I, myself, swear by Toshiba laptops. I've had 5 since 1998, four of which are still in my possession (working just great) and one is now proudly owned by a friend's daughter. Never a problem with them - however - I make it a habit to treat them nicely. I don't use them in lieu of a football, hammer, anvil, "frustration-relief-device," or other.
Obviously, you're not very computer-savvy. Toshiba does not manufacture hard drives; they are usually sourced from companies such as WD, Maxtor, Seagate, etc. Here again, I hardly believe said companies recommend physical abuse as a approved method of care.
As an Engineer, I sadly see people treat laptops as indestructable machines: falling off of tables at Starbucks, tossed in trunks from distances of greater than five feet, subjected to extreme temperature variations (two hour trunk ride in subzero weather, then fired up immediately in an eighty degree office), fluids introduced from carelessly placing beverages RIGHT NEXT TO THEM and - like an easily distracted imbecile - knocking aforementioned on the keyboard, etc.
Now you're talking KIDS? They don't respect ANYTHING given to them! Kids think that if it's free, there's always more from where that came.
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The most important thing I've encountered with AutoCAD (or, for that matter, Visio, VidCAD, Sketchup, VectorWORKS, etc) is the Graphics Card. Yeah, a decent/recent processor, 2 GB of memory (minimum), appropriate amount of storage is vital - but the Graphics Card is the key. Do your research there. Shared Graphics Memory totally sucks with these kinds of programs. I shouldn't need to stress the importance of an EXCELLENT external (second) monitor for this, too...
Greg, current Toshiba Tecra user
