ASUS Eee - deal you may know of

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

| From: William Muriithi <william.muriithi-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org>

Others have pointed out that hard drive replacement is easy (at least
for them) and not too expensive.  I would tend to agree, with caveats:

(1) some people are more confident whacking on hardware than others,

(2) some notebooks are really hard to upgrade (eg. my subnotebook
required a lot of disassembly just to get to the RAM).

I don't remember the specs of your notebook.  If you've outgrown it or
it is wildly obsolete it might not be worth fixing.

Be sure that you have a good backup if you hope to install Windows on
the new hard disk.  If you don't care about your current data and
Windows then installing a new disk is easier.

Don't put off backing up your data: the life of a failing hard disk is
quite precarious.

| That leave me with two options. Go out there and buy a new hard disk
| and somehow have it installed in the laptop.

| That open up the second option, instead of repairing the current
| system, how about picking one of those inexpensive laptop?

It depends on how you intend to use the computer.

As a general purpose computer, netbooks are fairly limited.  The
keyboards and displays in particular are limited.  No optical drive.
The ones with solid-state disks are quite limited in disk capacity.
They are really great (I imagine) for carrying around for quick access
to the internet.

If you want a general-purpose computer, there are quite a few deals
for low-end conventional notebooks in the $400 to $500 range.  Much
more bang for your buck (and kilos for your buck) than netbooks.

I don't know how you would use your computer so I don't know if a
netbook would actually suit you or not.

As for netbook deals: they come and go.  For example, last Friday,
Staples was selling an Acer Aspire One for $300.  This Friday, in the
US ("Black Friday"), Dell will be selling its netbook for $300.
Finding a deal requires figuring out what you want (some keyboards are
nicer than others, does Blue Tooth matter?, battery sizes differ, SSD
or hard drive?,...)  and then awaiting a deal to come up.  eSng and PC
Village have had sometimes had good sale prices.
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