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sheffield-junglist View Drop Down
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    Posted: 23 August 2010 at 1:46pm
This is really annoying me. 
I've been trying to try out a few different distro's of linux and also re-install XP with the view of eventually having linux as my main OS and XP there for when I need to use my touchscreen and a few other specific things.
I've got a Panasonic Toughbook CF-18 and it hasn't got a disc drive in it so all I can do it boot from USB. I've got XP Tablet edition (The OEM version for running the touchscreen on this thing) and a few different versions of Linux on pen drives all properly bootable but my bloody laptop wont let me.
I tell it to boot from USB and it comes up with-

Windows could not start because of a computer disc hardware configuration problem. Could not read from the selected boot disk. Check boot path and disk hardware.

My IT techie housemate can't figure out why its happening either

p.s I know it would probably work with a USB disc drive but I don't know anyone who's got one and I haven't got any money
And the toughbooks are the perfect gigging laptops. Get one.

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LondonTowers View Drop Down
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was the laptop running fine before you started 'playing' with it?
 
and i take it from 'all properly bootable' youve tried the pen drives in other machines?
 
what you COULD do.. is whip out the hard drive, slap it in another machine, start a windows installer and get it to load the install files and get through setup, and plugging it back into the laptop on the first 'turn off' that windows does.. i did this once and it worked fine, you may have a couple of drivers you need to manually install but it should work.
 
No idea what could be causing it though.. how far does it get before it gives you that error?? does it even make it into windows setup (the blue screen section where you get the files being loaded along the bottom of the screen)..
 
If i were you , get windows XP running on the thing, do a thoro checkout of the hardware make sure theres no internal errors, then try and get ubuntuu or w/e linux install you want on it (fedora is my fav.)
 
Only other thing i can think off - do you have USB device legacy support on? that can bugger things up with usb sticks etc.
 
If not, whats stopping you setting up a network share on your local LAN and installing your os's from that via ethernet? just have a machine running remote installation services, and you can install windows onto your laptop from another machine.. not sure if that service is native on OEM O/S's  i use windows server 2003/2008 to do that. there must be a way to do it off a windows vista/7 install though, if you wanna head down that route let me know and ill do some digging for you :)
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sheffield-junglist View Drop Down
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Originally posted by LondonTowers LondonTowers wrote:

was the laptop running fine before you started 'playing' with it?
 
and i take it from 'all properly bootable' youve tried the pen drives in other machines?
 
what you COULD do.. is whip out the hard drive, slap it in another machine, start a windows installer and get it to load the install files and get through setup, and plugging it back into the laptop on the first 'turn off' that windows does.. i did this once and it worked fine, you may have a couple of drivers you need to manually install but it should work.
 
No idea what could be causing it though.. how far does it get before it gives you that error?? does it even make it into windows setup (the blue screen section where you get the files being loaded along the bottom of the screen)..
 
If i were you , get windows XP running on the thing, do a thoro checkout of the hardware make sure theres no internal errors, then try and get ubuntuu or w/e linux install you want on it (fedora is my fav.)
 
Only other thing i can think off - do you have USB device legacy support on? that can bugger things up with usb sticks etc.
 
If not, whats stopping you setting up a network share on your local LAN and installing your os's from that via ethernet? just have a machine running remote installation services, and you can install windows onto your laptop from another machine.. not sure if that service is native on OEM O/S's  i use windows server 2003/2008 to do that. there must be a way to do it off a windows vista/7 install though, if you wanna head down that route let me know and ill do some digging for you :)

The laptop is absolutely fine. Literally the only thing up with it is that it won't boot from USB.

Yeah they all boot up fine on other machines.
My housemate has got the same (well, a bit different) laptop and it takes the same hard drive so I think I might have to go down that route. Not a bad idea.

Naah it literally says it as soon as I tell it to boot from USB.

I never thought of installing it remotely. Didn't even know it was possible to be honest. My housemate is a networking-setter-upper-type-person so I'll see if he can do it if the swapping hard drive thing doesn't work.


