Netbooks

[SARGE]

I saw my first at the AT&T store today, an Acer and a Dell. They come loaded with XP and when I asked about a recovery disc, found out they don't have a cd drive. Am sure can get an external but that would mean also buying another copy of XP, right? In case I ever wanted to re-install. They're cool because they have built-in smart cards. Maybe they all do and I'm just telling something everyone else already knows - as usual.

[cmichael258]

I've been considering one myself and have been checking out the ASUS models. They seem like they would be great for using away from home for emails and surfing the internet. The biggest advantage for me would be the light weight and compact size. I have an HP laptop at the office and an IBM Thinkpad here at home so I haven't been able to convice myself that I "need" it.

[Force Flow]

On the Dell, there should be a recovery partition, but you're pretty much up the creek if the hard drive dies.

You could try imaging the drive as soon as you unbox it, or if it's a dell, theyl might be able to send you a CD. I'm not sure if they would charge you for shipping or not.

[glc]

My Asus netbook came with both a recovery partition and a recovery DVD. Of course, you would have to buy an external drive to use the DVD.

That is not a "standard" XP on those things - it's a special edition for "low power" PC's.

[SARGE]

So basically, the netbook is just a new toy to play with, serving no real purpose beyond a regular notebook, right?

[Force Flow]

The draw of a netbook is that it's small and light (extremely portable) and offers a long battery life (the hardware doesn't eat up nearly as much juice as a regular laptop/notebook)

[jdeb]

you could call Dell and they would more than likely send you the recovery disc at no charge. You can call before you buy to confirm, they are normally great about that. I have fixed many Dells where the customer has either misplaced or didn't receive a recovery disc and they always have sent it to my address within two days.

[XenaWP]

Originally Posted by SARGE So basically, the netbook is just a new toy to play with, serving no real purpose beyond a regular notebook, right?

Yes. I like to think of it as a demonstration of the power of marketing.

[RayH]

If you had to reload XP, you could just a bootable flash drive to reinstall. Or, get a $20 cable to allow a desktop CD/DVD drive to be used in a USB port.

I have an HP netbook. Love it.