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    Notebooks without optical drives

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by jaxs82, Jul 8, 2010.

  1. jaxs82

    jaxs82 Notebook Enthusiast

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    I'm upgrading my notebook sometime within the next few months, and I'm looking at a couple models that do not sell optical drives with them. Many reviews suggest this trend will increase.

    If I were to buy a notebook without one, what would I do in the event of a hard drive/Windows crash? Would it be best to buy a stand-alone drive that could be plugged into a USB port, or is there another way to create recovery files that can be booted off a flash key?
     
    jaxs82, Jul 8, 2010
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  2. Mastershroom

    Mastershroom wat

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    Either of your ideas would work. You can get an external USB optical drive, or install Windows via USB flash drive. Personally, I would probably go with the external optical drive, as it may come in handy for stuff besides Windows repair/reinstallation.
     
    Mastershroom, Jul 8, 2010
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  3. daltrey

    daltrey Notebook Enthusiast

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    I install everything on mine by transferring from my desktop to my netbook using a usb flash drive.
     
    daltrey, Jul 8, 2010
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  4. sgogeta4

    sgogeta4 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Or you can get a notebook with an optical drive, get an external enclosure for it and swap the ODD with a HDD/SSD in a caddy.
     
    sgogeta4, Jul 9, 2010
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  5. ViciousXUSMC

    ViciousXUSMC Master Viking NBR Reviewer

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    If you have a lot of stuff to use a disk with buy an external drive they are not too expensive on places like ebay.

    If you only have 1 or 2 things you can probably find ways to do it with a usb drive. A virtual drive program like Daemon tools is your best friend you can mount .iso files and use them as if the disk was in a drive.

    Then another free program ImgBurn can make the .iso files for you.
     
    ViciousXUSMC, Jul 9, 2010
    #5