Ok what O/S are you using first of all ?
If you are using XP or 98 (Correct me if im wrong been awhile for 98se) put your floopy into the drive and select "Format" at the bottom of the format screen you will see a window called " Format Options" in this area you will see two radio buttons "Quick Format" and "create an MS-DOS startup disk" guess which one you require?
Once you have checked the "create an MS-DOS startup disk" radio button it will grey out all the other options once this is done hit the "start" button and this will bring up the "WARNING formatting will erase ALL data on this disk,to format the disk, click OK. To quit, click CANCEL." message if you have stuff on the disk you want to keep change it. It will then setup a boot disk for your system.
Once you have your "Boot Disk" or "MS-DOS startup disk" you might want to copy AWDFLASH utility onto it. If you are planning on updating to the latest bios then you will need to put the Bin file for the bios on here too.
Now you have your "Boot Disk" or "MS-DOS startup disk" you will need to restart your PC. If like me you don't have your bios set to "BOOT from Floopy" set you will need to adjust your settings also if you plan to update the bios you will need to set the Bios protection to "Disabled" but for a backup of your old bios you can leave the protection on.
Once you have rebooted your PC it will boot from the floopy you made. At the DOS promt type in AWDFLASH.exe (Make sure if you are updating your bios that you have the correct file name of the bin file you have put on your disk as an incorrect name will cause the flash to fail) now the AWD utility will load up and it will ask you the name of the new bios at this point there are two directions you can follow:
1st BIOS Backup:
when the program loads up you are asked for the file name you can type in anything you like as you don't actually want to update the bios, It will then ask you if you want to save the old bios bin file..... select yes and name the file to what ever you want. it will then ask you if you want to update the file (I think) select N for no. If it does not ask if you want to continue it will say something along the Lines of " Bin file could not be found" and drop out of the program. remove the boot disk with the back up BIN file which you can save else where if needed.
2nd Option Bios Updating
when the program loads up you are asked for the file name you can type in the name of the new .Bin file you wish to update the bios with, It will then ask you if you want to save the old bios bin file..... select yes and name the file to what ever you want. it will then ask you if you want to update the file (I think) select Y for Yes. Once the bios update is complete it will ask you to remove the floppy disk and reboot your machine.
REMEMBER
Only to use the Bios that your motherboard manufacture recomends as flashing your bios with the incorrect Bios will kill your motherboard.
These instructions for bios flashing are from memory and will certainly be worded different although you will understand my explanation when you see the actual text and options given in the actual flash utility.
Hope this helps.
