X61: BIOS Update with/from USB Stick or 3rd party CD-ROM

[JoSchuR]

I was trying to update the BIOS of my X61 (7673-CTO) but surprisingly read, that with Vista 64Bit I am only able to do this via a bootable CD which is fine for me (although to my very personal opinion a bit old-fashined). The bigger problem is, that this CD obviously does NOT boot properly from/with a third party external USB-CD-ROM, which I personally think is outrageous! So I am somehow forced to buy "an original Lenovo-Drive" to make a BIOS update?? Forum, please proove me I am wrong!

[tselling]

It has to be a drive in the ultrabase.  No USB drives will work for a bios update, not even a Lenovo thinkpad USB cdrom drive.

[JoSchuR]

... which is even worse! So either install Windows XP just to make a BIOS Update OR buy the ULTRABASE and a corresponding CD/DVD-Drive! Still can not believe that!

[mbsullivan]

Hello all,

I, too, found this oversight on the part of Lenovo to be quite distressing. It is possible to upgrade the X61 BIOS with a USB thumb drive. I have provided directions at http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=817897

The above tutorial is aimed towards Ubuntu Linux users. However, I believe that users of Vista should be able to follow along. Please let me know if you have any questions... the process is simple enough that it should be possible with any OS out there right now.

Mike