Replacing the SSD with a 1.8″ PATA Drive
While the SSD in the Acer Aspire One has very fast read times, it suffers from very slow write times and many of the tweaks that you have to make when installing Windows XP is to reduce the amount that the operating system is writing to the drive. The AAO’s that come shipped with XP have 120GB HD’s that don’t suffer from these slow writing times. While there are many ways to speed up Windows XP on the Acer Aspire one, it may be better to just replace the SSD with an HD if write times become a problem.
This hack, like the Acer Aspire One bluetooth mod, comes from the netbook hacker Tnkgrl. Instead of using the standard 2.5″ laptop drive that most netbooks use, she’s found that a 1.8″ PATA HD, like those found in an iPod or Zune will plug directly into the connector used for the SSD. It requires almost no fabrication to fit, and the BIOS auomatically detects the drive. eBay is filled with used 20GB and larger drives in this format, so this modification can be relatively cheap to perform.
Here is a link to the site, which includes video with step-by-step instructions.
http://tnkgrl.wordpress.com/2008/08/16/modding-the-acer-aspire-one-hard-drive/