iPAQ PocketPC (WinCE) Restoration

Updated on $Date: 2003/02/21 19:48:52 $ by $Author: jamey $

Backing Up PocketPC ROM Image Before Installing Linux

Follow the Backing Up PocketPC step from the bootldr installation instructions

If you do not have the saved wince image, see the following wiki page on Restoring Windows CE from the Compaq iPAQ Update for instructions on how to extract a PocketPC image from a Compaq SoftPAQ software updated.

There are currently no updates available for PocketPC2002, so be sure to make your own backups and to keep them in a safe place.

http://www.handhelds.org/z/wiki/Restoring%20Windows%20CE%20from%20the%20Compaq%20iPAQ%20Update

Note that no md5sum is necessary for a wince.gz file because the compressed file includes a good CRC that the bootldr uses to verify the file contents beforing writing to flash.

Restoring PocketPC from wince.gz

Reboot the iPAQ, and quickly hit the space bar a few times during the boot process to get a 'boot>' prompt.. You can restart the iPAQ with the Linux command shutdown -r now.

Warning: Please carefully read the messages produced by the following commands. Should you receive an error message of any kind, DO NOT PROCEED. Please send a message to ipaq@handhelds.org or france@handhelds.org.

Make sure the ipaq has bootldr 2.18.01 or greater installed on it before proceeding with these instructions. It is available at one of the following locations:

Compaq CRL (Cambridge Research Lab) will fix any units that fail to restore properly, but we would like to avoid problems rather than correcting them afterwards.

At the 'boot>' prompt type:

Now proceed to the Verifying the PocketPC Restoration step.

Restoring PocketPC from flash_00x00000.bin Files

Deprecated

Reboot the iPAQ, and quickly hit the space bar a few times during the boot process to get a 'boot>' prompt.

Warning: Please carefully read the messages produced by the following commands. Should you receive an error message of any kind, DO NOT PROCEED. Please send a message to ipaq@handhelds.org or france@handhelds.org.

Make sure the ipaq has bootldr 2.16.19 or greater installed on it before proceeding with these instructions. It is available at one of the following locations:

Compaq CRL (Cambridge Research Lab) will fix any units that fail to restore properly, but we would like to avoid problems rather than correcting them afterwards.

Now proceed to the Verifying the PocketPC Restoration step.

Verifying the PocketPC Restoration

How do I know that PocketPC was restored correctly?

Reloading the original (parrot) firmware

The bootldr will boot PocketPC automatically, so this step is not required.

If you desire, you may reload the original parrot firmware as follows:

As of version 2.16.16, the 'load bootldr' command will load either a CRL bootldr or a Parrot bootldr.

Questions?

Please post any questions to ipaq@handhelds.org.

Modified $Date: 2003/02/21 19:48:52 $ by $Author: jamey $

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