Considering putting win 10 TP on my old Dell

[Moonsurface]

I have an old Dell Studio (i5 first gen CPU 8GB RAM) which I only turned on for the first time today since May (it's been THOROUGHLY replaced by the Surface ;-) ) .. I am wondering whether to use it to try out win 10? Would this laptop be good enough to run win 10?

I'm a little scared by the PC Expert/IT professional bit would I be mad as a reasonably geeky but not particularly Windows technical person to even attempt this?

 

[leeshor]

I have it running on an old system I replaced for a customer, AMD X2 245 - 4 GB RAM. Not bad.

 

[GreyFox7]

Nothing ventured nothing gained.

 

[Moonsurface]

I think it might run better actually, ever since I got it brand new that laptop blew the fan at every opportunity, it feels so slow compared to the surface.

Can I dual boot it or it will putting win 10 on remove win 7? I'm not sure where the licence key for windows 7 is on this laptop, there's no sticker on it. ( It is genuine though bought direct from Dell with Windows installed)...I guess I could go Linux if it all goes wrong.....lol

 

[Moonsurface]

Right... have downloaded the ISO.. I am currently running the Dell Diagnostic software on the laptop in the hope that it allows me to create a windows image disc for win 7, but it's not a great loss if I can't. I'll ask my hubby about dual booting, the laptop is 4 years old but is plenty capable looking at the low spec that win 10 wants Wish me luck, it may be the breath of fresh air the laptop needs to bring it back to life

 

[daniielrp]

Right... have downloaded the ISO.. I am currently running the Dell Diagnostic software on the laptop in the hope that it allows me to create a windows image disc for win 7, but it's not a great loss if I can't. I'll ask my hubby about dual booting, the laptop is 4 years old but is plenty capable looking at the low spec that win 10 wants Wish me luck, it may be the breath of fresh air the laptop needs to bring it back to life

Specs wise it will be fine. I have it on an (admittedly quite powerful) 5 year old desktop system. Intel Core 2 Duo O/C to 4Ghz, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD and a ATI 5330 gfx card.

It boots windows 10 in 8 seconds to desktop, so I can imagine yours with newer processor and more RAM would be just as efficient.

Personally I didn't dual boot (all in with Win 10!), but I can't any reason why you couldn't. Use Windows 7 to create a second partition and choose this partition when installing Windows 10. It should automatically give you a bootloader that will ask you which OS you want to run when you turn on the PC.

 

[Moonsurface]

Specs wise it will be fine. I have it on an (admittedly quite powerful) 5 year old desktop system. Intel Core 2 Duo O/C to 4Ghz, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD and a ATI 5330 gfx card.

It boots windows 10 in 8 seconds to desktop, so I can imagine yours with newer processor and more RAM would be just as efficient.

Personally I didn't dual boot (all in with Win 10!), but I can't any reason why you couldn't. Use Windows 7 to create a second partition and choose this partition when installing Windows 10. It should automatically give you a bootloader that will ask you which OS you want to run when you turn on the PC.

Actually the computer already has a OEM and a recovery partition on it, do I need to create another one or can I just go ahead and install on the main C: drive partition?

 

[GreyFox7]

To Create System Image Backup:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/back-up-programs-system-settings-files#1TC=windows-7
Also make a System Repair Disk which is presented as an option at the end.

 

[Moonsurface]

TBH I'm not too bothered about a system image as the laptop has nothing on it that I need. I just deleted all my files and uninstalled all the extra programs off it anyway, I was just concerned that I might not be able to reinstall win 7 without the licence key, but I think the recovery participation should sort that for me should I need it. I hopefully won't though.

 

[daniielrp]

TBH I'm not too bothered about a system image as the laptop has nothing on it that I need. I just deleted all my files and uninstalled all the extra programs off it anyway, I was just concerned that I might not be able to reinstall win 7 without the licence key, but I think the recovery participation should sort that for me should I need it. I hopefully won't though.

Just check when installing Win 10 that it is not going to wipe the recovery partition.

Though as you said hopefully you won't need it!

 

[Moonsurface]

Yes I hope not. I do have another licence for win 7 which I'm currently using on my desktop. I want to upgrade the desktop to win 8.1 but I'm holding out for win 10 on that.

 

[GreyFox7]

Retrieve your key(s)
https://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder/