What can be done with a laptop without a hard drive?

Question

Iron

There is an old laptop (dell inspiron 1100) that does not see hard drives. It's a pity to throw it away, but I don't know where to apply it.
Does it make sense to install something on a flash drive (Ubuntu or Android)? Will it slow down a lot?
Or maybe there are some mini-pci hard drives?

Answer 1

You can look in the direction of usb hard drives and pcmcia adapters - ide / sata
speed tests
www.ixbt.com/peripheral/usb-or-pcmcia.html

Answer 2

www.oldi.ru/catalog/element/0212419
and if so?