netbook puzzle

[Wobbly Bob]

Hi folks, its Mrs Bobs birthday next week, so I thought I would buy her a netbook (plus I would nick it now and then for astro use )

So there we are wizzing through the ether looking at various models when it suddenly dawned on me these netbooks dont have a diskdrive My question to you folks is :- how would one load disc based software onto one of these little beastie's ?

[Paxo]

Hi Bob,

External USB disc drive or have the software stored on a USB stick from a computer with a drive. The netbooks come with usb 2.0 usually. One word of advice though, get a netbook with a physical disc rather than a solid state drive.

Steve..

[daz]

you'll need an external USB drive, bob.

£30 - £40 should get you one

[StarMan1701]

Hi Bob,

Assuming you don't need the disc in the drive for the program to run, just copy the contents of the CD/DVD onto a USB flash drive and install it from there.

It works for me...

Hope this helps,

Lee.

[callump]

Hi Bob,

One word of advice though, get a netbook with a physical disc rather than a solid state drive.

Steve..

Why ?

Aside from the extra capacity ?

I have a ssd in my dell mini 9, and no problems with it...

/callump

[Wobbly Bob]

Thanks all for your replies, no ploblem then, good. Thanks for the drive tip Steve.

[NickH]

Laptop Computers | Buy cheap laptops from Laptops Direct Bob!

refurbished section :-)

Acer on there for £119...slap windows XP on that...and 1GB of memory, plus an external 80GBGB buss powered HDD for your imaging...sorted!

[skye at night]

most software tends to be on manufacturers websites to download... and of course this is the best way to update versions and get fixes anyway...

And as mentioned already you can unpack drivers etc to a usb drive on another computer and transfer to the netbook...

Steve

[NickH]

The little ASUS I was using which you saw at SSP runs Maxim/PHD/Registax/Photoshop CS2/Art Capture/ASCOM/EQMOD/iMerge/CDC you name it...all barring CS2 with no issues at all.. (CS2 scratch disc can be a problem). i have two of them, one which will be permanently set to run CDC/EQMOD/Guiding, and the other for pure imaging, rmeote controlled from the house via Live Mesh (desktop switching!)

[syd_malicious]

Laptops direct - dreadful service from them.

• Spent ages (and a fortune) phoning their premium rate rip off line, this was a bad start.
  
• Confirmed the absolute spec of the laptop that I wanted and that it was in stock.
  
• Drove down to pick it up.
  
• Found out the promised extras were not supplied and they tried to sell me some more expensive items to replace them.
  
• Even worse, they had the cheek to accuse me of trying to get something for free even though they had told me it was included 2 hours previously!!
  

Never again.

[Wobbly Bob]

I have just written a long reply to you all AND LOST THE BLXXXXXDY LOT. so frustrating.

We have an Acer E Book arriving tomorrow, with physical hard drive.

Ill sop now incase i loose this lot.

[NickH]

Ordered now 4 netbooks from Laptops direct...all fine (mum, father in law, wife, and me) about to order another one for the obs