I have a "netbook" (small laptop) on which both the built-in ethernet
controller and built-in wireless controller have failed.  I don't recall
what happened to the original hard drive; the one that's installed now
is 750GB and has been serving as an archival volume, so I'd like to
connect it to a network...
  The hard drive is set up to dual boot between Windows 7 Home Premium
and Ubuntu Linux.  Because there weren't Linux drivers for the Ethernet
controller chip, I've often used a USB-to-Ethernet adapter on this
machine, and that still works for Linux but somewhere along the way,
Win7 has forgotten how to use that dongle.  And for some reason the
drivers for a USB-to-Wifi adapter don't seem to load properly...

  I've found where an online merchant has off-lease Compaq laptops for
about $120, including a 120GB hard drive with Win7.  So my plan is to
put the 750GB drive in a USB enclosure, copy the drivers from the Compaq
to it, pull the 120B drive and install the 750, and re-match the drivers
with their devices, which I'm hoping will leave me with the 750GB drive
usable in a new laptop slightly bigger and more powerful than the old
netbook.
  Am I overlooking anything major?

David Gillett

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