ThinkPad BIOS Upgrade

I finally got around to upgrading the BIOS on my R40, and it couldn't have been more difficult. IBM only provides a Windows program and a DOS program to create a boot floppy. I don't have a floppy or Windows on this machine.

A consultant friend at work helped by providing an old ThinkPad drive which actually had Windows installed. We tried it as primary drive, in the ultrabay, and as a USB drive, but it wouldn't boot properly. Finally, he did dig up his old ThinkPad floppy drive, and we did the BIOS upgrade with the floppy disk.

If IBM would just provide a CD image I could burn to CD-R, I would have been done much quicker. Now I have to contemplate spending money on a floppy drive just for the rare occassion of trying to do a BIOS upgrade. I've survived 9 months or so without one.