Mini-laptop with CD burner

[A.B.]

Most computer equipment can handle abuse pretty well since they are manufactured as solid-state technology. This basically means that there are no moving parts. The only exception is the Hard Disk. If you can, buy the HD separately. Get one of the new breed of HD which withstand a good number of Gs (sometimes called G Shock or G Factor). The small 2.5” HD used in notebook computers are usually designed to handle a lot of Gs. You might find the number of Gs it withstands on the HD label. If not then check the specs on the manufacturer’s website.

When the laptop is shut down and there’s no power reaching the HD, the heads will be parked away from the disk surface in a tight place. So it’s imperative that you shut down the laptop and not leave it in hibernate or sleep mode. If you don’t then the computer might kick in for any reason (scheduled virus or system check for example), One big bump on the road and problems will start.

It’s also important to back up. On the road it’s a hassle to deal with backup tapes or CD-ROMs so I got one of the new tiny HD that hooks up to PC Card (PCMCIA) (USB and parallel options are available) port. I attach it to the laptop every once in a while and back up my data to it. Don’t just backup to another partition on the same disk, it’s useless.

The padding method mentioned above is also imperative.

Hope this helps.

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A.B.
www.ShortWheelbase.com