows will not be sufficient, so you must create a floppy boot disk for AWDFLASH to work correctly.
Instructions
1. Insert the floppy disk into the floppy drive.
2. Open "My Computer" and right-click the floppy disk drive in the list of drives, then click "Format...."
3. Make sure the box "Create an MS-DOS startup disk" is checked, then click "Start" to format the disk.
4. Copy the awdflash.exe file and the BIOS file to the floppy disk once it is done formatting. The BIOS file should end in ".bin" Open My Computer, then right-click on the floppy drive (most likely "A:/") and click explore. This will open a new window for the floppy disk. Highlight the awdflash.exe and the BIOS files, then right-click and select "copy." Click on the floppy disk window you just opened, then right-click and select paste to copy the files to the floppy disk.
5. Restart the computer and boot from the floppy disk. It may be necessary to enter the BIOS and reorder the boot device priority. When the computer boots, a message like "Press to enter setup" appears on the screen. "" may be replaced with a different key. Pressing this key allows you to enter the BIOS. Browse the menus in the BIOS to find the boot device priority and make the floppy disk the first boot device. Save and exit the BIOS and the computer will restart.
6. Type "awdflash biosfile.bin" in the command prompt, once the computer has booted from the floppy. "biosfile.bin" would be whatever the bios file name was. If unsure, type "dir" and press "Enter" to view the files that are on the disk.
7. Follow the prompts in the awdflash program to complete flashing the bios.
Tags: floppy disk, boot device, then right-click, boot device priority, command prompt, device priority, disk necessary