Replicated Setup tip, for cloning BIOS settings with USB drive

[SDH]

The HP Replicated Setup feature found in most HP workstation's BIOS under the first column is a handy way to capture your BIOS settings and then clone them over to another workstation.  You can also print out the small text file that the feature creates and automatically stores on a floppy disk or thumb drive.  You can email that text file to another person and they can use Replicated Setup and a thumb drive to apply your fine-tuned BIOS settings to experiment with, but still go back to their original settings (assuming they have saved them using Replicated Setup previously).

Attached is a Replicated Setup capture from a xw6600 I am working on, as an example.

I have had some workstations that don't seem to easily recognize my thumb drive for capturing the BIOS to, or cloning my preferred BIOS settings from, when "cold booted" with the USB drive in place before starting up from fully powered off status.  In those cases when I F10 navigate into BIOS and go to Replicated Setup the thumb drive would not show up and only a floppy drive option to work from would be available, even though no floppy drive is attached to the motherboard.

The solution:  Without the thumb drive in place do a cold boot into your operating system, then plug in the USB thumb drive and ensure that the OS sees that normally, then do a restart (not a shutdown) with the USB drive still in place, and F10 into BIOS during that bootup.

The USB drive always shows up properly when I navigate to Replicated Setup this way.  Don't forget that you need to save the changes during your exit from BIOS for the cloned settings to stick.  Also, the cloned BIOS's text file always has the same name, and be sure to label a folder or add in a little text file to your folder describing what each is for if you build up an archive of these.

Finally, your USB drive for this purpose is not a boot drive.... it can have other things on it both for the capture of the BIOS or for the clone load into BIOS.  The CPQSETUP.TXT file does need to be at the top level of the thumb drive to clone from, rather than in a folder in the thumb drive.  I would only load a clone from one workstation into another of the same type.

[MSLEEE]

I'd like to add two more tools to replicate the bios settings. The first one is repsetup.exe running DOS and the second one is biosconfigutility.exe running under Windows OS. You can find the tools in HP Workstation BIOS Utilities.

[ginger88]

Hi:  I had a similar issue with writing the BIOS setting to USB, but slightly different than what you describe (its happened twice so far):

I boot into BIOS using F10, and go to Replicated Setup.  It asked me to "Select a Drive" -- the only option presented was "USB."   I accepted.  It said "Saving Configuration."  After a long delay, it responded back:

   "Error.  Removaable Media is bad or missing.  Press any key to continue."

It seems to have seen the USB drive, as it presented the option to write to it.  But then could not write to it after all.

Any suggesttions?

(I'm not clear on the need to save the settings to a text file.  It seems like a good idea to have the settings saved, and you memtioned the ability to try out setting that have worked for other users.  But if it won't work, for whatever reason, is that a basis not to try a new faster CPU?)

Thanks for any suggestions.

[SDH · Accepted solution]

Here's some added tips:

1.  The thumb drive you use for Replicated Setup would ideally be only used for that, and have nothing else on it.  Once you find one that works for you keep it labeled for that purpose.  I'm sure some of the newer thumb drives have features present that can keep them from being identified by the primative operating system that BIOS actually is.

2.  The CPQSETUP.TXT files are tiny.... the thumb drive can be a very low capacity one, and maybe that would be best to use versus a bigger one.

3.  I'd do a low level format (a USB thumb drive low level wipe) on that small old junker thumb drive first..... I use the little utility from HERE and have been using that for years.

http://www.roadkil.net/program.php/P14/Disk%20Wipe

Please note that some thumb drives have had non-standard things done to them by the manufacturer, deep inside their sectors, so hunt around in your desk for old small ones and try a few before giving up.  I remember that SanDisk put out a limited number of USB drives that had some troubles due to a misunderstanding about W8 requirements.  Old and low capacity is what you are looking for here.....

4.  I format that thumb drive after the low level wipe using FAT32 format type.

5.  You obviously would not want to use a thumb drive that is write protected.

6.  In BIOS you can turn off the option to boot from a USB drive, and that may help prevent BIOS confusion.... just go to the boot order area of BIOS and highlight USB in the list, and use F5 to gray it out, and don't forget to F10 save as you exit that area and also choose to save your changes and F10 to confirm.

7.  There is advice to always have that thumb drive in place before you push the start button (that is a "cold boot"), but as noted in the first post above I also have been able to use Replicated Setup from a restart.

8.  BIOS is generally too primative to have USB3 drivers..... so don't try Replicated Setup from the blue USB3 ports on the front/back.  Always find a black USB2 port instead.  Try a rear USB2 port if you're not getting success with one of the front USB2 ports.  I habitually have used the top front port, and that is USB2 for the Z620 while the lower blue ones are USB3.

9.  I have run into rare cases where I could get control of BIOS only by using a PS2 keyboard and not by using a USB keyboard.  Thus, when I am building up workstations I always use PS2 keyboard and mouse.  I'd say the PS2 mouse is less important for these rare cases than the PS2 keyboard.  You can get nice HP PS2 keyboards and mice off eBay, new, cheap.  It is worth a try......

For what it is worth I have never, ever, not been able to use Replicated Setup via a USB stick on any HP workstation.  I think it basically is a matter of finding the right thumb drive that can be recognized by BIOS, but the tips above can help.  And, there is info in that first post above that is not here, so read and understand both.