Before updating a BIOS, it is generally a good idea to see if it is possible to save a backup copy of theexisting BIOS. The reason is that certain motherboard manufacturers only provide the most recent BIOS for a specific model of Motherboards and sometimes a newer BIOS may cause problems or have consequences you are not ready to live with. By having a backup you will be able to go back to the previous version. To make the backup, run the BIOS upgrade program for your board, and check to see if there is an option to save the existing BIOS to a file. If that option is not available, check to see if your motherboard manu- facturer offers older versions (including the one you have) for download.

If there is no menu option to back up and no older versions can be downloaded, there may be other ways to make a copy of the BIOS, such as by using the DOS command–based BIOS upgrade software usually found on the BIOS CD of the motherboard.