Dell Inspiron 910 -is it a piece of junk?

Hello,

I was just given a tiny little netbook, which has the model number Inspiron 910-5010. It was given to me by a friend as he almost never used it (was delivered as a gift by Vodafone, with the purchase of an expensive mobile phone I think)

The specifications of the system are :

Dell Inspiron 910, Intel Atom CPU N270 @ 1,60 GHz, 1,60GHZ, 0,99 GB RAM

Software : MS WIndows XP home edition, 2002 version, service pack 3


And now the farse begins...... It has a hard drive of total size 7,10GB.

I have never seen such a small HD in my life before that. In fact I had no idea they even exist!!!!!


As soon as I switch it on a little bubble appears, saying that there is not enough space in the HD so I have to delete some applications I do not use.

Actually there is NOTHING saved on the HD, not s ingle file, and there are NO extra programms installed as well, just the ones needed for the maschine to function.

And still there are only 10,2MB of HD availiable !!!!!! practically NOTHING.

So windows xp uses all 7GB of space?

And what am i left with?

I cannot even install google chrome, as there s no space, let along other programs.

I connected an external HD I ve got, and I managed to install skype on the external HD so it works fine, but the system does not allow me to install ANY other application at all. (SO there goes my fream for MS Office 2007 lol )

I contacted through chat a DELL representative and the discussion was totally surreal


_____________________________________________________________

Initial Question/Comment: ME -can i upgrade hard drive and ram for my inspiron 910-5010 netbook ?

-HIM- Welcome to Dell Chat Sales, This is Mumtaz, your Dell Sales Advisor. My email address is [email protected]. Hope you are doing good.

-I will need the service tag number of the machine to find certain details

-ME- 4rl3xf1


-HIM- I am afraid the hard drive cannot be upgraded

-You can contact Upgrade Options at 0871 231 1900


-ME- what does upgrade options mean ?

-HIM- It is a company which provides parts for dell systems

(which he just told me cannot be bought for my netbook)

-ME- so i cannot discard my current 7GB hard drive and get a bigger one ?

-HIM- I am afraid we do not sell any upgrades for this model therefore you have to contact them directly to check with the options available


-ME- is there a contact number in greece?

-HIM- I am afraid we do not have the details on contact in Greece


-ME- so basically this little netbook keeps on popping a bubble saying that there is not enough space in my hard drive and i need to delete something. it has NOTHING on it but windows xp
.do xp need all the 7 BG of hard drive this netbook has?


-HIM- The net book has a standard configuration and is mainly for basic usage.

(which is NOT what I asked)

-ME- ahm..... i cannot even do the basic usage since there is not a bit of storage for me to even instal google chrome which is so really damn light. nor skype
.so pretty much useless as a netbook


-HIM- You can install the windows 7 version which is mainly for small net books

(So i can spend more money on womething allready useless?????? omg)

-ME- which means i have to buy windows 7, right ?


-HIM- Yes it is a specific version for net books,
You can get it from any local stores

-ME- i highly doubt windows 7 will require less hard drive space than xp


actually just checked, it takes 16GB HD space, and 1GB ram to install windows 7


-HIM- Windows® 7 Starter for Small Notebook PCs, 32bit,
This is the one which is specifically for net books

(at last, he got activated enough to even mention the actual version)

-ME- so what is the linux alternative ?which would be light enough 4 my netbook?

-HIM) I am afraid we do not have any information on that. They best way to find the alternative is to contact the Dell technical support of the concerned region

(....Of course....why would ANYONE have any info on linux? how are they gonna make money???? for which concerned region he has no contact info by the way)

________________________________________________________________



So basically questions here.....

1. Can you actually use an external HD to install programz when your build in HD is totally gone?

2. Do windows xp indeed eat up all my 7GB or is something else going on?


3. Can I format it to some lighter OS , and especially any linux ideas?

4. Can I upgrade my hard drive to something more descent than a DVD-sized HD?????

5.ANy more ideas ??????



Thank you for reading, Asgartha

 

1) Yes, but it's clunky and I wouldn't advise it. If you want "external" programs, use an SD card, etc.

2) No, do a clean install. Windows XP should take up maybe 1GB to 2GB clean.

3) Yes.

4) Yes, I think any PATA mini PCIe SSD should work.

5) It's a netbook. You shouldn't consider it as your main machine, unless you really want a bad computing experience.

 

Those small drives are to reduce cost/heat/overall footprint. Yes as Wolf said, a netbook is only for the internet and Office. If you are using it as your main machine, prepare for an agonizing computer experience.