Hello all, I am attempting to restore my tc1

[jenniand]

Hello all,

I am attempting to restore my tc1000. I am away from home and my docking station. I dont have my restore CD's with me. I did a complete backup of my data HD Thursday cause the drive sounded funny. Now, it has crashed (no sound). I went and bought a new 60GB HD and had it installed. I also bought am external MAGICSPIN (generic) CD/RW drive. I have the full edition of XP Tablet Edition 2005 on 2 CD's. Since I don't have a USB port on the unit without the Docking station, I bought a DLINK PCMCIA to USB adapter. When I boot into BIOS without the external CD/RW connected, there is no option in the BIOS for CD-ROM, when I do have it connected, there is an option for CD-ROM. However, when I boot the system it does not recognize the Bootable CD. I can take the same CD and put it in my girlfriends laptop and set it to boot from the CD and the boot sequence starts. Can someone please help me understand what I need to do to get this system back up. I am having my brother go by my house at home and ship me my dock, but until then, I need my system. Any tips or links as to how to get this done would be greatly appreciated. I can say I have searched this site quite extensively and seen all the post about how to restore without the CD and how to book from modified images and the like, but I gather the all of those scenarios are talking about either having an external CD-ROM drive connected to the docking station OR using the restore CD's to restore without a CD at all (but you still need the Restore CD's to do that) bummer. All I want to do is install a fresh copy of XP Tablet 2005 on my system. Once I get the wireless driver installed (after the OS install), I can do almost anything then. Any help is appreciated. Sorry to be so long winded guys. I can talk tech, but not as techy when it comes to hands on :-).

Thanks in advance guys,

Jenni

[WNewquay]

Hi Jenni

You do have a USB port and should not have to use the PC Card Interface.

Not all external CD Drives are bootable, but I'd try to boot with the USB connection as I think it's unlikely that the bios in your machine supports the PC Card anyway.


The USB ports are under the flap at the left edge of the screen at the opposite end from the Compaq Logo. Since you use a docking station you may never have had occasion to open it.

The USB connections are the two holes closest to the centre of the unit. There are two, and it doesn't matter which you use.

So, turn off the machine, connect the USB connectors, and fire it up. It sounds like you know what to do from that point.

I hope you can return the DLink PCMCIA to USB adapter.

[jenniand]

quote:Originally posted by WNewquay

Hi Jenni

You do have a USB port and should not have to use the PC Card Interface.

...

WNewquay,

All I have is the computer, keyboard attachment and power cord. I have never seen a USB port on the computer itself, only on the docking station. If there is one, where is it located? I can't find it. (not and unusual thing though):D

Thanks

Jenni.

[WNewquay]

Hi Jenni,

I was editing my post with the location of the USB ports, probably while you were typing. (look up)

Did you find them?

[jenniand]

I just found the little door on the top with the USB ports (its hidden away - so cute) I'll try to boot that way. I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks

Jenni.

[jenniand]

You guys are the best. Silly me; I didn't even know the computer had USB slots on the main system. Now I see it has a modem, NIC, VGA and USB slots. I was like WOW. All this time and I never even knew that. :-) With your instructions, I found it and plugged in my External USB drive and installed XP Tablet 2005 without a single hitch. You guys are the best. Thanks for your help.

Jenni.

[WNewquay]

Hey Jenni,

Glad that all worked out. The challenges here should all be this easy.

The TC1x00 series are svelt and well designed. It's no surprise that having the docking station, you might not notice (not having needed to), the other ports on the system. I think that's testament to the design.