Jump to content

Update old laptop to 10 with SSD, or just go Chrome?


Ralphie

Recommended Posts

Since putting a new SSD in, do a fresh installation of Windows with a cheap authorization key off ebay for less than $15. Can't be an upgrade, then re-install programs and transfer photos and other documents. While it wasn't a laptop, built 2 PC's that way with no problem, using an old USB Windows 10 Home to prepare the drive and install without registration key (trial mode) and when running/updated, entered registration and it further upgraded it to Pro installing/activating the additional files. While it sounds shady, appears to be legit and part of some European Union settlement with Microsoft.

While you may want to do a final backup of the hard drive in case the above doesn't work, but don't use it as backs up viruses and all to reinstall. Most programs can be re-installed from download and enter your registration code for that program. Photos and other documents save to a large capacity USB memory stick to directly transfer to the new SSD, or better yet, reserve the lower capacity SSD for operating system and programs but keep the photos and other documents on an external hard drive in which case can skip the USB and transfer them directly there. That is my setup on my MacBook Pro … 250 SSD and 1T USB harddrive which I can plug into any computer - but Windows can only read the smaller FAT formatted partition, where Apple can read both which is frustrating when the desired file in in the larger partition. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, RalphWaldoMooseworth said:

I am leaning toward the first since our Christmas Pollyanna has a $75 limit and I can get a SSD for that.  I know the latter probably makes much more sense, but sense has never been my strong point. :D I like keeping old stuff and I am am leery of Google. 

 

Your options are 1) get an SSD for ~$75 and reinstall Windows on an existing laptop or 2) BUY a Chromebook (more than $75)?

I'd say go with #1.  Certainly there are positives and negatives to both options, but Windows is more flexible overall than a Chrome OS and less finicky than a Linux OS.  All three are legit ways to do stuff, but Win 10 is the most well rounded.

If you have a license for 10 or an older license to upgrade, the full featured Win 10 is nice. Or, the route Don mentions - perennial trial mode - will work, but there will be a nag to register and some functions (like customization) will be disabled.

Some folks, like my mom, are ONLY web users. A Google Chromebook is certainly a viable option for her.  I use plenty of other things on my main laptops, so I prefer a full OS, but I could definitely see having just a Chromebook for light browsing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Razors Edge said:

Your options are 1) get an SSD for ~$75 and reinstall Windows on an existing laptop or 2) BUY a Chromebook (more than $75)?

I'd say go with #1.  Certainly there are positives and negatives to both options, but Windows is more flexible overall than a Chrome OS and less finicky than a Linux OS.  All three are legit ways to do stuff, but Win 10 is the most well rounded.

If you have a license for 10 or an older license to upgrade, the full featured Win 10 is nice. Or, the route Don mentions - perennial trial mode - will work, but there will be a nag to register and some functions (like customization) will be disabled.

Some folks, like my mom, are ONLY web users. A Google Chromebook is certainly a viable option for her.  I use plenty of other things on my main laptops, so I prefer a full OS, but I could definitely see having just a Chromebook for light browsing.

I use both.  I still have a windows 10 desktop in the lab and I also use a chromebook while sitting in the living room just browsing or shooting the shit with forumites.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've had trouble in the past on a couple laptops upgrading them to new Windows editions because the HP or whatever additional software doesn't have upgrades that work well with it.  So in general I haven't tried to upgrade Win 7 computers I had.  I guess there are some advantages to Win 10, but I don't think I'd personally be any slower if Windows still had the Win 3.1 screen.

One though, was just a beta edition of Windows 98 before it came out (a student's father worked for someone who had access to it and gave me a copy). Some software was tricky to open without setting up "open as" conditions and sometimes I had to boot it 3-4 times before it loaded everything in.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How old is the laptop? Some older hardware just won't handle Windows 10. I would also recommend 8GB of RAM if you don't have it. 

I agree with jsharr. Do the Windows 10 upgrade, then clone to the new drive. If there is a UEFI boot issue, you may have to install from scratch, but I would try the easy route, first. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Also, for those with any interest in a modicum of privacy, Chrome is a non-starter. I'd never recommend a person use Chrome as a browser let alone an OS until first verifying they don't mind being under constant surveillance.  Most folks are fine with that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, MickinMD said:

I've had trouble in the past on a couple laptops upgrading them to new Windows editions because the HP or whatever additional software doesn't have upgrades that work well with it.  So in general I haven't tried to upgrade Win 7 computers I had.  I guess there are some advantages to Win 10, but I don't think I'd personally be any slower if Windows still had the Win 3.1 screen.

One though, was just a beta edition of Windows 98 before it came out (a student's father worked for someone who had access to it and gave me a copy). Some software was tricky to open without setting up "open as" conditions and sometimes I had to boot it 3-4 times before it loaded everything in.

