netbooks and usb/hdd enclosures

I am wondering about how you use netbooks with usb flash drives or even a hard drive enclosure for a DVD burner. You can use an enclosure that includes USB for this?

I was wondering because I am used to watching movies on a DVD and also because I was wondering how you might install software from a DVD onto a netbook. I also use Linux and I am used to installing the OS via the LiveCD. I read here that you can use a USB thumb drive but I haven't tried this before. I don't know how you boot up. There needs to be a BIOS option for booting up a USB device as 1st priority or something?

Can someone explain? I wouldn't mind getting a netbook for my portable computer and then I could get whatever laptop I want and it can be less portable (15.4" or 16") as I would already have something for ultra-portability and it could be the one I lug around.

I'm just brainstorming here as I don't know what to do yet but the functionality of the netbook is interesting. I was curious what people do for installing software and what they do in place of DVD/CDs that we're so used to.

I guess USB devices can replace some of that but what about Linux and LiveCDs?

For Windows (and Linux) users, what about when they need a recovery/rescue CD? What do you do for the netbooks? Have it on some usb device?

 

I don't understand the question...

If you want to boot from a USB optical drive or USB device, you can just connect the device, tell the netbook to boot from the device, and that should be that. It should work just like an internal device whether you're watching a DVD, installing an OS, or running a Live CD.

 

If you want to load software or an OS from a USB device?

Most computers will boot from floppy, HDD or an optical drive upon boot up. You set it up in the BIOS. Is there a USB option? I guess I could check my desktop but I am asking about netbooks.

 

Yes, as CommanderWolf said, there is an option to boot from USB.

You just buy yourself a USB DVD drive (like this one: http://www.amazon.com/Sony-DRXS70U-External-Portable-Slim-Line/dp/B001BSM954/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1235167992&sr=8-1, plug it in, go into your BIOS, and then there is an option in the BIOS for boot from USB device.

 

The boot from USB option has pretty much been standard for the past three or four years. That's on desktops, notebook, and netbooks or whatever other book you have. The last time I bought a motherboard without a boot from USB option was in like 2003.

 

Cool. I was pretty sure it was available in the newest motherboards/desktops.

But, isn't it darn slow?

Nevertheless, it is interesting for when your notebook/netbook doesn't have an optical drive (CD or DVD burner).

I'm interested in a netbook so that I can have something portable and that allows me to consider larger notebooks (which are often more powerful and offer better resolutions/screens etc.).

 

There isn't an optical drive available right now (internal or external) that can saturate the USB 2.0 bandwidth. Some future Blu-ray players will be that fast at full speed, but for the most part, they're just too slow right now.

 

There isn't any CD/DVD that will even come up to the speed USB2.0 delivers, so you won't notice it. Only faster harddrives will be bottlenecked via USB2.0, but you won't notice that either if you're just using the harddrive as storage or wathcing content from it or so.

Why netbooks doesn't have cd/dvd is because of the size, you don't want a CD/DVD taking up alot of space, that would only make the netbook thicker or wider and that wouldn't be called a netbook anymore But i guess you knew that

Netbooks are only made for browsing the net and be portable, not for gaming So it should be perfect for you if want something portable for browsing the net (or something else that doesn't require much at all from the computer).