So - Windows 10?

[djs]

OK, so I don't really want it, not exactly now anyway.

I am not anti-microsoft in any way. I have (ooh, let me think) 3 home computers and 2 work ones. I also work on Macs and even a Linux too. Not one of them gives me any bother at all (work is protected of course) but the home ones are 100% perfect, start to finish.

(There is a story behind 'why' I think they are so flawless, but that's another discussion altogether).

This is my plan. When I bought my latest laptop I made recovery disks for it. 2 or 3 DVDs now sealed up in a a pack. Can anyone see why I shouldn't do the following.

1. Buy an HDD or SSD.
2. Put it in the laptop and use the recovery disks to make a version of my laptop from the day I bought it.
3. Update the new HDD or SSD (the windows will be 2-3 years old) and go to/upgrade to Windows 10. Check it out, like it or loathe it etc.etc.

If its good, keep the new drive in it, if not put the one in it today back in. I can make an image of the current disk (to an external drive) and double-back-up all my documents. There will be some software missing (itunes, chrome, phone utilities) but all this stuff is on the internet.

The only other option is to clone the drive "as is" to a new HDD... but that means keeping years of junk. I'd rather see Windows 10 working from an as-new drive.

Any thoughts? Sounds like a plan, or not maybe?

[revoke]

Hi @djs

If you was just testing it I wouldn't spend too much on a SSD, just a standard HDD would do the job although SSD does speed things up IMO.. you could get a cheap HDD and Y cable and use it as an external HDD, or clone the drive to that so you don't have to keep swapping HDDs, if all goes pear shaped you could restore it back to default.( do a full backup)

I'm not sure if the 1-3 step idea will affect the BIOS as when my windows pc loads up I have 6 options to choose from but only have 1 windows on it. Its not a problem it just asks which windows I would like to use.

I'm not a fan of windows 8/10 I did update my pc to it and put it straight back to windows 7 N edition. The way I see it is if your on windows8 you may aswell be on 10.

[phatfil]

imho if your running win 8-8.1 you will benefit from the mods in win10 its fixed most of the niggles i have had with win8.. And the microshaft data invasion is worth the fix, however win7 runs fine as is so if your have win7 pro or above on your puter keep it as is..

[*-SARIN-*]

Windows 10 - NO, just no! There's too much reporting back to the MS servers for my liking and the company itself is being less than forthcoming with the recent revelations by some that have delved deep into the backend.

There's nothing wrong with your plan and changing to an SSD is the biggest increase in speed that many 'puter users experience. I think you're gonna have to bite the bullet mate and do it, either way it'll be a good way of cleaning out all the crap you don't need.

[djs]

Oooh. I bagged a 2.5" laptop drive from work - I'll wipe it clean and test out the theory.

I have no idea how to use the recovery disks, presumably with a formatted drive the laptop looks for some other drives to boot from and and finds the DVD.. (or I can change the order in the bios) but then again, it's not like I have the first idea really. Not my kind of territory this.

Worth a go, I think?

[*-SARIN-*]

This....

(or I can change the order in the bios)

[phatfil]

it can be a bit of a minefield, you may have problems with windows authentication if the new hdd isnt the same as the old system disk..

the recovery discs may try to restore a disk image? in which case you will need to create a disk partition with the same geometry as the original, otherwise the 'foot wont fit the shoe' cinders

i would try copying the current system disk with cloning software first, google tells me clonezilla is a *nix distro u can boot off a usb stick sd card or cd to clone the disk.. years ago i would have used norton ghost..

[djs]

Oct 15, 2015 17:04:17 GMT phatfil said:

it can be a bit of a minefield, you may have problems with windows authentication if the new hdd isnt the same as the old system disk..

Yes, I had thought of that.

the recovery discs may try to restore a disk image? in which case you will need to create a disk partition with the same geometry as the original, otherwise the 'foot wont fit the shoe' cinders

No, I hadn't though about that. Trouble is I don't really know what the disks do, as I was a strictly format and OS then software from scratch kind of guy.

It's times like this I wish I'd taken a photo of the windows code before it got rubbed off. I can get an installation disk from work if needed, but without the code that's no use.

Still thinking then....

[phatfil]

u can get a s/w tool to extract your win authentication code, tho ive not used one since xp

fdisk WAS the low level formating tool use the win system to get the partition size off your current system disk and use fdisk to create a primary partition of your target disk with the same size.

im on a win10 lappy atm and just tried the fdisk command in a shell window without success so ???? i am officially out of date

[djs]

Oct 15, 2015 19:12:19 GMT phatfil said:

u can get a s/w tool to extract your win authentication code, tho ive not used one since xp

Found it! Going to go the long route... finger's crossed.

Thanks to everyone.

[decoy]

not gone to win 10 yet so cant say
windows is registered to your cpu,mobo and hd it will let you change one with out any probs but 2 or more of them and you have to ring them up to get it fixed so slapping an ssd in there and taking out the old hd is prob the easiest way of making sure you keep everything
ssd,s are good for speeding up certain things ie load up times but it wont make it faster/better at gaming once the game is loaded
ive had ssd for a good few years (£350 for 125 gig anyone lol)but have to say boy are they worth it spesh if you have one of the slower hd,s
250 gig is prob best size to go for as in order to get the benefit from them the progs you want speeding up need to be on the ssd and some games are huge (bf4 is over 80 gig)
windows 8 cold boot up takes about 10 secs on my pc and i hate using other peps pc,s as they have this annoying spinney thing were the mouse pointer should be


i forgot if your on 7 you have to tell windows its a ssd or that might have been vista but i know 8 and 10 are plug and play for them

[djs]

It's happening....

I blagged a 240gb SSD from work (£10 off list) and chucked it in the laptop. Used the original restore disks and am now looking at Windows 7 from 2012.

Seems OK, but I was hoping to bypass the 4 days, 4 hours and 4 minutes of updating Windows 7.... and jump straight to eight TEN!

snooze.... zzzz

[izan]

www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10

Good luck

[djs]

All done.

It looks fairly dreadful. Basically, it kept the old windows 7 desktop appearance and now has overlaid all the Windows 10 bars and fonts.
NO Cortana. Really? - and the reason given (the only reason offered by Microsoft) "you are probably not in the right international zone"... Like UK with UK language is not the right zone. It just hasn't included it, simple as. *maybe there is a patch?*

However, the SSD is running fast, the switches and app opens are fast and the whole thing is slick. It's a 50gb install, no documents or music or photos yet.

Some tweaking to be done.

[Deleted]

How long to get all the updates off win 8.1 bearing in mind this is a new machine djs? Any ideas and it's also installing office with not the best specs on the planet (like hardly any ram and a fossilized processor but it was cheap )