If you still have the original HDD in the machine (or at least, you can boot to it), these steps will dump your hidden sectors to the file C:\HS.TXT (the hidden sectors should be identical to what the BIOS held):

- Open a DOS prompt and change to C:\DRIVERS
- Type ‘TATTOO’
You should see TATTOO MANAGER in the list. Choose that.
— Choose WRITE CURRENT TATTOO TO C:\HS.TXT

You can then close the tattoo program. I would also advise running TATTOO /EXPORTBIN:<file path where you want to save backup>.bin to allow later restoration of the tattoo.

Done! Please find uploaded for you to take a look at 😀 So it appears its a Club 3660, according to the information in that file!

Additionally, the HS.txt and the BIN you mentioned exporting are identical, so I've only attached one.

I wonder why they went to *so* much trouble with all of this. Seems absolutely overkill to me! Interesting nonetheless.

Interesting. Your PB_FOR.VER is one version newer than my CD, but I doubt much will be different. It looks like the software configuration you have on that machine is Club College (without Publisher or Office SBE), which contains the following software:

• Acrobat Reader v3.01
  AOL V4.0
  Packard Bell CD-ROM Utility
  Packard Bell Click Here
  CompuServe 3.04
  Microsoft Word
  Microsoft Money
  Microsoft Works
  Multimedia Viewer
  Norton Antivirus
  Online Documentation
  Packard Bell NetP@ss
  QuickTime 16 & 32
  Packard Bell SmartRestore
  WinG Graphic Library
  Packard Bell Navigator 98
  Microsoft Encarta
  PC Doctor
  Adiboo 2
  Netscape Navigator
  Pingu
  Packard Bell SoftBar
  Cyber Patrol
  Norton Uninstaller
  Talk to me
  GCSE Maths and English
  Printmaster 4
  Actua Soccer 2

Packard Bell NEC have this to say about the Tattoo process:

As well as keeping hold of your system information, it also records things such as the time of first boot, time of last boot, etc. Your system's first boot was on 30th July 1999 at 15:40.

Wow, that's pretty cool! I didn't't expect it would keep so much information! So I assume you have the coveted Tattoo password? I looked in the Tattoo options and saw that it requires a password. I have Windows 95B on the machine at the moment, but by all means feel free to provide a link for the recovery media and I'll give it a go. Likewise, I'm sure the disc for this machine will be found, and if it is I'll upload a copy for you to take a look at. The software list sounds pretty spot on. How did you bypass the requirements for this process?

I do indeed have this password. And I'll upload the media soon, as I'm quite busy at the moment. As for bypassing the Tattoo, I studied one of the restoration files and was able to determine that, at a basic level, changing two particular instructions in that file will skip the checks altogether. Naturally, a few more tweaks were needed to make the restore work both functionally and cosmetically, and other features such as SmartRestore needed some work - I'm up to version 1.3 of this 'project' if you like (which added support for SmartRestore). Here's the virtualised copy:

I have news! I've found Master CDs, and emergency boot disk! Time to get dumping...

Are the disc numbers -

673 386 1001 for CD 1
673 387 1001 for CD 2
676 003 0000 or 692 969 0000 for the floppy?

LUNOTech wrote:

Is the boot floppy’s P/N 676 003 0000?

It's 673 388 0400.

Ah, then your set is different to mine then (even though mine probably would have worked).

If you do upload them, that’s another MCD set for me to break in to/make in to a single DVD!

LUNOTech wrote:

Ah, then your set is different to mine then (even though mine probably would have worked).

If you do upload them, that’s another MCD set for me to break in to/make in to a single DVD!

The CD P/N's are:

673 386 1101 (CD 1)
673 387 1101 (CD 2)

and of course, who doesn't want the Internet on a CD? 😜 (675 393 0200)

Hmm. Very similar P/Ns there. It’d be interesting to see what the difference between the two sets are actually. And I don’t remember having Internet on a CD either, although I think I do have the other PB software discs somewhere...

The ISOs are going to take a while to upload, but please enjoy the S.O.S Boot disk attached.

Thank you for this. It appears backing up your tattoo earlier may have unnecessary, since the file TATTOO.BIN contains your tattoo and has a last modified date of 1999 - unless your system clock is not set and you used this earlier. Anyway, for the sake of interest a list of differences will be posted shortly. I'm already seeing some... interesting changes.

This is the original disk, untouched. As far as I’m aware, the machine has never been reimaged from day one, as there was even a circa 1999 email from Freeserve (ISP) welcoming the previous user to their service. Perhaps part of the original OOBE process was to take a copy of the tattoo onto the disk?

Amazingly, despite my BIOS tinkering, it still appears to be restoring correctly from the master CD. I’m just kicking myself for managing to not take a copy of the original BIOS backup before reflashing the board to the OEM BIOS.

That is possible - I'd have to check the unmodified restore files to see if that is the case.

This post will be updated as new changes are found.

For completeness, a fresh copy of the boot floppy you mention can be obtained from PB's legacy FTP site:
ftp://ftp.packardbell.com/pub/itemnr_old/6733 … 400/disk1_1.exe

• Boot Floppy (673 388 0400)
  • - GCSE Maths and English is removed from the installable software list via a post-install patch file (11 May 1999). Mine (dated 1 April 1999) has it as installable. It still however remains installable when the factory testing tattoo is detected.
    - Support for additional CD drives
    - Some variation to the restore utility (CDs needed to find out exactly what)

... wow. Considering just how little information I could find about this machine online, the fact that there is an official link that's still up is ridiculous.

There's a LOT of BIOS folders on that FTP. Do you know how the numbering system works? Would be great if I could restore the original BIOS to this.

RichB93 wrote:

... wow. Considering just how little information I could find about this machine online, the fact that there is an official link that's still up is ridiculous.

There’s quite a bit of PBE/NEC/ZDS stuff on that FTP sever still. Documents, BIOS updates, and software patches from what I’ve seen so far. The folder names aren’t particularly “human readable”, but there’s a way of associating folder names to their contents.

I wish I could work out the numbering system. Trying to find anything that may be applicable to this machine.

I can have a look for you tomorrow, if you’d like. A lot of what I decoded is for non-UK European systems anyway.

RichB93 wrote:

I wish I could work out the numbering system. Trying to find anything that may be applicable to this machine.

Alternatively, you can go here:
Packard Bell Legacy Systems Support Page (UK)

If anything takes your fancy, click it. The stuff on this page is mostly generic, but some might be applicable. When you do click it, you'll most likely be taken to a page that says that the page isn't archived. Grab the value of PibItemNr from the URL box, and see if a folder of that name exists in either /pub/itemnr or /pub/itemnr_old on the FTP site.