Thinkpads Forum

I need to upgrade the bios on my Thinkpad 600, but I don't have a floppy drive.

I really hate to buy a floppy just to upgrade the bios. Is there a workaround using a CD drive (which I do have)?

Thanks.

I don't believe that there is a non-floppy alternative for BIOS updates that's supported by the factory. Some of the newer systems can be updated by downloading the package to the system's hard drive and performing the update from there. There is a way to create a CD-R boot disk containing the BIOS update but it requires that you have a floppy disk and drive to begin with (basically you copy the disk image the floppy onto a CD). However, if for some reason, the BIOS update utility needs to be run from a writable medium, this won't work.

Ultraslimbay floppy drives for the 600 series are quite plentiful on eBay (last I checked) and should be easily had for $10 or less. You can also get the external floppy drives (in a housing with an attached cable) since the 600 system has a port on the right side (it's that real thin connector). You can also remove those floppy drives from the housing and install them directly inside the Ultrabay. Besides the very occasional BIOS update, floppy drives are still good for booting various diagnostic programs (hard drive, PC Doctor, memtest86+, etc.).

ref: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0372230792 (External drive for $7)
ref: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0378097897 (Ultrabay drive for $9)
ref: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0134692969 (Two external drives for $10)

P.S. Welcome to thinkpads.com!

For some reason I couldn't find those on ebay this morning...
Got one coming. Got the 600 last week on the bay for $39! Got about $100 in it now with upgraded memory, new battery, and ultraslimbays. I had a 20, 40, and 80 gig drives from some other broken machines.
This is a very cool little laptop, especially for the money. Great keyboard.
Thanks.