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Considering putting win 10 TP on my old Dell

Moonsurface

Super Moderator
Staff member
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

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

Moonsurface

Super Moderator
Staff member
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
 
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Moonsurface

Moonsurface

Super Moderator
Staff member
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

Active Member
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.
 
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Moonsurface

Moonsurface

Super Moderator
Staff member
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?
 
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Moonsurface

Moonsurface

Super Moderator
Staff member
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

Active Member
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!
 
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Moonsurface

Moonsurface

Super Moderator
Staff member
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.
 
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