Will 7 work?

[mknabster]

I'm looking to upgrade all of the PCs in my house with Windows 7, especially since the IT place I work at is all Windows 7, no matter how old the machines are, I was hoping it might work for mine too. Ok here's the readout of what we have:

Dell Dimension E410
2.8ghz Pentium 4 HT, 2GB RAM, Intel 910GL 128mb, 160GB HDD

Dell Latitude D410
2.13ghz Pentium M, 2GB RAM, Intel GMA 915 128Mb, 80GB HDD

Dell Inspiron 5100
2.4ghz Pentium 4, 1GB RAM, 16mb ATI Radeon 7500, 80GB HDD

So far, I have tried booting the Inspiron off the Windows 7 disc, and it won't even recognize the DVD for some reason, so I guess that's out of the question. Mine doesn;t support USB devices either, even though the BIOS says otherwise . But I know Windows 7 has built in drivers some i'm hoping the desktop won't have an issue, but the laptop, i'm not so sure of, even though we don't have any issues at work with them. Any opinions? Thanks

 

[clifford_cooley]

Hi mknabster - Welcome to w7forums

As much as I would love to sell another copy of Windows 7, I would not advise anyone to upgrade those machines to Windows 7. The graphical performance alone would handicap Windows Aero and in my opinion make the OS look pathetic compared to what is already installed. You have borderline CPU and adequate Memory to run Windows 7 but Windows 7 requires better graphics to function without disabling Windows Aero.

While Windows Aero is not needed, I can't get passed how disabling Windows Aero makes the OS look more like Windows 95 than any OS you maybe upgrading from (assuming your OS is not Win95). I know that visual effects is not the only reason to upgrade but it is the most noticeable of all upgrades.

 

[mknabster]

Thanks for the welcome, yea I know these machine are a bit old but none of them are used for gaming or anything graphics intensive. I have a Mac which I run Windows 7 via Bootcamp and that's what I do all my work on. These other machines have their uses, mainly because my father doesn't want to spend any new money on a newer machine which could bring all of these into one, but that's up to him, I just maintain them. I actually found out a way to put 7 on the Inspiron, so it'll be interesting how it'll react in the computer. I'll keep you posted on the results. Thanks

 

[TrainableMan]

55 GB is about the bare minimum to hold the W7 OS and settings, that won't leave you any room for a pagefile and temporary files and still store data. Also 2GB RAM is the minimum recommended for a 64bit OS so the Inspiron should be 32-bit.

Frankly the HD size and speed will not be great for W7. Personally I would NOT recommend upgrading but instead suggest you wait for new hardware to run W7.

You may also have other issues such as printers that are not supported or old software that may not work on W7. You should always download and install the W7 Upgrade Advisor on all machines where you are considering installing W7, prior to purchasing W7.

 

[mknabster]

No way 55GBs is needed for installation, my machine took up 18GBs after everything was installed for Ultimate. Again, these 3 each have their individual uses, and frankly, i'm getting tired of dealing with XP, since that alone doesn't last very long until needing to be blown away (roughly 6 months). But 7 seems to run the best, and the devices i have hooked up are compatible with 7, so that's no issue.

 

[clifford_cooley]

Each machine could be upgraded for about the same cost as the OS.

• Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit 1-Pack - OEM
• ASRock G31M-S R2.0 LGA 775 Intel G31 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
• Intel Celeron E3400 Wolfdale 2.6GHz 1MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor BX80571E3400
• Team Elite 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Desktop Memory Model TEDD2048M800C6

Cost for the upgrade:

• Motherboard - $40.99
• CPU - $49.99
• Memory - $26.99

Totaling - $117.97
Windows 7 Pro OEM - 129.99

The OS itself cost more than a hardware upgrade to support the OS.
You did mention Windows 7 Ultimate which cost even more than the version I listed above.

 

[clifford_cooley]

I just remembered that Dell used BTX instead of the ATX form factor. The upgrade could cost more if your computers have this BTX form factor for it's motherbaord.

