BIOS update questions

[WackANoodle]

I guess the first question would be, what is the difference between flashing BIOS and updating BIOS. And My second question is what is a bitlocker recovery key. And what would happen if I try to update (or flash?) my BIOS without backing up my bitlocker recovery key and suspending the bitlocker encryption. And lastly, is it important to keep my BIOS up to date?

[RONOTHAN##]

11 minutes ago, WackANoodle said:

what is the difference between flashing BIOS and updating BIOS

They're the same thing, just two different ways of saying it. 

 

12 minutes ago, WackANoodle said:

what is a bitlocker recovery key

Bitlocker is Windows full disk encryption. Unless you're running some models of laptop this is off by default (IIRC it's also only available in Windows 10/11 Pro, but I could be wrong about that). The recovery key is the key used to unlock that drive in the event a TPM and Microsoft account password are forgotten/not found. 

 

13 minutes ago, WackANoodle said:

And what would happen if I try to update (or flash?) my BIOS without backing up my bitlocker recovery key and suspending the bitlocker encryption

You wouldn't be able to get access to any of your files on that drive.

 

13 minutes ago, WackANoodle said:

And lastly, is it important to keep my BIOS up to date?

It's not really. Generally there are only three reasons to do a BIOS update:

1. You're upgrading your CPU to one that the motherboard doesn't currently support (say upgrading from a 2600X to a 5800X3D on a B450 board)
2. There's issues with your current BIOS revision. Things like your memory kit won't enable XMP, features like fast boot or sleep are broken, or you have really peculiar performance issues. 
3. There's a security flaw found in an earlier BIOS that you want to mitigate. This is things like Spectre and Meltdown. 

If none of those are problems, a BIOS update is generally discouraged as it can cause more problems than it solves.