If you’ve gotten a netbook, or are considering the purchase of one, you may be surprised to learn that these devices are more (or less) than little laptop devices. A “netbook” is a small computing device that looks like a laptop. It has a small keyboard, trackpad and screen, which may measure as little as 9″ across. The first generation netbooks were sold with Windows XP and have few options for loading a new OS on them. Compounding the problem of upgrading is the fact that many netbooks have limited storage and memory capabilities, and do not come with a CD/DVD drive or accommodate the use of a mouse. You may also have trouble finding the correct Windows drivers for your netbook device.

“Net” In Netbook May Limit OS Options

The original purpose of a netbook was to provide a small, highly portable device that could be used for basic functions like connecting to a network, checking email, and browsing the Web. They were not (and are not) meant to take the place of a full-sized laptop computer. Several of my technician friends use these devices for network maintenance, inventory control and other limited-use tasks that require network access.

Netbooks are not known for their upgradeability and initially posed a problem for users who wanted to upgrade the OS of the netbook, since there was no CD/DVD drive from which to load a new OS. Upgrades to the netbook operating system were/are supposed to come via network download. For the original netbooks (which run/ran Windows XP) loading Windows 7 requires a fresh install – a pretty tall order when you have no drive from which to read the new OS media.

Enter the USB stick. Today, USB sticks are large enough in most cases to hold all upgrade media for an OS install on a netbook. To be fair, you can connect an external DVD drive to the netbook and load your OS media that way, but having to collect a bunch of external devices to make the netbook work properly defeats the original design intent for the netbook – a highly portable device that can be used for basic functions like connecting to a network, checking email and browsing the Web.

Either way, if you want to upgrade an older netbook to Windows 7, you’ll need to make sure your netbook has at least 1 GB RAM and at least 8GB of storage space on your hard disk. You’ll also need a USB drive with the Windows 7 media previously installed. If you need to make a bootable installation device, your USB stick will need to have at least 4GB of available space, and you’ll also need the services of another computer to help you prepare the USB drive for life as a media installer. In my next post, I’ll continue this discussion.

Photo Credit: zieak, via Flickr