Notepad computers for Cruising........

[richwmn]

Thank you Rich! This is what the nice man at Radio Shack suggested today.

Haven't tried it yet, but will report back.

 

Regarding the situation with the backup disk, will it back up to a file that we could copy to the memory stick? And then make a disk with another computer?

 

Thanks for all the help, y'all!

LoyHAL

I didn't realize at the start that the discussion was about system backup disks. I don't know specifically about the netbooks, but all the programs for system disks I have used in the past required cd burners and there wasn't a way around it.

 

Rich

[LoyHAL]

Re: System backup disk: I tried to just back it to a file today and it wouldn't work. Next stop: Acer. Why would they have a program on the netbook that constantly reminds you to create a backup disk and no way to do it?

Makes no sense to me! :confused:

LoyHAL

[HeatherInFlorida]

Just a thought, but another great back up (and someone may have mentioned this already so forgive if I'm repeating) is the ClickFree. It's tiny (3 x 4.5 x .5) and can be used for multiple computers. You literally plug it in to the USB port and it backs up everything automatically.

 

I have all my computers plus my desktop back-up hard drive also backed up onto my ClickFree. Not trying to sell this particular one ... this just happens to be the brand I have. There may be others.

[Takisan]

It seems everyone has covered the tech aspects of this discussion, and this may seem a little off topic but if youre carrying a laptop pls be aware that customs has the right to seize it and examine all electronic information contained therein..dont know how often they do though

[LoyHAL]

Just a thought, but another great back up (and someone may have mentioned this already so forgive if I'm repeating) is the ClickFree. It's tiny (3 x 4.5 x .5) and can be used for multiple computers. You literally plug it in to the USB port and it backs up everything automatically.

 

I have all my computers plus my desktop back-up hard drive also backed up onto my ClickFree. Not trying to sell this particular one ... this just happens to be the brand I have. There may be others.

 

Thank you! I'll check it out.

LoyHAL

[kjw869]

Re: System backup disk: I tried to just back it to a file today and it wouldn't work. Next stop: Acer. Why would they have a program on the netbook that constantly reminds you to create a backup disk and no way to do it?

Makes no sense to me! :confused:

LoyHAL

 

 

 

 

 

 

I agree with you, it makes no sense. I bought a Acer Mini in January for a Caribbean cruise--worked great in my cabin on the Westerdam.

 

Regarding the backup discs, I read in one of the forums one one of the largest sites for Acer One owners, AcerOneUser dot com, that he called Acer and they sent reinstallations disks free of charge. I called, and they sent two discs delivered by FexEx in 3-4 days without charge.

 

You may want to give them a call.

[sail7seas]

Wow...... what a great post. Thanks!

[Rosieo]

I agree with you, it makes no sense. I bought a Acer Mini in January for a Caribbean cruise--worked great in my cabin on the Westerdam.

 

Regarding the backup discs, I read in one of the forums one one of the largest sites for Acer One owners, AcerOneUser dot com, that he called Acer and they sent reinstallations disks free of charge. I called, and they sent two discs delivered by FexEx in 3-4 days without charge.

 

You may want to give them a call.

 

Thanks...I am going to do just that tomorrow. I went to their site the other day to see if I could order one and had no luck. Now if I ever need to use that back up disk I will find myself in the same predicament...no drive to reinstall it!

[Rosieo]

I just called and ordered my backup CD. They said I should have it in 7-10 days. So far I love my little Acer and their service is good too!

[LoyHAL]

I agree with you, it makes no sense. I bought a Acer Mini in January for a Caribbean cruise--worked great in my cabin on the Westerdam.

 

Regarding the backup discs, I read in one of the forums one one of the largest sites for Acer One owners, AcerOneUser dot com, that he called Acer and they sent reinstallations disks free of charge. I called, and they sent two discs delivered by FexEx in 3-4 days without charge.

 

You may want to give them a call.

 

 

Thank you!!! I'll call them tomorrow!

I love this board! :D

LoyHAL

[LoyHAL]

OK, I called Acer today and the person I spoke with said I didn't need backup disks. He said it is all inside the Acer and if it should crash [heaven forbid!], I should hold the ALT key down and tap the F-10. This will restore the system, BUT will destroy all the data, so I should be very careful about backing up the data.

 

He also said I could get rid of the Recovery Disk notice by pretending to do it and then just close the program when I got to the notice that I have no disk drive. Seemed to work today, we'll see if it surfaces again tomorrow.

