I just saw this on the Toshiba Service site and thought it might help others trying to boot from USB CDROM drives

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I've done the update and still unable to boot from CD. Any ideas of what I can try to bring the tablet M200 back to factory state?
Thanks.

Does the drive model match the reason for the BIOS update?

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I installed 1.60. I read on the Toshiba website that in order to boot from CD you needed this version or later.

It was posted for the M200 and the laptop took it fine. I believe it's the right version.

I'm sorry but I meant the model of the cdrom drive. Is your drive the one listed on the site because the update solved the problem for that particular drive?

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Hi There:
I have a "Pacific Digital" USB CDROM drive. It's a fairly new unit I bought before I got my M200.
I believe the price of the Toshiba drive is excessive. Shouldn't any brand be able to boot?
Thanks again.

Luis

As far as I know, the Toshiba external drives are the only ones Toshiba will ever focus on to make sure their drives work with the M200. This doesn't mean there aren't third party drives on the market that work - but I'm not aware of any. It would also be nice if we could start a list somewhere so that new purchasers know which are the correct drives to purchase.

[soapbox]It would be nice if any drive was bootable but after 25 plus years I've learned that PC hardware just doesn't always work together. Part of this can be explained because of limited budgets for engineers to get ahold of all of the different types of hardware on the market. Imagine if Toshiba was expected to buy all of the drives on the market before releasing their own product. It's understandable but difficult to accept when you are the one who gets stuck with a product that is not compatible.[/soapbox]

Now, when it comes to incompatibilities, I've been a supporter of a different strategy. See if you can find an advocate in Toshiba and see if they can figure out a BIOS update for you. You'd need to work diligently to find the person - but it is possible.

Otherwise, my best advice is to purchase the Toshiba drive. Sorry for the bad news. :bawling:

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There are several diferrent types of drives that will boot the Toshiba. I have a Sony DRU???? something and I've read of others in other forums. I'll try to get a quick list together tonight and post it.

Linuxmon

Yeah, let's get a sticky thread with the known drives. I'm sorry that I'm not much help on this topic. I don't own a Toshiba. Glad you are around LinuxMon to help with the Toshibas :D

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[quote=LPH]As far as I know, the Toshiba external drives are the only ones Toshiba will ever focus on to make sure their drives work with the M200. This doesn't mean there aren't third party drives on the market that work - but I'm not aware of any. It would also be nice if we could start a list somewhere so that new purchasers know which are the correct drives to purchase.


Thanks for your answer LPH.
Yesterday after 3 weeks of trying and being put on hold for hours, a Toshiba tier 3 tech support representative called me..... I finaly got to speak with someone knowledgeable.
Basicaly what he told me is that the only drive on the market that's is bootable is the Toshiba one (of course, I didn't believe him).
This guys won't support any other brand. By the way, to "compensate" me for their awful service they guy offered a 20% discount on the Drive. :ermm:
Honestly after I was set back 4 grant for the laptop I can't afford any more Toshiba products, at least for a while I'll have to explore cheaper options.

For now I'll focus on remote installations. That is putting the image on a server and booting the M200 from the network. I'll see what the results of that are.
If that doesn't work, I'll look into booting from the SD card and then from USB, or maybe the network.

I'll also look forward for that list of bootable drives.

I've started the known short list in the FAQ. Some people were not able to boot with these drives but many reported success. Check the return policy of the vendor.

Linuxmon

my Portege M205's model is ( PPM20U-07UGSK )
and the external Toshiba drive is a PA3352U-1CD2 Rev. 344

I upgraded the bios to 1.60 and it still won't boot from CD. Can somebody help me?

Did you plug it into the USB port closest to the power cord? I've heard that made a difference for some people.

/Edit -- Try holding the 'C' key while booting up instead of using the arrow keys and make sure your BIOS is set to emulate legacy floppy (on the USB tab).


Linuxmon

Here's a thread from another forum on the same issue.
http://tabletpcbuzz.com/forum/topic....64&whichpage=5

Apparently some of the drives are faulty and will not boot the M200. Or is it the DVD's are wrong? Well I'll find out soon enough as my Mom loves my M200 and I just got her one from NewEgg for $1999.00 (US) on a 'weekend' special (5.99 shipping)(it arrived in four days). I need to order a DVD/CD for her and am thinking of the Toshiba because they take some (very little) responsibility for it. I'll decide this weekend.

1.7 dothan
512 RAM
60GbDrive
WiFi b/g
3 year Warranty

Linuxmon

I tried your suggestions. still doesn't work? i'm going to try booting over network