35  The T.O.V.A. Flash Drive and CD

The T.O.V.A. kit comes with a brushed metal T.O.V.A. flash drive, though your T.O.V.A. kit may have come with the older white flash drive. This flash drive contains installers for the T.O.V.A. software that came with your T.O.V.A. kit, as well as documentation such as the Installation Guide and User’s manual. The flash drive can also be used on some computers to boot the Precision Test Environment (PTE). If you do not have a T.O.V.A. flash drive and need one, please contact T.O.V.A. customer service.

The T.O.V.A. CD came with older versions of the T.O.V.A. kit, serving much the same function as the T.O.V.A. flash drive. It can be updated to act as a boot CD for the legacy PTE, but this is only useful on older computers that a) still have a CD drive and b) can successfully boot the legacy PTE (mostly those sold with Windows 7). If you need to boot the PTE from a T.O.V.A. CD but don’t have one, you can create one from a blank CD-R instead (section 35.3).

35.1  Using the T.O.V.A. flash drive or CD

Most computers should be able to boot the T.O.V.A. PTE automatically and won’t need a T.O.V.A. flash drive or CD. However, many systems will need to use the T.O.V.A. flash drive included in your kit, and will likely require some additional steps or configuration as well. If the T.O.V.A. doesn’t boot the PTE automatically, please contact T.O.V.A. tech support, and we’ll help you find the best approach for your system. You may also reach out to your organization’s IT department or ask your system’s manufacturer how to boot to a flash drive.

Your T.O.V.A. flash drive or CD also contains software installers and documentation, but we recommend you download the latest software for your T.O.V.A. hardware from our website instead: Go to https://www.tovatest.com/downloads and enter your T.O.V.A. serial number (found on a sticker on the bottom of your T.O.V.A. USB device or in the Help window of the T.O.V.A. application).

35.2  Updating (or Creating) a T.O.V.A. Flash Drive

It is critical that the T.O.V.A. PTE remain up to date, with a version of the PTE that is compatible with your computer and the T.O.V.A. software. If you are using the T.O.V.A. flash drive to boot the PTE, and the T.O.V.A. application warns you that your PTE is out-of-date, you will need to update the flash drive.

Note: If you use a T.O.V.A. CD to boot the PTE, please see section 35.3 instead.

35.2.1  On Windows

If you have a white T.O.V.A. flash drive, which comes up as tova8 or TOVA9, you will probably need to contact T.O.V.A. technical support to update or replace it. Note: It’s not as simple as just reformatting the drive.

If the drive has a brushed metal finish or comes up in Windows with a drive label of TOVATEST, it’s probably formatted as a newer T.O.V.A. flash drive, and the T.O.V.A. software should be able to automatically update the flash drive for you. Make sure it’s plugged in when you launch a PTE session.

35.2.2  On Mac

Note: If you have personal files on the T.O.V.A. flash drive, PLEASE copy them elsewhere before updating the drive.

If you are using a Mac, the T.O.V.A. software installs scripts for creating or updating T.O.V.A. flash drives to boot the current PTE versions.

1. Plug in the T.O.V.A. flash drive. (For safety, this script will only work for USB Flash drives labeled ‘tova8’, ‘TOVA9’, or ‘TOVATEST’. You can use any 500 MB or larger flash drive, but you will need to first change the drive label.)
2. Go to /Applications/TOVA/utilities or use Spotlight to find the Update_Flash_Drive.command script, and open it.
3. A Terminal window will open and build the T.O.V.A. flash drive. This will take several minutes.
4. The final step will ask for your password to authorize writing to our flash drive. Please type it at the “Password:" prompt; your typing is not shown on the screen for security.
5. If there is an error message, you should copy it and send it to us in a Tech Support Request. Otherwise, you can close the Terminal when the script says, “Flash drive updated to PTE version...".

When it has finished, you can use the T.O.V.A. flash drive to boot the current PTE. Please contact T.O.V.A. tech support (section 29) if you would like help or encounter problems.

35.3  Updating (or Creating) a T.O.V.A. CD

Keep your T.O.V.A. CD up to date

If you are using a T.O.V.A. boot CD, it is critical that you update it every time you update the T.O.V.A. so that you’re using the current version of the legacy PTE. The T.O.V.A. CD itself was a CD-RW and can be updated by most CD-RW drives and CD creation software. If you do not have a T.O.V.A. CD, you can write the T.O.V.A. CD image to any blank CD-R ("burning" just means writing data to a CD).

35.3.1  ‘Update_CD’ script for Macs

The T.O.V.A. has a script for burning the current CD image:

1. Insert the T.O.V.A. CD or another writeable CD.
2. Go to /Applications/TOVA/utilities or use Spotlight to find the ‘Update_CD.command’ script, and open it.
3. A Terminal window will open, which will burn the current T.O.V.A. CD image onto the CD you put in the drive. This will take a few minutes, and the disk will eject when the process is complete.
4. If there is an error message, please copy it and send it to us in a Tech support request (section 29. Otherwise, close the Terminal when the CD ejects.

When it has finished, your CD is up to date, and you can use the CD to boot the current legacy PTE.

35.3.2  Burning a Boot CD under Windows

Here’s how to burn a CD to boot the legacy PTE in Windows:

1. Insert the T.O.V.A. CD (which is a CD-RW) or another writeable CD. If any Autorun window pops up, close it.
2. Browse to the T.O.V.A. CD image: C:\Program Files (x86)\tova_9\cd\
3. Right-click on tova_boot.img.
4. Choose ‘Burn disc image’ from this popup menu. This will open the image in the ‘Windows Disc Image Burner’, and you should be able to simply select ‘Burn’.

   (If that option is not available to you, you may need to ‘Open’ the image file in your CD-burning software. Different systems have different burning software, so you will need to navigate your own software to burn the image to the CD.)

   Note: Please DO NOT just ‘add’ or ‘copy’ the image file to the CD, because that won’t work. You want to burn the image to the disc.

5. If warned about erasing the disc (Figure 74), choose ‘Yes’ or ‘OK’.

Erase warning—choose ‘Yes’

The burning process should take only a few minutes. When it’s done, you’ll have a fresh new T.O.V.A. CD with the current legacy PTE.