Need a floppy drive?

mcgriffo · 23 Mar 2007 at 12:06

I've ordered my kit and not bothered with a floppy drive.

Is this a good idea?

At first I was just thinking of flashing the BIOS as being awkward, but this appears to be doable from within windows (gonna be using an Asus P5B).

However I've just read that if you are installing new SATA hard drives in XP (which I will be doing) then you need to have your SATA drivers on a floppy system startup disk and install prior to installing windows as XP won't be able to cope (unlike Vista).

Is this true or can I still get by without the floppy?

mishima · 23 Mar 2007 at 12:16

I managed to get away with installing my SATA drives without needing a floppy, I just installed in windows via the motherboard disc/latest from website. You should be fine, windows picks up the SATA drives!

masslac · 23 Mar 2007 at 12:21

AFAIK if you have SP2 on the Windows disk, you'll be fine. I still prefer using a floppy for BIOS flashing, though.

mcgriffo · 23 Mar 2007 at 12:31

Masslac - is there any advantage to using the floppy for the BIOS flash or, any DISADVANTAGE in using windows?

I know it doesn't "feel" right.... I've done a few on my old PC with the floppy and then I did one from within windows for my parents and it just felt "weird"

Stabhappy · 23 Mar 2007 at 12:43

I've flashed my gigabyte using @BIOS in windows, without a hitch.

However, I do recommend picking up a USB floppy drive, they can be legacy emulated on most decent boards, just like having a floppy drive in the actual case. This makes things so much more simple.

masslac · 23 Mar 2007 at 12:44

mcgriffo said:
Masslac - is there any advantage to using the floppy for the BIOS flash or, any DISADVANTAGE in using windows?

It's Windows.

Listen to Stabhappy tbh. Despite being a nob, he sure knows his stuff.

jammir · 23 Mar 2007 at 14:44

iv been using my usb flash drive for all my bios needs for over a year now

melbourne720 · 23 Mar 2007 at 14:51

Technically relying on windows or a cd drive for BIOS flashing introduces an extra element of risk.

That said, I have BIOS flashed from CD and windows on my new build, don't have a floppy drive, and have managed fine.

t31os · 23 Mar 2007 at 14:56

Not had any problems with flashing in windows with about the last 4-5 boards i've built with.

There is of course as mentioned an extra risk of things going wrong, but you could say the same about the hundreds or thousands of people that don't ground themselves properly when building PC's, yet a lot of people have no problem, and others, well you know the drill.....

Stabhappy · 23 Mar 2007 at 15:10

Grounding? Unless you running about with a harddrive in your hands on a nylon carpet, you should be absolutley fine. If you really want ease of mind, touch a radiator and get on with it.

The only reason windows flash would go wrong is if the application (generally just a compatable version of a DOS flash program) is made badly, or your computer is generally unstable. Windows has total HAL (hardware abstration layer) control over your motherboard and CMOS while you have the Kernel loaded.