 

[TrainableMan]

No way 55GBs is needed for installation

Not just the OS, but all my programs installed like MS office etc; I wouldn't have any room left for data.

You can try it if you like but as I said, check with the upgrade advisor. You may be frustrated with XP but I don't thik you will be happier with those old machines and W7.

 

[catilley1092]

I had a quad boot (Win 2K, XP Media Center, Vista Ultimate & 7 Home Basic) all on a 100GB (93GB usable) Dell notebook. And there was a VM with Mint 9 installed within Vista. Vista actually needed the most room out of the 4 OS's, before the VM was installed.

2K ran on 8GB, XP on 22GB, Vista on 35GB, and the rest (28GB) went to 7. And I had enough programs installed for all OS's to function properly.

Many notebook users upgrades to a 64GB SSD, and that's the only HDD on the system. Believe me, it's plenty of space to run Win 7 on, even with Office 2010 installed.

Thing is, the standard for today's HDD's has became TB's, rather than GB's, at the expense of quality. There's a 50/50 chance that when one of these 1TB+ size HDD's are purchased, it will be RMA'd within a year, if it's not DOA when it arrives at your doorstep.

But when a computer is purchased, these HDD's tend to have fewer problems than aftermarket ones do. I've yet to buy a computer with a DOA HDD, even a used computer. Nor have I had one less than 3 years old go bad on me. However, out of 5 aftermarket HDD's that I've purchased, 3 has had to be RMA'd over one thing or another, usually excessive vibration, heat or noise. All were 750GB are larger.

However, there's one notable issue here, and that's older computers & Windows 7. I've done it 3 times, and wasn't totally happy with the results. The only way that I could attain a good Win 7 screen was with Home Basic, which I obtained through my former TechNet membership. Without the Aero screen, 7 doesn't really look good. In fact, Windows 2000 looked better on the notebooks, I guess in part because they were designed to run 2K/XP.

So are the 3 computers listed above.

Cat

 

[TrainableMan]

Thing is, the standard for today's HDD's has became TB's, rather than GB's, at the expense of quality. There's a 50/50 chance that when one of these 1TB+ size HDD's are purchased, it will be RMA'd within a year, if it's not DOA when it arrives at your doorstep.

But when a computer is purchased, these HDD's tend to have fewer problems than aftermarket ones do. I've yet to buy a computer with a DOA HDD, even a used computer. Nor have I had one less than 3 years old go bad on me. However, out of 5 aftermarket HDD's that I've purchased, 3 has had to be RMA'd over one thing or another, usually excessive vibration, heat or noise. All were 750GB are larger.

I'd say you've had bad luck. In 15 years I've only had 2 HDs fail on me and both were after several years of use.


As for size I checked and most of mine is data:
My C:\Windows folder tree is 22GB, my 32-bit programs take 10GB, my 64-bit only 2GB, and my pagefile is 3GB
so size-wise that's only 37GB which would fit to your limitations

but my music is 8GB, my downloads folder (programs/games/tools to try out) is 132GB, and my videos take 560GB which ends up filling most of my 1TB drive. Then I also maintain a 1TB back-up drive.

Even so I think you will be disappointed over running XP on such old hardware.

 

[Nibiru2012]

Thing is, the standard for today's HDD's has became TB's, rather than GB's, at the expense of quality. There's a 50/50 chance that when one of these 1TB+ size HDD's are purchased, it will be RMA'd within a year, if it's not DOA when it arrives at your doorstep.

That statement is TOTALLY disingenuous! Just because you had an issue with one hard drive, you generalize and automatically assume that ALL 1TB and larger drives will cause issues.

Please don't assume such things, because you'll be shown to be wrong time and time again.

I have had a Samsung 1TB HDD for about a year now and it's rock solid. Just bought another one two weeks ago for $59 w/free shipping. I now possess 3TB of external storage plus my 60GB SSD.

You must have really bad luck with hard drives! I have never had a hard drive arrive DOA ever. Only had two crash and burn on me of the twenty I've purchased in the last 11 years. Both of those were not mainline maker drives either.

