The laptop was meant for Mission Impossible! This laptop will SELF-DESTRUCT in 10 seconds! Sort of defeats the purpose of putting a laptop in your lap... owww
:shrugs: We have used compaqs at work for years and they are very good, and everything works just fine. I can't speak for the ones intended for home use though, the only one I ever looked at (at a friends house) was rather useless.
I have some compaq C500 computers here, and the hard drive is mounted on its side, behind the power switch. They have proven to be exceptionally reliable.
I dn't think there's anything to automatically make a giant asr.dat, but you might like to read these (if you haven't done so already). http://www.1emulation.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=4912 http://www.1emulation.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=16164
I had to remove the link to that chinese board, because it has a rom request area (against our rules), and the whole thread was in Chinese and therefore could not be understood. Thanks for the other link though, much appreciated!