[RexManning]

I've seen this question asked a few times but I haven't seen a direct answer so I thought I'd post a straightforward guide. I am not entirely sure of all the forum rules here so you will have to google the links yourself.

First off you will have to find some method to copy the PathPilot_*.rdr file from your DVD. I used an old laptop. You can even copy the .rdr file directly to the USB you plan on using as your install media as the following steps are not destructive.

- Google "R-Drive image" and download the free trial. (This is the software Tormach used to create the 'install' I received)
- Launch R-Drive and choose Create Startup Disks, select your USB drive and create the disk.
- Copy the PathPilot_*.rdr file to the USB startup disk. This file should be in the neighborhood of 1.5 gig.

- Boot your controller from the USB. (Most times you can just insert the USB and power up but you may need to tweak your bios to select the USB as the first boot device depending on your situation.)
- Select Restore from an image and choose the PathPilot_*.rdr file from your USB drive.
- Choose Restore disks or partitions.
- In the top window choose the first partition, in the bottom window choose your destination drive. (Note: This assumes you're working with a fresh from the box drive with no partitioning. If you're working from a previously used drive then you'll have to use some external tool first to delete the partition table.)
- In the bottom left of the confirmation screen choose "Add another object" and repeat the above step until all of the blue partitions are selected. Mine had 2 partitions. Ignore the green "Unallocated Space"
- After all of the partitions have been added click Start on the confirmation page and it will burn the image to your disk.
- Exit the R-Drive Image program, remove the USB drive and reboot.

You should boot into PathPilot setup. Again here you might need to tweak your bios to make sure your destination drive is set to the boot device but in most cases this will happen automagically.

If you are so inclined you can skip the USB all together and plug the destination drive into your desktop, burn the image, then transfer that drive to the controller or burn directly to a 64G USB drive and run live off of the USB if you want a more temporary setup. The image ends up being around 30 gigs for the version I have so I think aiming for a 32 gig drive would probably be cutting it a bit too close for a stable run time environment.

Op-ed: There is no consumer friendly reason to deliver on optical media in this day and age. It is tedious and unreliable. Cost of bulk 4G USB drives is in the same ballpark of optical media if you absolutely have to have a physical delivery but IMO I should be able to download the full product from the Tormach website and install it how I see fit as a customer. I don't mind optical media being an option for those who might have a need but the majority of end users today haven't even laid their hands on physical install media for 5-10 years. I would really like to see Tormach make the software available on their website in the near future.

[Steve303]

Thank you for documenting the process. I will give this a try soon.
Steve