~Toughbooktalk~

Hi all...this is my first post here and I would really appreciate any suggestions you might have.

I am the original registered owner of a CF-18B mark one. I use it to transfer outdoor photographs from a digital camera to a weatherproof hard drive and for a rough preview of the images. I use the GPS to enter location data in the photo file for later reference (when I forget exactly where the photo was taken). My original hard drive finally gave up so I swapped in a new western digital 250 gig. I went to locate my restore discs and could not locate them anywhere.

I figured OK, I'll call Panasonic and see about getting a replacement set. I was surprised to find out that even though they had my records from registering it originally, they no longer send out replacement copies of the restore discs even if you are the original purchaser. I was not expecting them for free, but I was expecting to be able to still buy them. Tech support gave me 2 phone numbers and the lady at Panasonic support said that these would be my only options.

Both phone numbers ended up being the same place, Heartland Services. The tech there said they no longer had the discs available, but that they could reload with their OS image for $165.00 plus shipping. I asked about getting a copy of what they load onto my toughbook so that if the new drive dies anytime soon I would have someting to reload. He said he would have to check on that. He also said he would check on being able to send in just the hard drive and they would load it on that. He is supposed to call back tomorrow.

Has anyone else run into a simular situation? Is Heartland Services really my only option and are they any good?
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. At this point, my old reliable is just a lightweight magnesium brick.
Thanks in advance for any help you could offer...

Welcome to the Forum . Yes Heartlands is the only place when it comes to toughbooks or eBay . The price they gave you is about right and shipping well its very high, they start at about $25.00 and up . Shipping to Maine cost me $35.00 But if you need any amount of parts you can save a lot by dealing with them. I deal with Kate Deveney and she has been very helpfull anytime I email her with questions.
What is your full model number Cf-18B_ _ _ _ _ _ . You say it has tablet operating system so it's a Digitizer which seems to be the hard one to get the restore disks for. I think your may have to load the Tablet OS and the drivers the long way. Then when you get it up and running with all updates done use "Acronis True Image" to make a copy to another hard drive so you will not have to go to the trouble of downloading everything again. I have a couple old 20GB drives just for this and it works great. I just put a 320GB HDD in my CF-30 and used Acronis to move everything over to the new drive. Worked great. Hope this helps and let us know how you make out.

If you have not already done so, send a PM to Rob, the owner of this forum. He may be able to help you with the discs.

Glen

We don't have the restore/recovery disk for the MK1, just the Generic Windows Media Tablet-2005. If you need that then send Rob a PM.
I have been looking for them for some time but never see them up on ebay. I made a trade with a guy in UK and he was trying to get me a copy but he could find any, someone must have some where because you see the CF-18 Digitizer all the time on ebay but never the disks

toughasnails wrote:We don't have the restore/recovery disk for the MK1, just the Generic Windows Media Tablet-2005. If you need that then send Rob a PM.
I have been looking for them for some time but never see them up on ebay. I made a trade with a guy in UK and he was trying to get me a copy but he could find any, someone must have some where because you see the CF-18 Digitizer all the time on ebay but never the disks

Hold up here! I have recovery CD's for a Mk1 CF-18... paypal me $25 to robertbaldyga@gmail.com and I'll put em up for download...

Did I miss this one or is this not downloaded ...CF-18 MK1 Digitizer

OK folks...so here is what has happened so far. Heartland called back and they now will load the restored tablet PC image on a bare drive and send it back. They said it would be $50 to load the image and another $30 for shipping for a total of $80
I was able to buy a "copy" of a set of the 3 Panasonic restore cd's for a MK1 off ebay for a few bucks.
Do the restore discs have just windows xp pro on it or do they have both XP Pro and tablet and what loads depends on your COA number? (guessing it asks for your COA numbers)
Sorry if this is a bit of a newbie question, but I never gave the restore cd's a second thought when I had them cause I never had to reload anything.

Thanks for everyones responses so far, I appreciate it very much.

As a side note, does anyone know if the SD card reader is a unit that can be added to the CF-18 if it did not have it originally or is it part of the PCMCIA module or motherboard?

Thanks again...Matt

Matguyver wrote:OK folks...so here is what has happened so far. Heartland called back and they now will load the restored tablet PC image on a bare drive and send it back. They said it would be $50 to load the image and another $30 for shipping for a total of $80
I was able to buy a "copy" of a set of the 3 Panasonic restore cd's for a MK1 off ebay for a few bucks.
Do the restore discs have just windows xp pro on it or do they have both XP Pro and tablet and what loads depends on your COA number? (guessing it asks for your COA numbers)
Thanks again...Matt

It does not ask you anything. Just load and go . The disks you got , did you ask if it was for the MK1 Digitizer model ? The touchscreen is XP Pro and the Digitizer is Tablet. As far as I know they do not have both on them. When you put the cd in, it will check to see if you have the right one. If you don't it will tell you that you have the wrong one and stop the install.

As a side note, does anyone know if the SD card reader is a unit that can be added to the CF-18 if it did not have it originally or is it part of the PCMCIA module or motherboard?

Good question. The sd card reader was never an option for the MK1 so you might not have a spot to connect it to the motherboard

What Blair said, you will not be able to use those disks as they are for the touchscreen only
You could try modding disk 1 info here
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=744

And I have the drivers for the digitizer if needed if you load xp

Alex

Hi all...OK...so here is the latest. The MK1 recovery CD set I got off ebay must have been for the touchscreen versions because I got the dreaded "will not work with this model" message.
I sent a PM to Rob to confirm if he had the "digitizer" version that would work with my specific model (CF-18BDAZAMM) A friend of mine who used to work for a PC manufacturer also offered his generic tablet PC 2005 version if I needed it. I still have my official Panasonic CF-18 Service manual/Drivers CD and hopefully that would have every driver that I would need.
I would like to thank everyone so far for all the help...I really appreciate it. I am looking forward to getting the old gal back up and running with a lot more extra space to boot.
I would really prefer to get a recovery set that would work rather than just sending in the hard drive to Heartland so that I have a way to fix things if/when the new drive goes out.
Thanks again...Matt