Question 3 ToughBooks can't boot with new HDD/SSD except with Linux.

[ElectronicsRepairGuru]

I couldn't find this exact issue anywhere so far and I've asked all of my colleagues and everyone is at a loss. I'm not used to older machines, so maybe I'm missing something obvious.

A good customer (otherwise I would've gave up on this long ago) brought in 3 Panasonic ToughBooks that work but there's no storage left on the HDD. Two are on Win7 Ultimate 32-bit and the other is Win8 I think but not as important. Whenever I remove the HDD from the CF-30 and CF-18 my rigs' Disk Managers say it's unallocated. Health is 100% and they run just fine in their native machines. UFS Recovery and all the Medicat software don't see the drives as well. Whenever I put in a brand new good HDD/SSD into these machines, this same situation occurs with them as well and I have to format them to use them. Same thing occurs when I clone the HDD's and attempt to boot from them.

I had a colleague test it out on his rig and he managed to get a HDD show up but it had a question mark on it and was inaccessible. Unplugged it, plugged back in and then it became unallocated like it always did for me. I hope this made sense. First time I've come across such a mess and I feel crazy now. TIA for reading through it at least if you did.

 

[COLGeek]

What exactly are you trying to do with these Toughbooks? Swap (increase) storage devices? Clone current HDDs to larger, faster storage? Clean installs? What?

Your comment about having to format storage to use it is striking me as odd. Of course, that is the case, unless I am missing your point.

Those are funny machines, from my experience using them in tactical environments.

 

[dwd999]

I couldn't find this exact issue anywhere so far and I've asked all of my colleagues and everyone is at a loss. I'm not used to older machines, so maybe I'm missing something obvious.

A good customer (otherwise I would've gave up on this long ago) brought in 3 Panasonic ToughBooks that work but there's no storage left on the HDD. Two are on Win7 Ultimate 32-bit and the other is Win8 I think but not as important. Whenever I remove the HDD from the CF-30 and CF-18 my rigs' Disk Managers say it's unallocated. Health is 100% and they run just fine in their native machines. UFS Recovery and all the Medicat software don't see the drives as well. Whenever I put in a brand new good HDD/SSD into these machines, this same situation occurs with them as well and I have to format them to use them. Same thing occurs when I clone the HDD's and attempt to boot from them.

I had a colleague test it out on his rig and he managed to get a HDD show up but it had a question mark on it and was inaccessible. Unplugged it, plugged back in and then it became unallocated like it always did for me. I hope this made sense. First time I've come across such a mess and I feel crazy now. TIA for reading through it at least if you did.

These devices contain special security systems designed for military, law enforcement, etc. that are designed specifically so that the drives cannot be removed and accessed on other devices. That's the price of them being high security devices. The best option may be to leave the drives in their original native devices running as they were created and to off load any essential data or whatever is stored on them assuming you have the proper security clearance to free up necessary space.

 

[ElectronicsRepairGuru]

What exactly are you trying to do with these Toughbooks? Swap (increase) storage devices? Clone current HDDs to larger, faster storage? Clean installs? What?

Your comment about having to format storage to use it is striking me as odd. Of course, that is the case, unless I am missing your point.

Those are funny machines, from my experience using them in tactical environments.

I'm trying to upgrade the HDD to add more storage. Copying over the files worked but for the life of me I can't get make them recognize a replacement HDD with a fresh Windows, so I guess a tech without proper clearance can even do this job like dwd999 mentioned. At least I know now.

 

[ElectronicsRepairGuru]

These devices contain special security systems designed for military, law enforcement, etc. that are designed specifically so that the drives cannot be removed and accessed on other devices. That's the price of them being high security devices. The best option may be to leave the drives in their original native devices running as they were created and to off load any essential data or whatever is stored on them assuming you have the proper security clearance to free up necessary space.

Thank you, that explains why these were used at an airline before. Any idea how I can find someone to work on these for the customer?

 

[USAFRet]

I'm trying to upgrade the HDD to add more storage. Copying over the files worked but for the life of me I can't get make them recognize a replacement HDD with a fresh Windows, so I guess a tech without proper clearance can even do this job like dwd999 mentioned. At least I know now.

A drive with an OS from a different system often/usually fails.

You'd need to be able to install the OS on the drive, when it is in this system.

 

[dwd999]

Thank you, that explains why these were used at an airline before. Any idea how I can find someone to work on these for the customer?

It would depend on how the customer came into possession of these units. Normally you would contact the security or IT director of the initial purchaser, e.g. airline. or if possible have the work done by the airline's IT staff. There's probably a link in the device's bios or tpm chip that links the hdd's serial number to the computer to prevent the type of swap out you're attempting. This is high level security stuff that's over most of our heads.

 

[COLGeek]

My experience with these, IIRC, was that adding raw storage and then formatting for use was trivial (it has been a awhile). At the time, I was responsible for systems being ported to go from military "green boxes" to run on commercial boxes (Toughbooks).

I don't recall the team needing to perform any security actions as part of the effort. In fact, once we produced a final version of an application, we just replicated HDDs for installation.

 

[ElectronicsRepairGuru]

A drive with an OS from a different system often/usually fails.

You'd need to be able to install the OS on the drive, when it is in this system.

That's what I've been attempting to do but the HDD can't be seen when attempting to install Windows. Wish I was making it up lol. First time I've seen this and I've worked on computers for several years.

 

[ElectronicsRepairGuru]

It would depend on how the customer came into possession of these units. Normally you would contact the security or IT director of the initial purchaser, e.g. airline. or if possible have the work done by the airline's IT staff. There's probably a link in the device's bios or tpm chip that links the hdd's serial number to the computer to prevent the type of swap out you're attempting. This is high level security stuff that's over most of our heads.

Thank you, I'll check all of that. I knew this must be a security thing but felt like I was nuts 'cause I don't see any way to put in an encryption key or anything. Good to know and this goes on my banned list outside of data recovery lol.

 

[ElectronicsRepairGuru]

My experience with these, IIRC, was that adding raw storage and then formatting for use was trivial (it has been a awhile). At the time, I was responsible for systems being ported to go from military "green boxes" to run on commercial boxes (Toughbooks).

I don't recall the team needing to perform any security actions as part of the effort. In fact, once we produced a final version of an application, we just replicated HDDs for installation.

That's interesting! Not sure if that's something that'd work on these. Huh.

 

[dwd999]

Thank you, I'll check all of that. I knew this must be a security thing but felt like I was nuts 'cause I don't see any way to put in an encryption key or anything. Good to know and this goes on my banned list outside of data recovery lol.

Thinking more on your title for the thread, if the units can be booted from a linux usb stick then the security would appear to be based on a tpm windows situation. If a linux boot was successful then perhaps a linux booted key program that the original purchaser has would unlock the security features and allow a drive swap change. But only the original purchaser or IT or security personnel know what's going on.