Confused

[scottccook]

I am really confused. I noticed that there are a lot of people getting new lap tops. Well I too went out and got a great deal on a 17" Toshiba Satellite with a 200GB HD and 2GB RAM for $1300.00. Great deal huh? Well I downloaded Microstudio just to find out that the burner wasn't compatible. Come to find out Toshiba Computers come with the same drive and it is not possible to change them out. Soooo, I had to return it. I guess that I am confused, because I have gone to Fry's electronics, Best Buy, Circuit City, and a couple of other places and have gone through **** near every computer to see what DVD drives are in them, and could not find not one with a compatible drive. So, where is everyone else buying their computers from? And, Why is Toshiba the only computer company that makes a laptop with a 200GB HD?

[ddouglass]

Originally Posted by scottccook

I am really confused. I noticed that there are a lot of people getting new lap tops. Well I too went out and got a great deal on a 17" Toshiba Satellite with a 200GB HD and 2GB RAM for $1300.00. Great deal huh? Well I downloaded Microstudio just to find out that the burner wasn't compatible. Come to find out Toshiba Computers come with the same drive and it is not possible to change them out. Soooo, I had to return it. I guess that I am confused, because I have gone to Fry's electronics, Best Buy, Circuit City, and a couple of other places and have gone through **** near every computer to see what DVD drives are in them, and could not find not one with a compatible drive. So, where is everyone else buying their computers from? And, Why is Toshiba the only computer company that makes a laptop with a 200GB HD?

Scott, most people who buy the laptops use an USB external drive because most internal laptop drives don't work. MTU does have one slimline DVD drive that they guarantee will work. AS far as changing the drives out, you were given false information because all components of laptops can be changed out. The drive is held in by a lock on the bottom and it slides right out. All of the drives that will fit laptops (slimline style) use exactly the same connector so they are interchangable.

Why Toshiba is the only one selling a 200GB hard drive is beyond me. I would guess the rest will have that or larger soon as Vista is a real memory and hard drive space hog.

[scottccook]

I had read another post from another user who said that he had bought the slimline from MTU and had a real hard time getting it to fit and when he did get in, it didnt work properly.

[dtbice]

I have a toshiba satellite laptop and installed a MTU slimline. As ddouglass said they change out very easily, one clip on the bottom of the machine and it pops out. Slimline snapped right in....5min. to change the drive. The MTU slimline drive works fine.....had some issues at first but working fine now.... If you are refering to my post back in Aug. I said "I purchased a slim-line cd-rom about a month ago, I had a small problem getting it installed on a Toshiba A105 Satellite Series, w/Windows XP Home SP2 but worked that out... got it installed and worked fine".. I was refering to getting XP to recognizing it (installed) not getting it to fit.
Hope this helps.....

[bobcox- with the Lord]

Dell laptops are easy to change the drive in,
i use a nec 6650a dvdrw works great with hoster and MS.
you can get a dell inspiron 8200 on ebay for about $350.00 .
i have been using dell 8100 p3 1gigh for yrs and never had a problem, the work great with hoster and for doing shows.
i just started buying dell inspiron 8200s because they are p4 and up to 2.6 gigh prossers and will handle up to 1 gig of ddr ram.
these laptops will run with the best of them.
also have a modular bay in front for extra hard drive or dvd burner or floppy.
you can change with the touch of a button. Bob

[Lonman]

My Dad bought a Gateway from Best Buy a couple months ago & the internal drive works fine for Hoster/Microstudio (160gb hard drive built in). It was purchased before Vista came out & he's not sure if he's going to upgrade or not - even though it's supposedly Vista compatable.

[ddouglass]

Scott, if you are going by the list of compatible drives that MTU has in the web site, it is out of date since the new versions of Microstudio and Hoster have been released. The number of drives that will work has greatly expanded now and at this point it is trial and error. Some that used to work don't now with the newer interface and some that didn't work before now do. If weren'y confused before I am sure we have done our best to be sure you are now.

[scottccook]

Pretty much still confused, I was using that list as a bible. I really hated taking that computer back. Of course it was the last one in stock. What guide lines should I follow now? Everyone gave me strange looks when I told them that the drive was not compatible with the software I was running.

[ddouglass]

Originally Posted by scottccook

Pretty much still confused, I was using that list as a bible. I really hated taking that computer back. Of course it was the last one in stock. What guide lines should I follow now? Everyone gave me strange looks when I told them that the drive was not compatible with the software I was running.

Scott,
I am not sure exactly what to tell you. The software itself isn't the problem. If a drive isn't capable of reading CDG discs then Microstudio and Hoster will tell you. MTU has no way of testing every drive especially since so many drives that wouldn't work before do so now with the later versions.
Which version of Microstudio did you test this laptop on?
Your best bet is to buy the laptop you like, making sure it supports dual monitors with extended desktop. If the DVD drive that comes with it doesn't read CDG discs then your option will be to get a USB external drive that does. Most usually buy Plextor or the newer NEC models.