BIOS recovery questions

[d.chatten]

I have been doing some reading on the Gigabyte recovery process and the way it uses the HDD as part of the recovery, but, i have a few questions about how one of the bios settings actualy works, some help understanding this would be much appreciated.

The bios setting i'm talking about is for saving the current main BIOS image to the HDD and the options are enabled/disabled and can be found in the advanced section of the bios, but i'm unshure how this works.

1) When this option is enabled where on the HDD is the recovery BIOS image stored?

2) Does the recovery BIOS image get saved to the first boot device?

3) If the BIOS image has been saved to the HDD and you then disable this option does the saved recovery BIOS image then get deleted from the HDD?

Thanks!

[d.chatten]

Anyone?

[Pottypete]

Hi,
Been having a look myself,
http://www.giga-byte.co.uk/FileList/NewTech/2006_motherboard_newtech/article_04_bios_explained.htm
1/2,The image is stored a the root of the boot drive in a hidden folder,
3. looks like if you disable bios save option, the hidden folder will not be avaiable in case of faulty bios to boot from. maybe the option is available for someone who knows what they are doing!!!!.
whether image is still saved is not clear,
A low level format would erase it though,
I'm learning

[d.chatten]

Thanks for your input, if the bios file was saved in the root of the first boot device in a hidden folder wouldn't it be accessible from Windows when you show hidden files and folders as well as show system files?

I have a hunch that the backup bios is saved to the boot sector of the first boot device but i can't be shure, this is the reason for my 2nd and 3rd questions, also, there doesn't seem to be any useful info from Gigabyte.

I Have, however, found a way to copy the bios file from the main bios chip to the backup bios chip, if you or anyone reading this doesn't know how to do this just read on > if this option isn't available in Q-Flash all you need to do is press Alt + F12 during boot/post and you will be greeted with the option the copy the main bios chip to the backup bios chip, this is good if you have a CPU that is not supported by the backup bios.

[fadsarmy]

Thanks for your input, if the bios file was saved in the root of the first boot device in a hidden folder wouldn't it be accessible from Windows when you show hidden files and folders as well as show system files?

I have a hunch that the backup bios is saved to the boot sector of the first boot device but i can't be shure, this is the reason for my 2nd and 3rd questions, also, there doesn't seem to be any useful info from Gigabyte.

I Have, however, found a way to copy the bios file from the main bios chip to the backup bios chip, if you or anyone reading this doesn't know how to do this just read on > if this option isn't available in Q-Flash all you need to do is press Alt + F12 during boot/post and you will be greeted with the option the copy the main bios chip to the backup bios chip, this is good if you have a CPU that is not supported by the backup bios.

Is the back up not done automatically?

[d.chatten]

Is the back up not done automatically?

If you are talking about the backup to HDD then the answer is no, it seems you must enable the option in bios first, also, the backup bios chip is not updated automatically, you must use the Alt + F12 method (on newer boards) to copy the main bios chip to the backup bios chip, this option used to be availabe in the Q-Flash utility on the older boards, if you go in to bios and press press F9 you should see a sumary screen that will show you which bios version is on each bios chip.

[runn3R]

(...)
1) When this option is enabled where on the HDD is the recovery BIOS image stored?

2) Does the recovery BIOS image get saved to the first boot device?

3) If the BIOS image has been saved to the HDD and you then disable this option does the saved recovery BIOS image then get deleted from the HDD?

Thanks!

Regarding this "Backup BIOS Image to HDD" function:

1. It's saved not inside the hidden "folder" but in HPA area instead (the sectors at the physical end of HDD -->
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Host_protected_area)

2. Yes, to the first boot HDD

3. No, it still stays there

[d.chatten]

Thanks for that runn3R it explains a lot and answers my question perfectly, i have a few more question if i may.

1) If i change the motherboard for a different model (still Gigabyte) would the bios file in HPA be overwritten with the bios file from the new motherboard, or would a new seperate bios file be created in HPA?

2) Is there any way to delete the bios file in HPA, or is the only way to write 0's to the entire HDD?

3) Does the bios file in HPA get overwritten every time the bios is updated?

4) What happens to the bios file in HPA if we downgrade the bios?

If these questions can be answered it would be great, it's just that i don't fancy not having the correct backup bios in HPA.

Thanks.

[runn3R]

(...)
1) If i change the motherboard for a different model (still Gigabyte) would the bios file in HPA be overwritten with the bios file from the new motherboard, or would a new seperate bios file be created in HPA?

2) Is there any way to delete the bios file in HPA, or is the only way to write 0's to the entire HDD?

3) Does the bios file in HPA get overwritten every time the bios is updated?

4) What happens to the bios file in HPA if we downgrade the bios? (...)

Hi

1) It will be overwritten
2) Yes, there are a few utilities like HPA Tool for instance
3) Yes ( wrong answer was: No)
4) Nothing

[d.chatten]

Hi runn3R, you say that the bios file in HPA doesn't get updated when the main bios is udated to a new virsion, but the documenation on the Gigabyte website says the bios is saved/copied to the HDD every time the system is booted, could the reason for this be that it's the backup bios chip that is being saved to the HDD? also, if we update the backup bios chip with the new bios file would the bios file in HPA then be updated/overwritten?

Thanks.

[runn3R]

Hi d.chatten

Sorry for confusing you, after double checking I confirmed that main bios contents is saved to HPA every time system is booted.

I corrected my previous post accordingly.

[ogreg]

Unfortunately I Enabled this option in BIOS (Backup BIOS image to HDD) and after that I lost data on first disc  . Thanks for this 'useful' option and any warnig in this option in BIOS :/
On disc was truecrypt container and after reboot his size changed from of 200GB to 0 bajt.
Yes, user should be think what he doing, right...but
Sorry for my english.

[Lsdmeasap]

Yes this can mess up encrypted disks if enabled after the fact, same applies to RAID enabled setups, do not enable this setting after you have already setup your RAID array or it will be corrupted.

Either are fine to do, if you enable the setting before you encrypt or create your RAID array.