Edited by sheffield-junglist - 23 August 2010 at 5:15pm

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richardhx View Drop Down
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Points: 262 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote richardhx Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 August 2010 at 3:17am
Need to check Bios for that laptop. some will not do it...
This tablet can be installed to from an external, USB CD/DVD drive, might be worth getting one for simplicity, and options later. Worth getting a HDD for it, as USB flash media will not last for ever: not designed for that sort of access. Worth it as windows picks up on the drivers needed for a given unit.

But otherwise need to enable booting from USB in bios to get it to boot from a bootable USB.
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LondonTowers View Drop Down
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As richard says, you will need a NIC card and bios that supports installation over ethernet/network... if not bung the hdd in another machine and install it that way. if it doesnt work properly, simply put the hdd back in the machine you used to install it with, go into device manager and remove every single driver in there (not restarting inbetween each one).. power down the PC. put the HDD in the laptop, and it should auto install all the required drivers to get you up and running.

 
i will admit, the network idea is fiddly as hell, we do it alot at work, but thats because we have 8-9,000 desktop PC's and 5,000 laptops :|
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shagnasty View Drop Down
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to PXE up and install a one of build of XP from scratch is a project.
 
Check you have "legacy USB support" enabled in the bios 
 
One rashly assumes that your USB drive is bootable, not all are, check it on another machine.
 
A quick check is download hirens boot CD, follow the instruction to get it onto USB stick and check the stick with that.
 
If that works use it to blank the HDD and stuff a 4Gb FAT-32 partition on it, copy all the win xp files into this and then you can run XP setup from the dos prompt.
 
Note this needs FAT32 to work but you can create and install to a NTFS, you have to have the FAT32 bit so that the installer can de-compress the cab files onto it.
 
If the machine won't boot into hirens from a stick but another will (IE you know the stick boots) you are down to pulling the HDD and connecting it to another machine.
 
If it is a later TB with SATA HDD it will plud straight into a desk top so you don't need to spend any money...
 
Have fun
 
 
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sheffield-junglist View Drop Down
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Points: 573 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote sheffield-junglist Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 August 2010 at 10:31am
Cheers for all the replys.

It can definately boot from USB. 

I think the easiest thing would be to stick my hard drive in my house mates laptop and install it that way until I can afford an external disc drive. 

I have got Legacy USB support enabled and I've checked my USB stick in other machines and it boots up fine every time.

I'll give you a shout if I get it sorted. 
p.s I think installing it over the network is a bit more of a piss about than it needs to be. Especially when theres other options.

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darkmatter View Drop Down
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Points: 2425 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote darkmatter Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 August 2010 at 4:54pm
The fact that this is isolated to this laptop suggests it may be that the computer is slow to recognize the USB after the power on tests.

I've seen a weird and ridiculous sounding workaround suggested - it involved pressing a key a few times during boot to cause a minor delay hence allowing the computer time to recognize the USB.

I doubt I'll be able to find the site where I saw this originally, so apologies if I've given false hope lol - but this is the only thing I can think of since it's recognized in other PCs.

I've been playing around with Linux distros recently. Despite GRUB2 being far better than GRUB, there are still some pretty major flaws which need addressing before before boot loading works as it should on computers. You'd think that a reliable boot loading process might be standard for PCs in 2010 considering how advanced everything else is. Unfortunately not!
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AudioAddictz View Drop Down
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Points: 37 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote AudioAddictz Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 October 2010 at 3:12am
you could try plop , its ment for use on machines that dont have bios support for booting from usb , i have had a lot of success with it 

here is the link


hope that helps
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danielmartin View Drop Down
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Points: 4 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote danielmartin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 October 2010 at 11:16am
Well, I do not have any idea, although it may cause it to get it to you before how far the error. If I get things running on Windows XP, do the hardware thoro Checkout ensure that the world no other internal error, then try and get ubuntuu or W / E for Linux installed on it, you want.
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