How do I backup my CMOS information?

Question

I've been told I need to backup my CMOS information....how can I do that (besides taking pictures of the screen or writing it down).

Is there a way to back it up? If so, how?

Do I need to record my CMOS information?

Keep in mind, this is a 1998/99 model and is most likely much different than todays computers.

The mobo may act a lot different.

Appreciate the input....

I do not have a manual for the mother board. This particular mother board has a slot 1 pentium II (333Mhz) processor.

I don't have anything except the case (with PSU) and the mother board.

I came to me without a CMOS battery.

Answer 1

If it's a really complicated BIOS, the only way to back it up is to scribble it all down in a notebook (use pen, not penci.... pencil fades).

If it's really simple like on my "pc chips M810LR", and you poke around in there alot there's not much point...... I can set mine up in less than a couple of minutes just by remembering it off the top of my head (already had to do it twice this month, so getting plenty of practise!)

Answer 2

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By Yuri Filimonov

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Answer 3

Is this on the Compaq computers where we store the CMOS on a small special boot partition on the hard drive? The two floppies are on the Compaq support web site.

All other computers have the 'CMOS Setup' loading from the BIOS chip, on the 'main logic board'. When you unplug the AC Power, and pop out the battery, it will reset to factory default upon boot-up.

Otherwise, no one ever heard of backing up the CMOS Setup!
You might look at the boot sequence, in the second screen, to assure that it is in the correct order: CDrom, floppy, HDD-0, and that the frequency and multiplier are correct in that screen.

Then, I always install http://pcllinuxos.com as it runs 50X faster.
Microsoft.com, msn.com, hotmail.com all run Linux on their 45,000 systems, plus Google.com runs Linux on 100,000 computers, and all the movies have been made since "Titanic - 1997" on Linux.

Answer 4

if you have origonal manual for your board it is in there ,so no need to save any thing
if you are changing to battery all you will need to do is change the date and possible boot order
if you have downloaded a new bios up date do be careful or better still don't, as if this goes wrong it's hard work to get it back
cost me a new board

Answer 5

I've never heard of anyone needing to or being able to back up CMOS. I don't think that not backing it up would hurt anything. I'm assuming you need to change a battery or something. I don't think it would hurt.