I had similar problem with Windows on laptop. Of course it was Windows 8 at the time. Took the laptop back to Best Buy and got a MacBook Pro still using today. Microsoft essentially pushed away someone who had one of the original PC, but even Pachard Hell couldn’t push me away, building my PC’s from 286 machines on to my current 3 core i7 machines.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Razors Edge said:

Also, for those with any interest in a modicum of privacy, Chrome is a non-starter. I'd never recommend a person use Chrome as a browser let alone an OS until first verifying they don't mind being under constant surveillance.  Most folks are fine with that.

What have you got to hide?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

So the SSD is installed in the ancient Dell and it runs like a fricken race car now!  Just incredible what an SSD can do for an old computer.  I had a heck of a time trying to install Windows on the first partition, but after I installed puppy linux on the first partition, windows started right up after being restored to the second partition.  Windows had kept rebooting itself few seconds into the boot until I put Linux on it.  And it is also amazing that Windows 7 runs almost as quickly as puppy linux with this setup.

Dangit, I spoked too soon!  I had the same problem - the first reboot Windows ran great, then the next reboot, back to the infinite reboot loop. :(

Oh well, pup still runs great on it!

 

  • Heart 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Last fall, I updated my Windows 7 Lenovo T530 ThinkPad laptop (Intel core i7 with 8GB memory) with a Crucial 960GB SSD.  Selected for compatibility with the laptop.   I backed everything up to my external drive.  I saved that external drive, just in case…   I purchased a new 3TB external drive to use for backups after Windows 10 was installed.  I did a clean install of Windows 10 on the SSD drive. Then I reinstalled all of my software. And last moved all of the data files to the SSD.

I did the clean install, just to be sure I didn’t install Windows 10 over some hidden problem, etc…  

The laptop boots WAY faster, and I assume will work for more than a few years.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I haven't updated 7 to 10, but previously I've had trouble updating old laptops to a newer version of Windows.  The hardware sometimes apparently isn't designed to work with the new OS no matter what drivers you use and sometimes the assigned memory locations conflict when you install certain software - I could no longer use Avira Antivirus in one case after installing the new version because it wanted to use specific memory that had been allocated to Windows.

Heck, the first originally-Windows-10 laptop I had wouldn't install Windows 10.1 because HP's design had an irreconcilable conflict and I had to wait until they fixed the problem and issued a nee 10.1 update.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Clean install of Windows 10 is the only way. Wipe everything off the SSD, install Windows 10, install programs required/used, transfer data/photos etc, then reinstall Linux in a separate partition.

I used the cheap Windows 10 Pro on Ebay. Note, it is only an activation key and there are ways to create an ISO disk/USB thumbdrive but there are auctions a little more expensive that include a disk and are delivered by mail. I would do it in reverse - create the ISO doing the install, when it works, ebay is instant email delivery of the key. Rather than going through the process at Microsoft.com to create an ISO drive, I used a previously installed on another machine Windows 10 Home USB stick had in my scrapbox, bypassed the registration during the install, then registered when finished. Not only did it accept the key, but read that it was Pro, downloaded and unlocked the files from the Home version used for the install.

I have done that a couple of times as I've either built a PC from scratch or upgraded existing hard drives. While difficult/impossible to do on a laptop, on my PC I used multiple drives. The SSD (C:) has OS and programs, while a regular spinner hard drive (D:) has data/photos. Follow similar with my laptop with OS and programs on the installed 256 SSD and data, music, and space hogging video and photos (RAW files plus processed) on a USB connected 2TB regular hard drive. None of those require the speed of the SSD to load like the OS and active operation of programs. The other advantage is being able to take that USB drive to almost any other computer for simplified access on file transfer or using with a future new/upgraded machine. The only complication I have wouldn't apply in your case as Windows won't recognize an Apple formatted drive (where Apple will recognize a Windows formatted drive) I just have to make sure the desired file(s) are in the small Wiindows formatted partition on that drive. 

  • Awesome 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you just want to surf or use the cloud to store your stuff, Chromebook is a good way to go.  But if you're used to a Mickeysoft operating system and there Mickeysoft Office stuff -- then a PC laptop is the way to go.  If you do Apple, then you get a PC that supports Mickeysoft Office  but's going to cost you.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/9/2020 at 6:55 PM, RalphWaldoMooseworth said:

So the SSD is installed in the ancient Dell and it runs like a fricken race car now!  Just incredible what an SSD can do for an old computer. 

I just installed a 1 TB SSD in my Dell desktop with W10.  OMG it's faster! Waking up from sleep mode was nearly 5 minutes before I could really use the PC as the hard drive was at 100% active. Now it's less than a minute before the hard drive settles down. I also noticed that my CPU is running around 50% where before it was more like 25%. I guess the faster hard drive allows the CPU to work harder as the HD was the weakest link.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...