acer aspire one - crikey!

I just bought a very teeny netbook for travels and for home use next year. My Aspire One is ten inches diameter and white. I spent a good thirty hours looking at all the different types of netbooks and nearly went crazy with all of the what ifs. The bottom line is that the Aspire One was stocked in stores so that I could actually try it out. Dear computer manufacturers: You will move more stock if people believe your product exists. (I had my heart set on this Sylvania g Netbook Meso in yellow, mostly for how awesome it looks, but couldn't bring myself to buy a computer without at least trying the keyboard. Especially an eight inch keyboard.) Anyhoo, the Aspire keyboard is totally typeable, the screen big enough to view webpages without horizontal scrolling, and the price was right.

The most sucky thing about it is it comes with Windows, UGH.

I have become such a Mac snob; it is hard to believe that just over two years ago, I myself was using Windows Millenium AND WAS FINE WITH IT. (Had no idea how much better my life could have been.)

The Sylvania reviews gave me the idea to reboot my little toy with Linux Ubuntu, which just came out with a new Netbook Remix just for little guys like mine. The Ubuntu website is awesome and their help section is ginormous. I look at learning Linux like learning a new interface for your cell phone. You sit around with it for a couple of hours and try every single button and eventually get to know the system.

Ubuntu makes it really easy to download their OS onto a USB, since netbooks come with USB drives but no CD drives. NOT SO WITH WINDOWS. As soon as I booted up the netbook, I was prompted to quickly create a backup recovery CD. This makes total sense, especially if I am planning to wipe my hard drive clean. HOWEVER, Windows will only create my recovery CD with a CD drive. NOT on a flash drive. Ironic, since the computer didn't come with a CD drive. Acer loses several points here for not including a recovery disc in their packaging.

I frantically searched the web for USB solutions, purchaseable CDs, shortcuts around the problem. Nothing. I called several people but no one owns an external CD drive. I talked to two different computery friends but neither could think of a solution. FOUR HOURS LATER, I got the bright idea to call Acer and ask for help. Though it took a good twenty minutes to find their phone number (of course none of their three official websites listed a single phone line). I called, (800.571.2237), was connected to a live person within five minutes, and voila! CD is in the mail!

I hope this helps anyone else who has the same problem and is googling Acer Aspire One eRecovery restore Windows CD backup disc. There you go.


ps: Meet Crikey.