Lo and behold, I power it back up and get this:

Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM

Uh oh. Let’s try restarting?

Uh oh. Windows still refuses to boot.

If I’m not mistaken, this error means the registry is corrupt beyond repair — I don’t have a clue why this would’ve happened. Luckily, a corrupt registry should just mean that Windows is borked and can’t start. All my data should in fact be unharmed.

In my case this isn’t even particularly important as all the data on my Tablet is normally just a mirror of what’s on my desktop. Luckily I synchronised the two just before this happened, so there’s no data loss and I can continue working without interruption. What’s annoying is I need to be mobile everyday with the Tablet and I can’t really afford any downtime at all.

Ah well, let the adventures begin!

Options

My first thought for getting out of this mess was simply to roll back to the last backup image I did of my Tablet’s Windows installation (I use Acronis True Image). Unfortunately, unlike on my desktop I don’t backup my Tablet nightly, I only do it when I feel like it — yep, that sure is dangerous! It looks like my last backup is from 24 Sep 2005, and I’m pretty sure I’ve installed some software since then. Too bad.

The other option would be to restore a working copy the registry from a recent System Restore checkpoint. In order to do this you need to boot to Recovery Console to allow you to copy the registry files around. (In practice it’s actually a little bit more complicated as you need to be able to get to the System Restore data.) A Microsoft Help and Support article has details.

Where’s my Optical Drive?

Unfortunately there’s always a problem with disaster recovery on my Tablet: it doesn’t have a built in optical drive! It’s kind of annoying, really… I can’t boot to Recovery Console on my Windows DVD or to my Acronis True Image recovery CD. I’ve actually installed Recovery Console on my Tablet specifically to get around this problem, but this time it refuses to boot to that either!

There’s only one way to get around this. It’s time to borrow a USB DVD drive from my friend Fiona again! I really ought to buy a USB DVD drive of my own, since I’m at her house borrowing her drive seemingly every other week — and there’s always ice cream or jelly at her place too!

It’s not something HP or the other Tablet manufacturers will tell you, but having an optical drive is a necessity for when things go pear-shaped. Sure, I can share my desktop’s DVD drive over the network normally to install applications, but that’s no help when you can’t boot Windows in the first place.

So I’m off to Fiona’s place to pick up her DVD drive now. I’ll let you know how things go later… wish me luck!

(Update, 15 Oct 2005: So this morning I boot to Windows setup on DVD, run Recovery Console and then restart without acutally modifying anything. Guess what? Windows now boots! I have no idea what’s going on, but I’m happy! Tablet is alive! :D)

I went to see the doctor yesterday and while I was waiting in the reception area, I got out my Tablet PC (a HP Compaq TC1100) and tried to get some work done. When it was finally was my turn, I moved to put my Tablet away… except my doctor cried out as we he walked past “No, no! Don’t put that away, I want to see it!”

So the first five minutes of my consultation was spent explaining to him what it was — a laptop, except that you can write on it (and convert it to handwriting if necessary) — and even got him to do a quick doodle. He was instantly attracted to it and explained that he needs to fill in a lot of forms and such, but also that he needs to bring large databases of material with him. As such, he was quite concerned how large the hard drive was… until I told him it was 60 GB, to which he replied “you could store the whole world on there!” (Well not quite, I’m running out of room on my Tablet!)

This is actually an experience that happens quite regularly. People frequently comment about my Tablet and ask what it is. For example, just about everybody at the Computing Services Unit (CSU) at COFA commented about it when I went to get set up for UniWide (our university’s wireless network), including someone who had only just dropped by for help.

Funnily enough, people comment just as much when they see me using it in laptop mode (and typing) as when I’m using it in Tablet/slate mode (writing on it) — indeed, I didn’t do any writing yesterday until we were inside my doctor’s office, so what catches people’s attention? I really believe it’s the TC1100’s sleek, ultra-compact 10″ form factor that gets people more than anything else. The TC1100 is truly amazing in that regard. It’s nimbleness makes it perfect to use in just about any conceivable environment, from cramped economy-class seats on a plane or while standing on a train to using it unobtrusively in a meeting. I honestly believe HP will be making a big mistake when they discontinue this form factor at the end of year in favour of convertible units (larger, like a conventional laptop)!

The other thing notable about yesterday’s experience was that right away my doctor switched from asking about what my Tablet is, to asking how much it costs and where how he can go about getting one. Ah well, when you’re a specialist surgeon, I guess you can afford it!