UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hello everybody.
I have a problem of this kind: After installation of FreeBSD, my Windows XP became unreachable. Boot from CDROM is impossible. The conclusion: BIOS was damaged by GParted or some other program. Question:
Are there any Unix means of updating (repairing) BIOS ?

What do you mean by "Boot from CDROM is impossible"? Can you "boot" into BIOS to modify BIOS parameters, e.g. boot sequence, boot devices?
Can you post your partition table?

At start it offers: "F1- FreeBSD, F2- Windows ". If I press F2, it hangs forever. If I press F1 it boots normally and CDROM can be seen, when mounted. Boot sequence I can change, but CDROM cant be seen initialy and no boot comes from it.
What can I do?

---------- Post updated at 12:23 PM ---------- Previous update was at 11:09 AM ----------

More generally asking: Can BIOS be updated from within Unix? Is there such a practice?

You did not answer my questions.

It is vanishingly improbable that UNIX corrupted your BIOS or altered its settings in any way at all. You are seeing a different bootloader and mistaking that for your BIOS.

You should be able to enable CDROM booting if you go into your BIOS settings.

This is nonsense.

The BIOS is a _ROM_! As it is technically read only and used only as a simple HAL then no amount of GParted code will alter it. The BIOS parameters can be corrupted but a _reset_ to defaults will get it up and running again...
However it IS seen by your Linux flavour so it can't be the BIOS and......

1) It is probably shadowed.
2) Assuming it sits on the 1MB boundary, (probably the 32 bit boundary these days), then it would been _paged_ out in preference to part of the kernel or grub loader.
3) If as you say the CDROM HW is being _seen_ then have you tried a live CD of some Linux flavour?
4) Did you backup your Windows before attempting the install?

Ahem... I hate to say it, but being too sure is often the hallmark of limited knowledge.

Yes and no. The BIOS code itself may be a ROM (EEPROM, to be precise, otherwise BIOS updates would not be possible), but vital information is stored in NVRAM - this is why there is a battery mounted on the mainboard, you know.

In fact it is possible to damage systems by booting into Linux. The article describes this only for Samsung Notebooks, but the principle could apply generally. AFAIK the problem has been fixed already, but the point is to prove that it is indeed possible to damage (=render unusable) [sufficiently idiotic] hardware by software.

I hope this helps.

bakunin