Vista
I have an old Dell laptop with Vista. Seldom use it but what can I do to install a newer operating system? I suspect buying an upgrade but the Dell is so old, slow and would like to spend a lot of money.
Forum Discussion
trb46 wrote:
Charlie D...You might want to consider pulling out the hard drive, buy an external case for it, and use it as additional storage for photos or other files. Just a thought. I've done that with several old drives.
X2. I did just that, using the hard drive from a damaged Toshiba laptop. It doesn't have a huge capacity, but does fine for a not-too-large backup.- I just put an SSD in my brother's old Dell Precision laptop. $80 for the speedy new drive, $60 for Windows 10 OEM from a local, small retailer.
So, for $140, my brother gets a usable laptop, nothing ends up in the landfill
and he's indebted to me, which is handy 'cause he owns a cabinet shop and will be re-doing the kitchen in our fifth wheel! barth wrote:
Reformat the drive and install Linux Mint 18.1 Cinnamon. It's fast and is free. The desktop will look like your XP or Vista desktop. I've done that to several old laptop and people are very happy. Don't throw away your laptop. It still has a couple years of life under Linux.
Download Linux Mint 32 bits to a DVD or USB key and boot from it to try it. You don't even have to install it to try it!
Good advice!
~- I have a 10 inch NextBook tablet with Intel Atom processor with 2GB of memory that I purchased at Walmart for $100. It came with 32-bit Win 8.1 that I upgraded to Win 10 32-bit without a hitch.
trb46 wrote:
Charlie D...what did you decide to do?
At this point I have removed all person data, websites, etc. and installing photos from SD cards that I use on digital photo frames. May try barth's suggestion.Fizz wrote:
Uhhh, probably wrong.
Your Dell is a 32 bit computer and will not accept a Windows upgrade.
W10 Requirements- Charlie D...what did you decide to do?
- Reformat the drive and install Linux Mint 18.1 Cinnamon. It's fast and is free. The desktop will look like your XP or Vista desktop. I've done that to several old laptop and people are very happy. Don't throw away your laptop. It still has a couple years of life under Linux.
Download Linux Mint 32 bits to a DVD or USB key and boot from it to try it. You don't even have to install it to try it! trb46 wrote:
Charlie D...You might want to consider pulling out the hard drive, buy an external case for it, and use it as additional storage for photos or other files. Just a thought. I've done that with several old drives.
X2. I did exactly that when I accidently dropped by 1st Toshiba laptop and broke the screen. It didn't make sense to repair it, so I formatted the hard drive and installed it in an enclosure and now use it as an external storage media.Lwiddis wrote:
I wouldn't spend much on any old laptop. New Dell laptops from $250 to $350 are ready to go.
X2. You'll also get the latest operating system (probably Windows 10) at the same time. My previous laptop (Toshiba, running XP) worked fine, but I knew I wanted to eventually go to Windows 10, and since my Toshiba was getting a bit long in the tooth, I decided to buy a new Toshiba with Windows 8 installed, knowing I could upgrade when the time came. It was a good decision, although I wish I kept my old Toshiba with XP, just to play with.
