Please Advice - Windows 7 or 10?

[amalsk]

Hello guys!

I am not sure if this is the right section for posting this issue. If it isn’t, I apologize in advance.

I bought a new SSD for my old Toshiba Laptop since its stock HDD is about to fail, according to HD Sentinel and CrystalDiskInfo. They both say I have 176 reallocated sectors on my HDD and the drive health according to HD Sentinel is 23%.

My PC Specs are as follows: https://i.imgur.com/5iWwfDo.jpg
I’ve got a couple of questions if anyone can help me out in this regard:

1.      Which Windows OS is suitable for my laptop right now? It currently has Windows 7 x64 and runs fine for me since I don’t open more than 5-6 tabs at a time on chrome. I would like to install Windows 10 but I’m not sure if my laptop would run it like the Windows 7. My intention is to use this laptop for at least 2-3 years for basic use if all goes well. I am also planning a Ram upgrade to a total of 8GB since it has only 3GB installed, but it might take at least a month more due to the current pandemic.

2.      Will the drivers of my laptop be available on Windows 10? I heard the support for older laptops are less on Windows 10.

3.      Which version is lighter for my PC, Home or Pro? Which should I go for?

4.      As I mentioned earlier, is 176 bad sectors really bad for my HDD? How long do I have until it dies, to backup the data?

Thanks a ton in advance for helping me out.

Regards.

[Nick H. Supervisor]

5 minutes ago, amalsk said:

Hello guys!

I am not sure if this is the right section for posting this issue. If it isn’t, I apologize in advance.

I bought a new SSD for my old Toshiba Laptop since its stock HDD is about to fail, according to HD Sentinel and CrystalDiskInfo. They both say I have 176 reallocated sectors on my HDD and the drive health according to HD Sentinel is 23%.

My PC Specs are as follows: https://i.imgur.com/5iWwfDo.jpg
I’ve got a couple of questions if anyone can help me out in this regard:

1.      Which Windows OS is suitable for my laptop right now? It currently has Windows 7 x64 and runs fine for me since I don’t open more than 5-6 tabs at a time on chrome. I would like to install Windows 10 but I’m not sure if my laptop would run it like the Windows 7. My intention is to use this laptop for at least 2-3 years for basic use if all goes well. I am also planning a Ram upgrade to a total of 8GB since it has only 3GB installed, but it might take at least a month more due to the current pandemic.

2.      Will the drivers of my laptop be available on Windows 10? I heard the support for older laptops are less on Windows 10.

3.      Which version is lighter for my PC, Home or Pro? Which should I go for?

4.      As I mentioned earlier, is 176 bad sectors really bad for my HDD? How long do I have until it dies, to backup the data?

Thanks a ton in advance for helping me out.

Regards.

You'll want to move to Windows 10 if you want updates and support. It should be fine, although I would also recommend upgrading your RAM soon. I haven't heard of any issues with driver support, but I could be wrong. I don't know about the differences between Home and Pro for performance, but if I had to hazard a guess I would say that you only need Home. Pro will come with various features that you probably won't use, and I guess they could end up bogging down the system more than is necessary.

 

With regards to the HDD, I would be a bit worried about its health being at 23%. I would back up the data as soon as you can, especially if there is anything really important. With that said, you should be creating a backup of that kind of data anyway.

[freedonX]

Wow that is a 9-10 year old machine

About the HDD sectors, I really don;'t know but switching to a SSD is a very wise decision. Just make sure that machine supports the SSD you are looking into.

I wouldn't bother with the ram. At this rate, it'll be expensive getting that amount of ram (is it DDR3? I assume ) . 

You're better off buying a used laptop (around 2015 era) when the time comes. The SSD you plan to use right now, you'll be able to switch it to another laptop later. Though if you REALLY want to be using it for another 2-3 years, more ram would be nice, but consider the machine will be 12-13 years old. It's like having a Dual Core right now

[+devHead Subscriber²]

Windows 10 - frankly, it will probably run better than Windows 7 on the same hardware.  Why would you want to use such an old operating system?  

[techbeck]

Win10

 

Increase memory to at least 8gb...get an SSD drive.  My parents have an older HP Desktop with an i3 and it runs pretty good.  Little slow here and there but you are limited by the processor at this point.  But it is good enough for them considering they just use Office, email, and web browsing.  Nothing that requires a really powerful machine.

[amalsk]

6 minutes ago, Nick H. said:

You'll want to move to Windows 10 if you want updates and support. It should be fine, although I would also recommend upgrading your RAM soon. I haven't heard of any issues with driver support, but I could be wrong. I don't know about the differences between Home and Pro for performance, but if I had to hazard a guess I would say that you only need Home. Pro will come with various features that you probably won't use, and I guess they could end up bogging down the system more than is necessary.

 

With regards to the HDD, I would be a bit worried about its health being at 23%. I would back up the data as soon as you can, especially if there is anything really important. With that said, you should be creating a backup of that kind of data anyway.

Actually I will be updating the OS once I have installed it, and am not planning to do it again as I had issues with previously updating Windows...like I couldn't use the PC just when I wanted due to it setting up and configuring the updates - which might've been due to HDD. But nonetheless, updates are only done by me initially. So if it is Windows 10, Home or LTSC is enough right? I heard LTSC has a lot of bloatware removed?

Also I shall be backing up the data tomorrow itself.  

Thank you so much!  

 

6 minutes ago, freedonX said:

Wow that is a 9-10 year old machine

About the HDD sectors, I really don;'t know but switching to a SSD is a very wise decision. Just make sure that machine supports the SSD you are looking into.

I wouldn't bother with the ram. At this rate, it'll be expensive getting that amount of ram.

You're better off buying a used laptop (around 2015 era) when the time comes. The SSD you plan to use right now, you'll be able to switch it to another laptop later

It led me through all my tough times and it is reliable(hopefully) which is why I bought an SSD. I shall be upgrading the RAM as well. It is cheaper in my place, so that I can use it for a minimum of 2 more years...you know.  

[amalsk]

1 minute ago, devHead said:

Windows 10 - frankly, it will probably run better than Windows 7 on the same hardware.  Why would you want to use such an old operating system?  

Oh, because I heard it runs smoothly on my hardware and is less bloated than the 10 with Cortana and Store and so many things which I don't really need/use.  But then since the OS is officially dead, thought of changing to 10.

 

2 minutes ago, techbeck said:

Increase memory to at least 8gb...get an SSD drive.  My parents have an older HP Desktop with an i3 and it runs pretty good.  Little slow here and there but you are limited by the processor at this point.  But it is good enough for them considering they just use Office, email, and web browsing.  Nothing that requires a really powerful machine.

Got the WD Blue SSD, need to backup previous data and do a fresh install on it. I only have the same use as your parents....and I don't game as well. I mean who would game on this old system?  

[Brandon H Supervisor]

hello amalsk

 

a couple things on your last 2 posts.

 

1. officially the LTSC builds are only offered to businesses. I don't think you can officially get it for a personal PC.

 

2. Cortana is slowly being stripped from windows 10 so if you don't enable it during initial install then it shouldn't cause any bloat. Similar thing with the store; it's just kind of there, if you don't use it then it doesn't really use any extra resources.

 

SSD is a must on any older PC (heck I wouldn't get a new PC without one anymore personally; improved boot times alone make SSDs essential to me) and if you can get RAM at a reasonable price then I say go for it 🙂

[amalsk]

15 minutes ago, Brandon H said:

hello amalsk

 

a couple things on your last 2 posts.

 

1. officially the LTSC builds are only offered to businesses. I don't think you can officially get it for a personal PC.

 

2. Cortana is slowly being stripped from windows 10 so if you don't enable it during initial install then it shouldn't cause any bloat. Similar thing with the store; it's just kind of there, if you don't use it then it doesn't really use any extra resources.

 

SSD is a must on any older PC (heck I wouldn't get a new PC without one anymore personally; improved boot times alone make SSDs essential to me) and if you can get RAM at a reasonable price then I say go for it 🙂

My friend seems to have a copy he downloaded from the internet...I presume un-officially so I'm not sure if I should go with it. But then he has it on one of his systems and said I could install it myself. If not, I could go with Win 10 home.

Only thing I worry is the drivers support.

 

Thanks again

[+Warwagon MVC]

26 minutes ago, Brandon H said:

SSD is a must on any older PC (heck I wouldn't get a new PC without one anymore personally; improved boot times alone make SSDs essential to me) and if you can get RAM at a reasonable price then I say go for it 🙂

Just had a guy call me about helping setup his new iMac. I wasn't consulted when purchasing it so it has a 5400 rpm 1TB hard drive ..ewww.

[techbeck]

1 minute ago, warwagon said:

Just had a guy call me about helping setup his new iMac. I wasn't consulted when purchasing it so it has a 5400 rpm 1TB hard drive ..ewww.

New to him?  Or brand new?

[Brandon H Supervisor]

28 minutes ago, amalsk said:

My friend seems to have a copy he downloaded from the internet...I presume un-officially so I'm not sure if I should go with it. But then he has it on one of his systems and said I could install it myself. If not, I could go with Win 10 home.

Only thing I worry is the drivers support.

 

Thanks again

Oh don't get me wrong; it technically works still but I think it's written in the EULA or something that it's meant for small/large businesses.

Microsoft doesn't provide the LTSC ISOs for personal keys, as far as I'm aware, so that ISO may have been acquired through illicit means.

 

It's up to you if that truly matters or not. I'm just letting you know 🙂

[+Warwagon MVC]

50 minutes ago, techbeck said:

New to him?  Or brand new?

Brand new

[techbeck]

4 minutes ago, warwagon said:

Brand new

wow....can't believe Apple is still providing 5400 HDs.   They should be eliminated everywhere.

[+Warwagon MVC]

1 minute ago, techbeck said:

wow....can't believe Apple is still providing 5400 HDs.   They should be eliminated everywhere.

Yep my inner soul cried

[amalsk]

35 minutes ago, Brandon H said:

Oh don't get me wrong; it technically works still but I think it's written in the EULA or something that it's meant for small/large businesses.

