Help Resurrect An Old Laptop

Redgun71

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Help needed!!!

I've got an old laptop (HP DV5 1012EA 32 bit) and thinking of bringing it back to life.
I'm thinking of upgrading the RAM from 4GB to 8GB and installing a 500GB SSD as the hard drive died on me in 2012.
What concerns me is all the firmware/updates and BIOS as I cannot clone the original hard disk, also installing a Windows 10 (it came with Windows Vista and I upgraded it to Windows 7 Home Premium of which I still have the box and discs).

I'm currently studying IT Essentials v7 so know the basics around the computer, but...

1) How hard is this task?
2) What would I need to do regarding BIOS and system files?
3) I would prefer Windows OS, would that mean I would have to purchase Windows 10?
4) Is there any other problem/issue that I have missed out?

Thanks
 
1) Dead easy
2) Only upgrade the bios if you encounter problems later, forget the system files, they died with your hard disk.
3) You can use your disk to install win 7 and then use the win 7 key to upgrade it to win 10
4) Probably not
 
Thanks 👍

I've just found the system recovery DVD and Application & Driver Recovery CD.

I take it once the RAM modules and SSD is installed, I should do the following...

1) I turn on the laptop and go into settings to select boot from the optical drive.
2) Stick in the System Recovery DVD, restart the laptop and await install process.
3) After system recovery process is over stick in the application & driver CD.
4) After application & driver process is over change the boot sequence back to SSD.
5) Restart the laptop and upgrade to Windows 7.
6) Upgrade to Windows 10.
 
Go straight to step 5 Redgun. You can't do a system recovery as your original hard disk is toast.
 
Thank you for your replies, the project is on hold at the moment as I have a lot on my plate at the moment, but I will let you know how I get on when I start this project.

Once again thank you!
 
Hello everyone,

I've ordered and received my SSD (SanDisk Ultra 3D 500GB), but I don't have my old HDD, the SSD does fit into the drive space length wise, but there is a bit of space width wise (a little side to side movement).
1) Should I/do I need to buy a bracket for the SSD?

As this is an old 32 bit laptop, now thinking of just installing Linux O/S as I don't think it will handle Windows 10 too well, but undecided of which version of Linux I should install.
2a) Can my laptop handle Windows 10 or should I install Linux Mint or Linux XFCE?
2b) Whatever O/S I put on this laptop I will load VM box on it and 2 O/S for proof of course work (part of ITE v7) i.e. Windows 10 and iOS or Linux.

Thanks
 
If you upgraded to 4 gig of ram it should run windows 10 32 ok.
Just re read op, it should work with 4 gig 8 gig even better.

If you can I would go for an LTSC version of windows 10 without all the bloat.
 
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Any linux should be fine
never mind the spec details regarding Win10 have run it on an old dell latitude with 1 gig ram & cpu 1.5 lol
personally hate Win 10 but i do have a backup lappy with LTSC
Note: Windows will be stopping support soon on x32 Win 10
Linux probably best option
 
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I have a fairly modern Windows laptop (2013) 64 bit, Core i5 4200U and 8GB RAM, but still had my old one and thought I fixed it/upgrade it.
The upgrading of the RAM has been on and off, finding it hard to get 2 x 4GB DDR2 modules, some prices I have seen around £100, so don't think it is worth it and that's why I'm looking at Linux O/S as I know it is less resource hungry.
 
You don't need a lot of ram to run Windows 10 like alimac said, I've installed it on the young one's laptop's with duelcore and 2 gig of ddr2 and it works fine for office and browsing the net. However it depends what you plan to run on it and do.
 
With your ssd fit issue, just use some self adhesive foam shims each side of the ssd case to hold it in place or even a double sided adhesive tape / pad attached to underside of the ssd case.
 
Update.

I installed the SSD with no problem, because it's a SSD I didn't bother with a bracket or the foams (was thinking of using draught excluder tape).
Downloaded Linux Mint via torrent as it is mentioned that you should verify the ISO believing that was the best way to do it, then I mounted it on a USB stick using Etcher and put into the old laptop, the loading page came up and then a minute later about 10 error messages came up.

[16. 114676] usb 1-3: device descriptor read/64, error -110 (x 2 ending 110 (starting numbers were different))
[32. 126672] usb 1-3: device descriptor read/64, error -71 (x 8 ending 71 (starting numbers were different))
[34. 114685] usb usb1-port3: unable to enumerate usb device
[34. 547316] usb 4-1: device descriptor read/64, error -71
BusyBox v1.27.2 (Ubuntu 1:1.27.2-2ubuntu3.2) built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.
(initramfs) Unable to find a medium containing a live file system.

So I restarted the laptop and used a different USB port, after trying 3 different ports, I thought the ISO file from the torrent site might have been corrupted, so decided to download from the University of Kent and used Etcher again. Same problem.
I then chose to mount the ISO via pendrivelinux and again same result.
As a last resort, I decided to mount the ISO and boot the old way via a DVD and it worked, although it is a bit slower using Linux via DVD instead of a USB stick I was happy with the OS so I installed it on the SSD. I found it very strange that Etcher and pendrivelinux didn't have the option of mounting the ISO onto a CD/DVD only via USB, I did via Nero, later I found out Windows 10 has a program to do this as well.
If I had the patience to do this again, I would probably install Windows 7 first and then Linux to have a dual OS, but I have installed Virtual Box so sort of have that choice now as well as any other OS i.e. Android and iOS.

Thanks for all your help/input.
 
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