Hi all, I can't find a search screen to look for this topic, and have manually looked at all the usual suspects, so if I missed it someplace, sorry. New registrant; past lurker since I've had my Aspire One since 2009. Used it as my traveling computer. Also have an 8yo Dell laptop and a 6yo Dell desktop. Never had a malware problem with my desktops in 25 years, but I was always vigilant about e-mail from strangers and the websites I'd visit. The laptop, not so much. Occasional malware incursions, always solved. Last weekend, my desktop finally got hit. Some rootkit crap and maybe backdoors/trojans. Main remaining culprit is the Google redirect virus (or whatever) which may be rootkit-based. Anyway, don't trust the desktop with my password transactions anymore. The laptop, even older, is still just used for more "dangerous" stuff. That left my Aspire One, which I rarely use except on trips, but has been pristine, security-wise. So, I was going out to buy a new desktop, then realized that the old one only has a TV card and dual monitor card in it, and lots of air and fan noise. And a big footprint. So, I decided to get a laptop and use that as a central CPU with all the other stuff hooked up via USBs (one of the great things we didn't have in PCing 20 years ago). So, as I'm driving to the computer store, I realized that I've probably already got the important link in this chain, my Aspire One. It's got tons of jacks on both sides of the case that I can use for XHDDs, flashdrives, speakers, etc., plus that magic video output that should allow me to still use the Acer 22" bigscreen. So, I've spent the last few days putting this spider-looking deal together and getting everything working and I've amazed at how easy it was. (Though not the recovery of data files and re-installs and inoculating of everything from the old system.) The question is, does anyone have any hints, optimal ways to do things, etc. for using the Aspire One in place of a desktop CPU? I've got every jack filled except the mic in. One of the USBs has a 4-port extender on it. I'm running XP, don't do gaming or video editing. (95% Excel, Word, PageMaker, PhotoShop, Internet, eMail.) I've got four external HDDs, though only one is hooked up at a time. Speakers. DSL via cable. DVD/CD writer. Cordless mouse/keyboard. Printer. An 8G chip in the expansion port. Flashdrives from time to time. It all seems to be working fine going on five days now. Am I going to have problems at some point? Aside from the eReovery, I've made a separate dedicated USB rescue booter. I'm about to hot re-partition the HDD so that I can have all my progs on one virtual drive for easy mirror-ing and all data files on another drive for regular backups. (I don't want to go through last weekend again any time soon.) Any helpful thoughts? (I do love having the massive tower off the desk.) Thanks for the ideas. DazeYaVoo
