Classmate Disk Read Error

[Ben A.]

When I try to boot the '10 Classmate from the flash drive, I get a message saying "A disk read error occured ... Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart". Is there any way to fix this?

Also, what exactly does the flash drive install? Could I just install a normal copy of Windows 7 Home Premium (x32) from a DVD on the Classmate and make the Driver and Developer accounts myself?

[Mark McLeod]

If it doesn't recover then you'll have to reimage the Classmate to fix it.

The flash drive is just Windows 7 and the user accounts Driver & Developer.
Only Driver is necessary to compete though.

The problem with installing your own copy of Windows is getting the drivers required by the particular Classmate hardware.

[Ben A.]

Originally Posted by Mark McLeod

If it doesn't recover then you'll have to reimage the Classmate to fix it.

The flash drive is just Windows 7 and the user accounts Driver & Developer.
Only Driver is necessary to compete though.

The problem with installing your own copy of Windows is getting the drivers required by the particular Classmate hardware.

The error shows before it flashes to the Classmate, so nothing is broken, I'm just not able to flash it...

Would you have any idea as to where I could find the drivers for the Classmate?

[Mark McLeod]

Oh sorry, I misunderstood.

You also have the option to leave the Classmate running XP. All the FRC specific software comes on DVDs in the Kit and software updates.

You can probably get the Windows 7 device drivers from the 2GoPC tech support site.
I'm sure FIRST HQ will help get you the drivers too if you ask them.

[Ben A.]

Originally Posted by Mark McLeod

Oh sorry, I misunderstood.

You also have the option to leave the Classmate running XP. All the FRC specific software comes on DVDs in the Kit and software updates.

You can probably get the device drivers from the 2GoPC site.
I'm sure FIRST HQ will help get you the drivers too if you askthem.

Yeah some other people have told me that it's okay to keep on running Windows XP, but I think that it would be easier to troubleshoot certain things with Windows 7, as I'm more comfortable with it. I'll look at both if those places later today, thanks (:

[Ben A.]

Update: it turns out there's something up with the Classmate, not the flashdrive. I took the files from the flash drive and put them on a DVD and tried to boot a different computer from it; it worked. Then, just for laughs, I tried booting that computer from the USB drive. It turns out that the USB drive also works, the Classmate just doesn't want to boot from it.

BIOS issue? I don't have the Classmate with my ATM, so I'm just letting everyone know in case anyone else is having the same issue... I'll update after I take a look at the BIOS later today.

[BrandonG]

yea you have to change the BIOS to boot from usb at first, but it looks like you have already done that. Im wondering if the classmate is trying to boot xp from the ssd and getting confused...

[Ben A.]

Originally Posted by BrandonG

yea you have to change the BIOS to boot from usb at first, but it looks like you have already done that. Im wondering if the classmate is trying to boot xp from the ssd and getting confused...

Yeah I've already done that. I was thinking more along the lines of some sort of setting that has to do with the format (i.e. EFI).

That could be a possibility, though it doesn't make too much sense. Why would it be trying to do that?

Possibly the flash drive is set to use a specific drive partition, and that partition may be the XP SSD?