If the BIOS fails, what happens on startup? If there is a BIOS driver could you make people get a BIOS driver that formats their hard drive automaticlly everytime they install a OS on it?
Depends really. If the Bootblock along with the rest is destroyed, fuckall will happen when the PC powers up. No beeps no nothing. If the bootblock is intact but the rest is destroyed, it will either emit beeps and search for a flash floppy, or display on the screen:
BIOS ROM Checksum error.
Checking floppy Drive A media..
Or if no floppydrive is present:
BIOS ROM Checksum error.
System halted.
The BIOS stands for Basic Input Outupt System. CMOS and BIOS =2 Diff things. The CMOS is the chip that holds its settings.
If the bootblock is gone, and you can't replace the chip on the motherboard, its game over.
If it is intact, then you make a floppy with an AutoExec.bat file to make it boot and flash it automaticly.
Dual BIOS motherboards work like the following: Boots from main BIOS. if that one fails, Boots from second BIOS. And will give you the option to reflash the first. Or just ignore it and continue. It will emit a beep to tell you to do this from BIOS settings. You can choose which BIOS to boot from: (main or backup). I had one time where BOTH went bad. First one: Bootblock gone. Second: Bootblock intact but rest corrupt. So i was able to reflash.
And no i dont think doing one like that is possable. Never heard of it also.