 

If they were to send me the disks anyhow, there is still no disk drive.

 

On another note, I copied the disks for a couple programs onto a little 'thumb' drive, popped said drive into the Acer and had no problems at all installing the programs.

 

Cheers all!

LoyHAL

[kjw869]

OK, I called Acer today and the person I spoke with said I didn't need backup disks. He said it is all inside the Acer and if it should crash [heaven forbid!], I should hold the ALT key down and tap the F-10. This will restore the system, BUT will destroy all the data, so I should be very careful about backing up the data.

 

He also said I could get rid of the Recovery Disk notice by pretending to do it and then just close the program when I got to the notice that I have no disk drive. Seemed to work today, we'll see if it surfaces again tomorrow.

 

If they were to send me the disks anyhow, there is still no disk drive.

 

On another note, I copied the disks for a couple programs onto a little 'thumb' drive, popped said drive into the Acer and had no problems at all installing the programs.

 

Cheers all!

LoyHAL

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The only problem is, what if your hard disk become corrupted? I've repaired many sytems for clients that had unreadable boot drives. This is when you need a recovery disk. Yes, you can do a factory reinstall IF there is no corruption on the disk.

 

There is no hidden partition on the Acer where the files and folders for the reinstall are located as with many other vendors. So, if the disk becomes corrupted and unreadable, you are SOL. Many computer vendors also have the reinstall feature on the disc, BUT encourage you to make a backup reinstall disk, in which a program to create it is on the computer.

 

I always order or create reinstall disks for my systems or clients systems.

 

I've purchase USB portable drives for less than $35 from online computer stores and liquidators.

 

I would make sure you get a disk for this reason. It should cost you nothing.

[dlopiccolo]

Hi all, this is a great thread. I just wated to encourage anyone who is thinking about a netbook to check out the Dell mini 10. I just bought one last month and LOVE it. I am running Win XP home, it has 160 GB hard drive and 1 GB ram. I got mine from the DELL outlet as a previously purchased unit for $329. I also bought Office 2007 on a lark and spent a few minutes feeling pretty stupid when I realized that I had no CD rom drive to install it. (I'm paid to be a computer geek so I felt REALLY stupid) I did in fact copy the Office contents over to a USB flash drive and was on my way in a matter of minutes. Battery life is only about 2 hours but the power cord is light and travel friendly. I held out a few days until I found one available in Cherry Red (sorry but it was important to ME) The stock in the outlet turns over pretty quickly so, if you want something you have to grab it. I am looking forward to bringing mine on my HAL cruise to Alaska this summer. I'd love to hear more about the cost to connect from anyone who has used their Netbook on the Ryndam. I do not have an aircard and rely on available public wireless networks. Thanks!:D

[sail7seas]

Internet packages are $55 for 100 minutes and $100 for 250 minutes. Each has a one time start up charge of $3.95.

 

Your Dell sounds great except for the shorter battery life. My Acer has almost 6 hours.

 

All these minis are terrific IMO Just a case of personal preference and opportunity to get a good buy. Enjoy yours.

 

[dlopiccolo]

Internet packages are $55 for 100 minutes and $100 for 250 minutes. Each has a one time start up charge of $3.95.

 

Your Dell sounds great except for the shorter battery life. My Acer has almost 6 hours.

 

All these minis are terrific IMO Just a case of personal preference and opportunity to get a good buy. Enjoy yours.

 

 

Great, Thanks! That is really helpful.

[Riana]

Hi everyone. We're just back off a 3 wk Panama Canal cruise & are so happy we had our Asus 1000HE with us. Loved the clear, 10" screen, battery life is incredible, & the Wi Fi worked great. To connect from inside our cabin, we simply propped the corridor door open with the garbage can and were all set. I didn't even miss not having the extra 1 GB of RAM installed before we left.

[pms4104]

OK, I called Acer today and the person I spoke with said I didn't need backup disks. He said it is all inside the Acer and if it should crash [heaven forbid!], I should hold the ALT key down and tap the F-10. This will restore the system, BUT will destroy all the data, so I should be very careful about backing up the data.

 

He also said I could get rid of the Recovery Disk notice by pretending to do it and then just close the program when I got to the notice that I have no disk drive. Seemed to work today, we'll see if it surfaces again tomorrow.

 

If they were to send me the disks anyhow, there is still no disk drive.

 

On another note, I copied the disks for a couple programs onto a little 'thumb' drive, popped said drive into the Acer and had no problems at all installing the programs.

