So i threw my Dads CF-29...

Dad showed me his 2nd hand CF-29 and I said thats a toughbook and threw it to show him how great they are.
"Could not find operating system" message now appears. Doh! Lesson learnt sorry Dad.

So I began the repair. opened it up and I think I caused more damage than good. Going well I am.
So I ebayed him another one. Mk5 gets delivered but his is a Mk4. I slide the HDD in and it wont boot.
Should an Mk5 boot a Mk4 HD install??????

I tried using the HDD (from mk4) in an external drive housing and boot from USB (on mk5) but it didn't work.

Have tested HDD with AOMEI and it comes up all good. The data on the HDD is accessable with my desktop, I can image/copy it etc. What I need is a program installed on the mk4 HDD that does open water charting, and is linked with several directories of sea charts, and his saved journeys within the program. It is not easily or cheaply purchased and re-installed onto the Mk5 so that's not an option.

To repair the Mk4 that I have, may be a tricky task. After the first time I opened her up it would only work on AC power and not the battery. I replaced the part between the battery and the hard drive connector, and now the screen does not have any display. Pulling it apart now to check main board fuse and cmos battery and trying to d/c the ram as well.

Any ideas??

 

The HDD really should boot - I've swapped plenty of HHD's between systems without any drama (Except for one system that had an AMD CPU). Windows activation usually has to be redone and some drivers are often missing but booting has always been fine in the past. I reckon it's hard drive damage or software corruption that is preventing it from booting (unless the HDD connector is broken/damaged but this seems unlikely). 'Could not find operating system' may be an issue with the MBR part of the disk, so read below.

Edit: found a fancy guide: http://windows7themes.net/en-us/missing-operating-system-windows-7/
Worth reading the next paragraph first for reference.

If you have a Windows install C/DVD/USB then you could try to use the 'fixmbr' command in the repair tools - I know that with the Windows 8/8.1 disks it's done by going to repair/advanced/troubleshoot/startup repair. If you don't have the install disks, you can download the ISO disk file and burn it to a disk/USB (USB done with the RUFUS app). If the MBR part of the disk is damaged (Say by a hefty impact...) then this might allow it to boot. Boot with the HDD installed internally and not through a USB external caddy. The 'check disk' command may also be worth a try. Google both of these methods - they have good instructions that would take too long too retype here. *IF* this works and you can boot it, then use a program like Zinstall's "WinWin" software to move that program to a new hard disk with Windows installed, or clone the old disk to a new HDD - if there's any software corruption then it's probably best to see whether a program migrator program will work first... Hard impacts are seriously not good for hard drives and a new one is worth buying.

If that doesn't work... And you don't mind taking some time on something that has no guarantees and there are no better suggestinos to try and you're desperate...

Appdata is generally stored in C:\Users\yourusername\AppData and you can sometimes just copy the program's entire folder from the 'program files' section of your C: drive. Registry data should then also be exported from the old HDD with RegfileExport and then imported into a fresh install of Windows on another disk. I've done this a long time ago and it worked but it's been a long time and I'm really not sure how well this would work.

I'm strongly considering not posting the second part, since it's pretty ghetto but if there are no better suggestions and you're desperate... Hopefully it'll help. Hopefully repairing the disk will work enough to boot from the old HDD so you can migrate it to a new disk.

 

hmmm ...
yep ... dollars to donuts that the HDD has been hailed/damaged ...
the first thing to remember and always keep in mind : do not spin up the drive unnecessarily ... this will cause more damage to the drive .
the absolute best thing to do is make a clone of the drive and work with that (forensics 101) .
if you pooch the/a program transfer , and make the old drive *unreadable* , loose and/or corrupt the data , it will not bode well for you .
the easiest and best solution (overall and all things technical and personal considered) is to get the new machine and let your dad install the programs he needs on his "new" machine .
there are forensic methods available to retrieve data using a linux platform (works when windows won't or can't) ... this is something that only you and your dad can decide the best approach on , and as far as who will retrieve the data .
screwing with the registry in windows by the uninitiated is like playing with a warm bottle of nitroglycerin ... it is only a matter of time before it blows up in your face .

 

The mk4 and mk5 hard drive should swap with no problems.
I have done it myself. I have used mk4 recovery disks on a mk5 and it booted fine.
You have a hard drive or a caddy problem.
Some of the Chinese hard drive caddies can be problematic in certain machines.
I am guessing you screwed up the hard drive.

I highly recommend this Techtough IDE to SATA adapter. I personally beta tested one and they work great.
Do it right. Get the adapter and a SATA drive. Maybe really surprise dad and get him a SSD also.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Use-2-5-SSD...ughbook-CF-29-caddy-IDE-Adapter-/380721697924

 

go one better and buy your dad a CF 31 for the replacement .
nothing shows sincerity like an upgrade .

 

Here is a link to the beta testing thread.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...toughbook-cf-18-with-ide-sata-adapter.769706/

 

The heaviest part in a TB is the battery. Think test dummie in crash test.

Sounds like two issues. One you worked on already. Did you carefully inspect the connector on the hard drive with a strong light? Reads like a damged disk.

Do you have a 'new" caddy? The lack of video could have been caused by short in caddy connectors..causing blown fuse....the only thing that makes sense. (unless your repair was faulty)

I've used Linux many times to transport files from one disk to another...using USB for the Linux program.

Let me know what parts you need. PM

 

At this point, first thing I would do is get Acronis and clone the hard drive. That way you have a copy if the drive suddenly goes TU.

 

Yep, fully agree back up the drive. Then now since you have two machines you could clone the drive and have a fully working back up toughbook if needed.

 

Thank-you all so much for your info I really appreciate it!!
I had tried to make a good back up of the HDD but it wasn't right. with errors or missing information. I used a program called RawCopy to copy it over to an external HD. Then I fitted it into the Mk5 caddy and voila it booted up as if it was dads old laptop!!!! I then narrowed it down to a faulty cable in the caddy by elimination. I guess this is so simple and I should have done this first but I was suspect on internal hardware as it had a common symptom being the laptop wouldnt work just on the battery. It does help having an almost identical laptop to use to fault find also. Greatly appreciate everybodies assistance in helping the trail of thought.
Also I think there was actually a faulty MBR, as suggestested, on the original HD thats why it wouldn't boot directly from the drive from usb.

 

congratulations ...
i have found borked MBRs to be the cause a fair percentage of the time .
there are tools for "patching" the MBR ... 'nix based are the easiest to use .

this song seems apropos ... several applicable phrases :

this is one i play when digging through drives/problems ...
and sometimes , success is chalked up to *luck* .

 

Sounds to me like you have a China made cable in the caddy. They sell these cables as fitting the CF-18 and the CF-29 but the black end that connects to the 29 is not long enough and a few good bangs and you have the problem that you had. The black piece is only 1/16 of an inch shorter but that is all it takes. Glad you got it going.

 

I was thinking the same thing.