# BIOS Flash - no floppy - MSI P35 Platinum



## Ypnos (Feb 25, 2008)

Hi everyone

I'm having a couple of issues with my MSI P35 Platinum.

One is that I have 3 HDD's plugged in. 2 are in RAID0 mode, but Intel Matric Stoage Console insists that the 3rd hard drive is also a RAID hard drive, but "not working". I don't want the 3rd drive to be RAIDed, I just need it to access backed up files. How do I stop it trying to make it a RAID drive?

The second question is, how do I flash my AMI BIOS if I don't have a floppy drive? I'm running Vista 32 btw.

TIA!


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## KBD (Feb 25, 2008)

You can use a USB flash drive to flash your BIOS, if you don't have one pick one up from newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...E&Description=usb flash drives&bop=And&Page=2


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## Ypnos (Feb 25, 2008)

Thanks for the quick response! I have a USB flash drive, but have no idea how to do it...


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## KBD (Feb 25, 2008)

I recomend going to your board's manufacturer site, they usually have instructions on how exactly it can be done. You may also want to check out their support forums/FAQ. Also your mobo manual may tell you how to do that. Or perhaps someone here can tell you how it's done. Just remember one thing, be very careful when you do this and follow the ibnstructions to the letter, you can really mess yourself up if you make a mistake.


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## Darknova (Feb 25, 2008)

http://forum.msi.com.tw/index.php?topic=113295.0

Includes a bootable flash drive program. It's what I use


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## Ypnos (Feb 25, 2008)

KBD - thanks, looking into it at the moment following Darknova's recommendation. Unfortuantely their only advice on the official site is to use a floppy. The USB version isn't working out too well either as I get "Error loading operating system".


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## Ypnos (Feb 25, 2008)

Nope - whilst the utility pointed out by Darknova appears to install correctly, when I try to boot from it gives an error "Missing Operating System"


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## Ypnos (Feb 25, 2008)

Works! Need to use the HP USB Format utility to format the USB key with in order for the MSI utility to work. Thanks!


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## Darknova (Feb 25, 2008)

Ypnos said:


> Works! Need to use the HP USB Format utility to format the USB key with in order for the MSI utility to work. Thanks!



I never had to 

Just used a FAT32 formatted USB stick, ran the utility, pointed it at the zip file the BIOS image was in, let it do it's thing.

Then on boot up you hold F11 and when the boards boot menu comes up you select your USB key.


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## Sasqui (Feb 25, 2008)

Ypnos said:


> Works! Need to use the HP USB Format utility to format the USB key with in order for the MSI utility to work. Thanks!



Can you provide a link?  Thanks...


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## Polaris573 (Feb 25, 2008)

During POST press "control I" and make sure your third HD is set as a non-raid disk if you haven't already.

For flashing without a floppy I use a USB flash drive to store the BIOS files and Ultimate Boot CD to boot to DOS.


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## Ypnos (Feb 25, 2008)

Sasqui said:


> Can you provide a link?  Thanks...




HP Util (wait a couple of seconds for the download to initialise)


Polaris, thanks but according to MSI, it appears that this is a problem with P35 chipsets. Once RAID is enabled, it's enabled for all ports... Will try the 5th port.


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