Questions about factory dual OS CF-28's

I have just got my hands on 8 factory dual OS CF-28's. These were purchased from a police dept. With it came factory restore disks unopened and two factory manuals.

Reading through the manual it states ( Windows 2000 and XP are preinstalled on the computer. After one of them is selected with the following procedure, only that operating system can be used) Could you only choose one OS or was this just to activate a factory dual boot? The manual isn't clear. I have been looking to see if the manual i have is on the list on this site yet. Haven't gone through all the links yet.

Do the factory restore disks do all the work in redoing the original dual OS or is it just most likely one OS on the disk. I haven't had them but two days, haven't had time to play with them fully yet. I have never messed with the factory style disks for a Toughbook before.

I just want to see what there view was on the dual os. It seems it's as it is worded you only could choose one OS to use. Guessing at the time when xp was new and compatibility was questionable you had the option for what you needed.

As on a legal stand point with a dual key windows COA is it ok to set them up for a dual boot since it has both keys on bottom?

 

As I understand it, the dual os COA entitles you to use one or the other, not both. I do know for a fact that, when reloading, either key works fine.
CAP

 

The restore CDs let you choose either Win2K or XP when they are loaded. They are only capable of installing one OS.

 

If you have Mk1s (600mhz), you will probably want to run Win2k as they max out at 384MB RAM; if you have a Mk2 or Mk3, you'll be fine with XP once you max out the RAM to 768mb or, if they're the uber-rare models with 512mb on the MB, 1GB total. Either will require up to a 512MB PC133 Low-Density SODIMM; the Mk1 will accept up to a 256MB PC100 Low-Density SODIMM and are pretty picky.

There is no benefit to using Win2K if your machine will support XP; the www is getting so full of flash and other media that is not supported properly in the older OS that it's foolhardy to try and keep flogging it if you don't need to.

mnem
Old ToughBooks don't die... they aggregate.

 

Thank you all for your replies. Out of the 8, 6 are 800mhz and the other 2 are 1000mhz. I had three cf-28's before i got these. ( two 1000mhz and one 800mhz).

I have 4 kids and have been wanting to get them something to learn on and so they will stay off of mine. lol. My youngest two are 4 and 5 so a "toughbook" is exactly what they needed.

The reason i snatched up those 8 was they all had caddy's, harddrive, 6 have the black chicklets with backlight and two are rubbers with backlights, all have COA'S, all have powercords and all have there factory restore disk. The ad said no drives on them but 6 had floppys, one was empty, one was optical cd. The price was right. Got them for under 300 for all. Right now i am at work playing with couple.

I am looking at swapping out the best parts for the ones i keep. Then i plan on reselling a couple of the others to get a little back and put toward something else. I just got a cf-29 in. It's a mk3 and haven't got to place my hands on it yet. But it has cd-dvd drive and 1.5 gb ram. All i will need to round up is a caddy and harddrive for it.

So far the testing i have done on one of the 800mhz machines have worked good. It still only has the factory 256mb of ram on it so a upgrade is still needed for it. But it plays videos in the car with the car adapter fine. And When i was at home some of the older games i have i put on a 1000mhz machine worked good. I even got HALO CE to work good on it.

Right now the big thing is i am working on is the battery part. The first three i got only had one battery and it went straight to the red flashing light wouldn't even attempt to charge. Right now i have moved one battery to the cf-28 i use and have done the battery refresh about three times on it. I can get a little over a hour on it now. Probably do it a couple more times here in a few days. I am using a scandisk ultra 4gb flash drive with a adapter for a harddrive so that probaly helps the power usage some. The wifi stay on too when i do the battery test. I keep everything turned up even the light on the screen. I hope i can get a few more good batteries out of it as none of them were deathflashing.