booting for DVD rom

[shrimply]

Hi, sorry I know I've been asking a lot of questions lately,

 

Basically I'm still looking at netbooks and although I haven't got one yet I've done enough looking that I probably will be getting one. But have been trying to work out the costs involved and it seems to me that an external hard drive is probably a vital piece of kit.

 

I know that for installing any sofware off a disk I could just make a disk image on my laptop and mount the file with a virtual drive but for recovery etc being able to boot from a disk is important. I may also be buying a linux modle and installing XP on it, I'm sure as a student I must be able to get an OS cheap somewhere but not had any luck so far, although I can get a XP pro upgrade for practically nothing. SO would also need a drive for that.

 

OK back to the question, external drives are expensive,so if I was to get an internal drive like this one LiteOn 20X DVD±RW DL & RAM SATA LightScribe Black Bare Drive - OEM - Ebuyer and a usb to sata adapter like this one Plexus USB to IDE & SATA Adapter With Power Adapter (Supports 2.5" / 3.5" IDE & Serial ATA Hard Disk) - Ebuyer is it possible to boot from a set-up like that? Not only would it work out cheaper than an external drive but the second piece of kit is something I imagine it is handy to have around.

 

Thanks

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Just make sure the pc's bios supports booting from USB Shrimps or you aint going nowhere.

[shrimply]

Thanks, I've kindof taken for granted that booting from usb will be an option, since it'll be brand new ( isn't it a standard thing these days?) and its a netbook so being able to boot from a usb device is pretty essential. However, I will go away and make sure.

 

But providing it does then an internal drive plus adapter will be just as useful as an external one?

[Dalo Harkin]

Buy a netbook and throw a bigger drive in it - before anyone says 'you cant do that' - you CAN

[shrimply]

hi, what do you mean, hard drive wise the one i'm looking at is 120GB I don't think I'll need any more than that.

 

My main concern is the ability to boot from CD/DVD.

[Dalo Harkin]

Sorry shrimps - I misunderstood - thought you were looking at one of those 8GB things - and needed more space :o

[DirtyPolo]

As a reply to the part about getting cheap software,

 

You can check out here, but you can only get about 4 programs with discount direct from Microsoft, and that only includes 1 OS Upgrade.

 

Nowhere is very clear about what discounts students can get,

 

There's news that depending on what degree you are doing, you might get it free or even cheaper, but there is not one site that has what is claimed at the "truth" not even microsoft, lol.