TonyJM

Thanks - I will reply to your DM

Yes, we have been talking to FreedomTech and the agreement is with the school, my understanding is they set up a direct debit mandate so the parents pay the funds directly to the school. The school then pay the lender directly. This negates the need to credit score every parent applying for a unit and the possibility of some not being eligible. They told me that in the event any parent defaults on payments FreedomTech will reimburse the school. @TechMonkey @jnfarmer I have been trying to get hold of Easy4U, when you ring their phone and select from the menu it just cuts off and when I emailed the address on their website I received an undeliverable message... so, I have sent one last email to their sales@ address and if I get no reply I will have to try someone else.

Thanks @jnfarmer - a valid point as I know my school were concerned about late starters and the fact that they will need to wait for mop-up portal openings.

Thanks TechMonkey appreciate the feedback

Thanks @Max_Power - I had a very productive meeting with Freedom Technology yesterday and it turns out that the school already have some kit leased through them, so the relationship is already established and they are familiar with the process. So, I think there is a real likelihood that they will partner with them. Some very useful information above and hopefully might be useful for anyone else looking for the same thing - thanks everyone

Thats great - I will speak to them too... thanks

Thanks Pete, I will call her tomorrow

Hi All I was wondering if anyone deals with a leasing company who is able to deal with personal finance? The plan is that new year 7 students will get the choice to buy or lease a new laptop when they start at the school. But... rather than the school buying/leasing the equipment and then sub-leasing it to the parents, I have been tasked to try and find a finance company who is able to finance a standard spec machine directly to the childrens parents. Ideally they would be able to login to a portal and register their details - then once approved the laptop would be ordered and delivered to the school where the schools image can be installed on the laptop before its given to the child? Does anyone have any experience in this as the leasing companies I have contacted so far only deal in corporate leasing rather than personal deals. Many thanks in advance.

I think the problem with size is that the unit has to be big enough to hold a number of disks... you could use an ultra small chassis but then you will probably only get 2 disks in it which would mean that the best you will get is a mirror (RAID1) solution... but even so - 2 x 4Tb (or even 2 x 6Tb) disks is still a decent size NAS for home.

I am using an HP Microserver (bought through work ) with 4 x mixed SATA disks and UnRAID from Lime Technologies... 6Tb usable in all! I cant rate this highly enough - previously I was running it on a PC chassis with an Icy Box IB-545SSK (5-bay SATA disk caddy which fits into 2 x 5.25" bays). Google UnRAID and as it is free (up to 3 disks I think) and then the pro version is only about $25... well worth a look. By all means PM me if you need any more info.

Sorry - cut & paste, then forgot to check Have updated it now!

Hi Rawns 8Gb

Hi All It seems that my ever growing personal laptop collection needs to be reduced again... I have a Toshiba Portege R700 laptop which is an amazing machine and still has Toshiba warranty until about September this year. The spec is; • Processor: Intel Core i5-520M • RAM: 8GB RAM • Hard Drive: 320GB HDD • Operating System: Windows 7 Professional 64bit • Screen: 13.3" Non-Reflective LED Screen • Optical Drive: DVDSM • Graphics: Intel HD Graphics • Bluetooth: Yes • Notebook Camera: Integrated • HDMI Out: Yes It does have a few wear and tear marks consistent with regular use - but works perfectly, is very light and has a great battery life... If you want to see pictures, and maybe read the review, take a look here; Toshiba Portege R700-15X review: PT311E-02P019EN | Expert Reviews Any questions call me on 07817 901735 (outside 0900-1730hrs as I am at work please)... alternatively drop a text. Reluctantly as I have to get rid of it, I will take £340 for it. I can ship using UPS, Fedex, etc for £10 Please note that this is a private sale, not commercial. Thanks for looking

Hi Jamal007 As Bodminman says - you do need to follow the details on their site... also Google will lead you to lots of good blogs on how to do it. Essentially you need to; 1. make the USB key bootable 2. Copy the Grub files onto the key 3. Create ISO images of any bootable CDs/DVDs which you want to have as options and copy them onto the USB key It takes a bit of fiddling about with but works really well Good Luck

I am not sure if this is exactly what you want - but I would search Grub Loader online as I use this a lot to boot into various different programs when system starts on USB key... GNU GRUB - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation (FSF) It is an extremely useful little app.