NeXT
Veteran Member
The TransNote is another one of those weird IBM devices I wanted to try out. Unlike my PC110 or 850 however this time I had a legit reason to get one. My university has a loophole regarding electronics in class. Laptops and cellphones are....not really allowed. Theere however was an exception for "education-exclusive computers and learning aids". I supplied the specs for the TransNote to the computer lab and they gave it the OK. So bI went ahead and on a government grant bought myself a TransNote, upgraded it to 384mb ram and tossed in a 32gb SSD.
The one thing that took slightly longer to find were the factory restore CD's. After fighting several picturebooks to get everything working (and failing) I hoped someone had saved the restore discs for the TransNote. They did.
Here is how you restore a TransNote from a blank slate to functioning, nearly screen by screen.
So insert disc 1 into a CD drive compatible with the list below and boot from it.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer related/TransNote/CGS_0239.jpg
The utility is super picky about drives. Really. That's all you get.
I by chance had the Portable Drive Bay PCMCIA CD drive which I was using with the PC110. I discovered after several unsuccessful restores that the three AA batteries are not what the drive needs to complete the hour long restore. IF the drive hiccups at all the restore process skips steps, misses files and you end up with a broken install.
SOLUTION: Strap an external power source to it.
Anyways, select the drive you use. It will ask you if you want to first rebuild the recovery partition. Say yes.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer related/TransNote/CGS_0240.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer related/TransNote/CGS_0241.jpg
Lol, Powerquest.
]http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer related/TransNote/CGS_0242.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer related/TransNote/CGS_0243.jpg
Don't remove the CD. Let it boot form it again, reselect your CD drive and it will continue on dumping files.
]http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer related/TransNote/CGS_0244.jpg
]http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer related/TransNote/CGS_0245.jpg
It will ask you to swap discs.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer related/TransNote/CGS_0246.jpg
...then keep dumping files.
]http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer related/TransNote/CGS_0247.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer related/TransNote/CGS_0248.jpg
Do as the nice computer says.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer related/TransNote/CGS_0249.jpg
After the reboot it will ask you if you want to recover. Just keep saying yes.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer related/TransNote/CGS_0250.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer related/TransNote/CGS_0251.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer related/TransNote/CGS_0252.jpg
...then off it goes doing its thing.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer related/TransNote/CGS_0254.jpg
Then another reboot.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer related/TransNote/CGS_0255.jpg
More files.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer related/TransNote/CGS_0256.jpg
Again, swap discs.
More grinding away.
Yay! Are we done?
Nope. More stuff to dump.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer related/TransNote/CGS_0260.jpg
A more recognizable screen.
[urlhttp://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer%20related/TransNote/CGS_0261.jpg[/url]
From here you will be seeing this every reboot. Just let it count down and carry on its way.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer related/TransNote/CGS_0263.jpg
You might also notice that the system is now aware of the recovery partition.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer related/TransNote/CGS_0264.jpg
Over the course of the restore I seemed to be missing about half a dozen loose files. I hoped they were not essential or could be reloaded later so I just continued on.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer related/TransNote/CGS_0266.jpg
Yay! GUI!
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer related/TransNote/CGS_0267.jpg
More missing files.
After another reboot it will go straight into 2000 and start running scripts and installers. Again, leave it alone and let it reboot.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer related/TransNote/CGS_0268.jpg
....There you go. A factory fresh restore. Now, you will need to do some heavy updating manually. With 2000 having reached EOL three years ago the update servers are long gone. You will have to manually download any service packs and hotfixes. Even Internet Explorer is unusable these days so the first thing I recommend is installing Firefox 3.6.28 which seems to run decently enough however you will have to dig about to find older versions of Flash or Java that will behave both with firefox, Windows and the hardware.
With the exception of one missing directx file (which was downloaded and dropped in system32) I did not find any issues with the missing files. I did however find that I had to download the driver for my CD drive as that didn't translate over from the DOS driver used in the restore process.
The one thing that took slightly longer to find were the factory restore CD's. After fighting several picturebooks to get everything working (and failing) I hoped someone had saved the restore discs for the TransNote. They did.
Here is how you restore a TransNote from a blank slate to functioning, nearly screen by screen.
So insert disc 1 into a CD drive compatible with the list below and boot from it.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer related/TransNote/CGS_0239.jpg
The utility is super picky about drives. Really. That's all you get.
I by chance had the Portable Drive Bay PCMCIA CD drive which I was using with the PC110. I discovered after several unsuccessful restores that the three AA batteries are not what the drive needs to complete the hour long restore. IF the drive hiccups at all the restore process skips steps, misses files and you end up with a broken install.
SOLUTION: Strap an external power source to it.
Anyways, select the drive you use. It will ask you if you want to first rebuild the recovery partition. Say yes.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer related/TransNote/CGS_0240.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer related/TransNote/CGS_0241.jpg
Lol, Powerquest.
]http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer related/TransNote/CGS_0242.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer related/TransNote/CGS_0243.jpg
Don't remove the CD. Let it boot form it again, reselect your CD drive and it will continue on dumping files.
]http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer related/TransNote/CGS_0244.jpg
]http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer related/TransNote/CGS_0245.jpg
It will ask you to swap discs.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer related/TransNote/CGS_0246.jpg
...then keep dumping files.
]http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer related/TransNote/CGS_0247.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer related/TransNote/CGS_0248.jpg
Do as the nice computer says.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer related/TransNote/CGS_0249.jpg
After the reboot it will ask you if you want to recover. Just keep saying yes.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer related/TransNote/CGS_0250.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer related/TransNote/CGS_0251.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer related/TransNote/CGS_0252.jpg
...then off it goes doing its thing.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer related/TransNote/CGS_0254.jpg
Then another reboot.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer related/TransNote/CGS_0255.jpg
More files.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer related/TransNote/CGS_0256.jpg
Again, swap discs.
More grinding away.
Yay! Are we done?
Nope. More stuff to dump.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer related/TransNote/CGS_0260.jpg
A more recognizable screen.
[urlhttp://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer%20related/TransNote/CGS_0261.jpg[/url]
From here you will be seeing this every reboot. Just let it count down and carry on its way.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer related/TransNote/CGS_0263.jpg
You might also notice that the system is now aware of the recovery partition.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer related/TransNote/CGS_0264.jpg
Over the course of the restore I seemed to be missing about half a dozen loose files. I hoped they were not essential or could be reloaded later so I just continued on.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer related/TransNote/CGS_0266.jpg
Yay! GUI!
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer related/TransNote/CGS_0267.jpg
More missing files.
After another reboot it will go straight into 2000 and start running scripts and installers. Again, leave it alone and let it reboot.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer related/TransNote/CGS_0268.jpg
....There you go. A factory fresh restore. Now, you will need to do some heavy updating manually. With 2000 having reached EOL three years ago the update servers are long gone. You will have to manually download any service packs and hotfixes. Even Internet Explorer is unusable these days so the first thing I recommend is installing Firefox 3.6.28 which seems to run decently enough however you will have to dig about to find older versions of Flash or Java that will behave both with firefox, Windows and the hardware.
With the exception of one missing directx file (which was downloaded and dropped in system32) I did not find any issues with the missing files. I did however find that I had to download the driver for my CD drive as that didn't translate over from the DOS driver used in the restore process.