 

[catilley1092]

It wasn't just 1 HDD, it was 3, as I stated in my post. The other 2 were fine.

But out of those 3 that needed to be RMA'd, all were WD's. The Samsung that I bought last year (the same that you & TM bought) is fine & the Seagate is too.

It's not just me, a quick look on Newegg will reveal the number of complaints about WD's HDD's. For example, this is one that I was considering purchasing, since it had a good price, and my 1TB Caviar Black is filling up. I need more space for backups. Check out the ratings.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136513

Cat

 

[TrainableMan]

Well I would say it's a similar deal to the Windows Updates not working ... for most people HDs work just fine but for the small percentage that don't, they do tend to yell/complain the most and it's no consolation to them that it works for "most" people. But I do believe the failure rate is generally low and your bad experience is not the norm.

How HDs are used can also be a factor in their demise; a running HD should not be moved, so laptops or external HDs should be shut down before being moved. A twisting motion could put unusual torques on the platters and I wouldn't be surprised if it could cause a head crash.

 

[catilley1092]

These were all desktop HDD's, and one was only a backup drive that I bought at Wal Mart. It went bad after only a couple of backups were made on it.

Hopefully, my next purchase will turn out better. I want one of those Seagate hybrid HDD's for my notebook. But I'll have to wait until next year, it's under factory warranty for 1 year, and if the stock components are upgraded/replaced by anyone unauthorized by MSI, the warranty is considered null & void.

For now, it's OK. The HDD that I want costs $99, so that gives me plenty of time to save for it.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148591

Cat

 

[Nibiru2012]

Well then, I would stay away from Western Digital HDDs then if I were you. Once burned, twice shy I always say.

Bad hard drives from Newegg has been an issue with some buyers because of the way Newegg used to ship the drive in a larger box and it would slide and flop around in the box.

All my Samsung HDDs I bought on eBay for very good prices, and they were shipped to me in the smallest USPS Priority Mail shipping carton they could fit in, which means not much bigger than the drive itself. However they were packed with about a 1/2" of bubble wrap around them. Since the drive head parks itself into a locked position when powered off, there was no issue of problems.

Eventually in the next few years, I would say about 4-6 or so, the main drives will be SSD units and most will use spinners for storage purposes only.

 

[Mychael]

I've only ever returned one WD drive of the many I've purchased over the years and even that one had not failed but it's SMART monitoring score had dropped off by nearly 50% in only a month of use so the I was able to get a return on it.
Only ever had one drive suffer a spindle/platter/bearing failure and that was so long ago I cant even recall the brand but it was in the 20 gig drive days.
My two velociraptors after 5 yrs of use began to fail within weeks of each other and it only showed up by random system errors, I think the drives logic board must have been failing.
Get an old dead drive and try to phyisally destroy it, you might dent the case but they are amazingly robust.

 

[catilley1092]

I believe that most of my bad luck had to do with Newegg's shipping of the drives. Mine (both) arrived in more or less a shiny potato chip wrapper with a plastic air filled bag around it, with a handful of foam peanuts, but it wasn't secure. One of the boxes was beat up badly, the other had a hole in it. Both times, I wasn't here, and the UPS driver left them at my front door. Not outdoors, there's a main front door, inside there is a foyer, where the entrances to both apartments are (a duplex).

The Samsung that I bought from them was enclosed within a solid plastic case, and it was a cardboard sleeve around it to keep it from moving around.

However, when WD replaced the drives, they weren't shipped this way at all. They were in a small box, with solid plastic end caps on each end of the drive to secure it. These drives are still in use, and I've had no further problems with them. In fact, the 750GB Caviar Black was replaced with a 1TB one, I guess for my troubles.

Wal Mart replaced the defective one that I bought from them, I simply returned it to the store with my receipt, and it was swapped, with no problem. It still works fine.

It's my opinion that it was how it was packaged & shipped was the problem. I would gladly pay an extra $5 to $10 for premium packaging, depending on the size of the item, if that option were available. Newegg would make even more money by offering that option.

Cat