EP45-UD3P (F9) - Backup BIOS Recovery Source?

[D-an-W]

Hi folks, in some of the templates used on here I see an option for "Backup BIOS Recovery Source" in the Advanced Section, is that something I should be seeing on BIOS version F9 of my UD3P (Rev. 1.0)?

I ask as no matter what Harddrive I have as my Primary, I get a Host Protected Area of just over 1Mb written to it, so I assume it is the Motherboard writing the BIOS to it as a backup?

[D-an-W]

Been doing some more digging and it even shows the option in the manual that came with the board, I have just loaded F8 and still don't see it so I will go back to F4 that it shipped with and try that...

[Lsdmeasap]

Yes, that is a normal feature. 1MB BIOS Backup will be added into the HPA of the drive.

Since it has already been done once then no matter if you disable the setting or leave it on the area will remain and the BIOS backup will be there.

If you Do Not want this area to be used for BIOS backup your only option is to disable the feature (And yes, it is a feature and can save your board) in the BIOS and then Zero out the drive and then it will be gone.

[D-an-W]

Cheers Lsd, the thing is I don't have the option in the BIOS!

[Lsdmeasap]

Ahh! Sorry, I missed your concern there I think!!

I will check your BIOS myself, one sec. You are flashing properly correct? That is after you flash you load and apply optimized defaults, set ram voltage ONLY (Optional), and then reboot back to the BIOS to make your changes right?

[Lsdmeasap]

Just checked (F9), And it seems it has been removed in F9.

I know there was some issues (Kills RAID Arrays) caused by this feature due to it being enabled by Default, so they may have pulled it out while they try to correct that. Seems to me all they would need to do is set it to disabled by default and that would correct the issue, but maybe I am wrong?

So, yes, it is now missing in your latest BIOS. The BIOS will still check your disk for a backup should it fail, but only after the backup chips fails. That BIOS option only allowed the user to specify for the BIOS to check the HPA First before the secondary chip should a failure occur. The 1MB space taken will still remain and contain a BIOS Backup even if the BIOS setting is missing.

[D-an-W]

Flashed back to F4 and the option reappears...

If I set it to the none HPA option (Backup-BIOS or similar) it still creates a 1mb HPA partition (Checking with HDAT2) and as it has already carried out a command on that drive it won't let me erase the HPA data.

I started out having 4 identical drives with different max values due to previous restores etc so wanted to get them all back to the max values, HDAT2 lets me do this but won't do the primary drive due to only one command being allowed (I think all this makes sense).

[Lsdmeasap]

Well no matter the BIOS version, once created this area in the HPA Will remain and contain BIOS Backup

If you really need to delete this area for some reason all you need to do is Zero out the drive with any number of programs. I use KillDisk myself to do such things.

Sounds like you need to use a different Program, here KillDisk free trial will allow you to make one pass all Zero's on your drive >>>
Active@ Kill Disk Hard Drive Eraser. Low Level Format.

That should get you all squared away, but I am not 100% sure the freeware version will do the full drive as I have only used the paid version, but looks as if it should from the free/paid comparisons, you just will not have some of the more advanced erase options in the free one.

Let me know if that does not work out for you and I can find you something else that will

[D-an-W]

First off, let me thank you for the help so far Lsd

I guess another (And probably safer) option is to let it create the BIOS backup on each of the 4 drives by setting each one as the primary drive in turn, that way at least they will all be the same size.

I assume this feature cannot be disabled totally so it just saves to the BIOS chip and not the HPA?

[Lsdmeasap]

No problems, I'm here to help as much as I can when I can!

Well, you could try that but I am not so sure that it will create the backup on each drive. You could try doing a flash with each drive connected one at a time, with a flash (Load and apply Optimized) for each but it may not work that way?

Do keep in mind, it is only 1MB, so not that big of a issue really. If you are concerned about this due to some RAID thoughts, you will be fine creating arrays. I have two arrays setup (3 disk one and a 2 disk one), and both have a backup in one of the disks from past setups and are just fine.

One thing you do not want to do is have an array already setup, without this backup in place, then flash to a BIOS that creates one as that will corrupt your array. Once it is there you are fine though

Yes, you can disable it in the BIOS's that allow that. You would need to have removed the area and then only use a BIOS that allows you to set the setting to BIOS instead of HPA. Either way in a failure both would be checked should one source fail.