 

Cheers all!

LoyHAL

I think the Acer person you spoke with didn't know his job very well. Yes, you eventually may need rescue disks. I have had to do a full system recovery, at some point and for whatever reason, on my IBM desktop, Gateway laptop, HP laptop. Further, with the Gateway, we'd owned it long enough that the hard drive fried, so to speak. Bought a new drive and gave it, my laptop, and my rescue disks to a friend of mine who did the hard disk install and OS reinstall and update. As he explained to me, heat and laptop drives are not very good friends and eventually the drive goes poof. With the HP, there is a builtin recovery utility as well as a means to produce rescue disks.

 

Even tho you do not have a disk drive to do a reinstall, you may be able to have a friend with an external drive who can help you if the worst happens. So, yes, you are entitled to disks and Acer should send them to you.

[LoyHAL]

Thank you camp637 and kjw869 -- I'll call Acer one more time tomorrow and suggest they send me a re-boot disk! Perhaps I didn't know exactly what to request. We'll see.

 

I really appreciate the good advice.

LoyHAL

[pms4104]

To all of the previous posters who mentioned getting and/or using rescue discs ... be aware that using them will restore your computer back to its out-of-box condition. So, everything you've got on that computer goes poof. In light of that, it might be a prudent move to have a means, such as an external drive, to backup all your docs and photos and whatever else you have on the computer. Yes, it can be a pain to reinstall any programs, but you surely don't want to lose all the precious info you've stored on the hard drive.

[LoyHAL]

To all of the previous posters who mentioned getting and/or using rescue discs ... be aware that using them will restore your computer back to its out-of-box condition. So, everything you've got on that computer goes poof. In light of that, it might be a prudent move to have a means, such as an external drive, to backup all your docs and photos and whatever else you have on the computer. Yes, it can be a pain to reinstall any programs, but you surely don't want to lose all the precious info you've stored on the hard drive.

 

Good advice!

BTW, I called Acer today and they said they had no discs in stock and I should call back in two days.... sigh!

LoyHAL

[pspercy]

I just bought an Acer Aspire One refurb (CompUSA.com, $199) & ordered the bootable DVD from Acer - $19.95, free S/H.

 

Question for IT types, could you use a networked DVD drive (in other words, a drive on another PC that's set as a Share) to install software from DVD/CD to the netbook?

[richwmn]

I just bought an Acer Aspire One refurb (CompUSA.com, $199) & ordered the bootable DVD from Acer - $19.95, free S/H.

 

Question for IT types, could you use a networked DVD drive (in other words, a drive on another PC that's set as a Share) to install software from DVD/CD to the netbook?

In most cases, the answer is yes. There may be the odd install that doesn't work but I have yet to see one, and I have installed programs this way many times.

 

Rich

[John_from_Wisconsin]

I have the Acer Aspire One with solid state disk (SSD) option. I removed most of what came with the unit, installed Firefox, Thunderbird, and a few other of my favorite utilities. I've installed several programs, including Excel and Word from my MSOffice suite as well as my printer driver by simply using a share on my DVD player on my tabletop computer. It works slick but of course slower because you are networked - if you are making a large install it might be worth going wired rather than wireless. On the topic of backups I installed Acronis True Image and periodically make a full system image on an SD card which I then move to my tabletop and burn into a DVD. I created a bootable USB drive with a baseline system image so if my system became corrupted I could restore to a known good baseline. I give Acronis only a conditional endorsement - if you're interested go to their support forum and see user issues. I've had to work around issues but in the end, it does what I want. Using this option you really have no need of the Aspire backup disks. And, yes, I am anxiously waiting to use my Aspire One on the Westerdam in August! John

[pspercy]

Thanks Rich,

Yes, I've done that in the past as well but those were simpler times :)

 

I'm wondering if the Acer "burn" to create the bootable DVD would work this way. Maybe I'll try it once I've got it set up the way I want.

 

For those with solid state storage, check out Portable Apps, everything runs from a thumb (USB) drive : http://portableapps.com/ price is right too.

[Boytjie]

Over the July 4th weekend I had the opportunity to take a friend's Asus for a test drive and today I kicked the tires on a co-worker's Lenovo. I like the Asus better: the screen seems sharper and I like the zoom capability on the Asus' touch pad in nice. The small screen still bothers me a bit but I do like the weight and compactness of these devices.

 

I guess I now need to find an Acer to try out. :)