Intel .bio to .bin

Discussion in 'BIOS Mods' started by Fire Ant, Aug 27, 2017.

  1. Fire Ant

    Fire Ant MDL Novice

    Aug 26, 2017
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    #1 Fire Ant, Aug 27, 2017
    I want to use an Intel .BIO file to flash a bios downgrade using a CH341A-based programmer. What tool can I use to convert Intel's container file (.bio) into a .bin file (hex/binary) that the CH341A programmer software can read properly? thanks
     
  2. Tito

    Tito Super Mod / Adviser
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    Nov 30, 2009
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    #2 Tito, Aug 28, 2017
    @Fire Ant

    Which mobo? Between which versions do you want to switch over?
     
  3. Fire Ant

    Fire Ant MDL Novice

    Aug 26, 2017
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    #3 Fire Ant, Aug 28, 2017 (OP)
    At this point, I am looking for recommendations of tools that can be used to extract bios data from the Intel .BIO containers. Using the CH341A programmer, I can get a Hex Dump of the bios chip. I should be able to compare or update that Hex Data manually using data from the Intel .BIO files.

    PhoenixTools and UEFITools look promising as they can read the .bin file output from the CH341A programmer (current data of the bios chip) and these tools can also read the Intel .BIO files (the Dump Files produced by PhoenixTools probably contain the raw data I am looking for). I'll have to investigate these tools further.

    Discussions on the mobo or firmware versions would probably be a distraction as I am mainly trying to figure out how to get raw bios (binary/hex) data out of the Intel's .BIO containers. I am also aware that there are checksums and bios data protection schemes used by Intel which make the task difficult.

    Another way to look at this: When the Intel .BIO file is used in Intel's "Recovery Mode", the .BIO file is read by the motherboard and data is written directly to the bios chip. <-- that is the data I am interested in as I can use that data to manually write it using the CH341A programmer. Any recommendations of tools that can be used to find this data would be appreciated.