How do I save/restore my BIOS settings when I do a BIOS Update?

[hansmuff]

I know this sounds rather stupid but I have customized my BIOS quite a bit. A lot of settings have changed and my machine runs like a dream. Zero problems.

Now, as we all know there's a new BIOS released for the Intel CPU bugs and other exploits. So chances are I want to apply it.

In the past, every time I updated the BIOS I was unable to save my settings before update and then restore them. As I see it, there's 2 ways to save settings:
1) In the BIOS/EEPROM; Asus' BIOS gives a few slots to save settings
2) Export to a USB drive

I totally understand why (1) does get erased during a BIOS update. But I haven't been able to restore settings from a USB stick. It saved, but I got some error when I tried to restore.

Anything in particular I need to look out for? Should I be able to save/restore settings somehow? Taking photos of each setup page is really ineffective and tedious.

Thanks!

[Menthol]

You can not automatically restore settings from one bios version to another, you can like you say, save to txt. file, either print the file or open on your laptop and manually copy the settings, or save screen shots within the bios of all required settings and do the same as above manually

[hansmuff]

I have found a way to make the upgrades easier.

1. Go into BIOS
2. Save the current config under 'Tools' just in case
3. Restore the default config (it's called "optimized defaults")
4. Hit F10 but nothing else!!

Now, the BIOS will display what all the things are that the change to "optimized default" impacted. That's the list of things that you need to change back after a BIOS update. Take pictures of that list with your phone, page by page, and you have a comprehensive list that's MUCH easier to handle than crawling through all the BIOS pages. Enjoy!

[Chino]

No need to use a phone. Connect a USB pendrive to your system and press the F12 key to take a screenshot. 😉