Microsoft doesn't provide the LTSC ISOs for personal keys, as far as I'm aware, so that ISO may have been acquired through illicit means.

 

It's up to you if that truly matters or not. I'm just letting you know 🙂

Only thing I'm afraid is the driver support for my laptop, especially the graphics drivers since I read that there isn't any for Windows 10. That is kind of a bummer  

[Brandon H Supervisor]

5 minutes ago, amalsk said:

Only thing I'm afraid is the driver support for my laptop, especially the graphics drivers since I read that there isn't any for Windows 10. That is kind of a bummer  

if there are no updated OEM drivers then Windows 10 should use a generic graphic driver. since you don't intend to game on it this shouldn't present any issue.

 

If you're worried then when you get your SSD I'd install windows 10 fresh on it leaving the current drive intact to verify everything is working and if you're satisfied then you can move your files over from your other drive at that point 🙂 

[PGHammer]

I'm down to one pre-10-era (as in it originally shipped with Windows 7) laptop/notebook; like the others, it is (or was before it finally croaked) running Windows 10 (in fact, it is running Windows 10 Pro for Workstations - because it is being used as a LAN management workstation - with a wired connection to my downstairs router). (It replaced my only Core i3 notebook in the role; despite it being woefully underequipped by comparison; 100 mbps and AMD Turion.)

 

I have found Windows 10 a solid life-extender for Windows 7-era hardware - both desktops and portables alike; however, that is NOT a new premise out of me (I certainly posted enough on it in the Read-Only archive AND the Windows Insider threads on exactly that).

[techbeck]

17 minutes ago, amalsk said:

Only thing I'm afraid is the driver support for my laptop, especially the graphics drivers since I read that there isn't any for Windows 10. That is kind of a bummer  

Wouldn't worry to much about it.  Also, drivers for Win8/Vista may work as well.  When Win10 came out, I could not find drivers for some systems so I used the Win8 ones.  May have to manually go in to the device manager, choose update, and then browse to the folder you DLed/extracted the driver files to.  I loaded Win10 on a Netbook, yes, you heard that correctly, before and it found all the drivers for that.

[erpster3]

1 hour ago, amalsk said:

 If not, I could go with Win 10 home.

 

 

go with Win10 PRO whenever possible (even though Pro costs a little more than Home) since Pro has group policies that allow controlling & deferring updates, including deferring feature updates.

hard to control updates on Win10 Home w/out the use of third party apps like windows update minitool, wumgr or stopupdates10

[Mockingbird]

Microsoft unofficially still allows you to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10 for free.

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2020/02/04/how-to-upgrade-to-windows-10-for-free-in-2020/#6bcf1d7d75ff

 

https://www.zdnet.com/article/heres-how-you-can-still-get-a-free-windows-10-upgrade/

 

First, you need clone your Windows 7 drive from your old hard drive to your new SSD.

 

Then, you can upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10 and have an activated copy of Windows 10.

[Circaflex]

3 hours ago, Mockingbird said:

Microsoft unofficially still allows you to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10 for free.

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2020/02/04/how-to-upgrade-to-windows-10-for-free-in-2020/#6bcf1d7d75ff

 

https://www.zdnet.com/article/heres-how-you-can-still-get-a-free-windows-10-upgrade/

 

First, you need clone your Windows 7 drive from your old hard drive to your new SSD.

 

Then, you can upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10 and have an activated copy of Windows 10.

Or alternatively, you can activate using the key on the side of the computer case, or if you have the original install media with the product key.

[amalsk]

12 hours ago, Brandon H said:

if there are no updated OEM drivers then Windows 10 should use a generic graphic driver. since you don't intend to game on it this shouldn't present any issue.

 

If you're worried then when you get your SSD I'd install windows 10 fresh on it leaving the current drive intact to verify everything is working and if you're satisfied then you can move your files over from your other drive at that point 🙂 

Hello again

This is the link I found about my graphics drivers officially from AMD - https://www.amd.com/en/support/graphics/amd-radeon-hd/ati-mobility-radeon-hd-5000-series/ati-mobility-radeon-hd-5470

I'm still not sure if it would work, but it's worth a try...just as you said. True that I would never feel like gaming on this machine, haha. Still it has a dedicated tiny graphics card which I would like to utilize....But I'd still prefer installing 7 as it has all my drivers, moreover I wouldn't be updating the OS once it's installed. All I want is to install either of the one, 7 or 10...whichever works for me and then continue to use it for as long as it gives me. I wouldn't prefer going with 10, finding that it wouldn't support my drivers or is way too slow for me, then doing a fresh install of 7 on the SSD. I mean I want to avoid the trial and error method, but that is the only option it seems for me eh?  

As for my current HDD, I can use it for 70 days or so according to the HD Sentinel. I'm in the process of organizing and migrating my data to external HDD. Let's see how it goes.

 

Thanks again for all your help. 

 

12 hours ago, erpster3 said:

 

go with Win10 PRO whenever possible (even though Pro costs a little more than Home) since Pro has group policies that allow controlling & deferring updates, including deferring feature updates.

hard to control updates on Win10 Home w/out the use of third party apps like windows update minitool, wumgr or stopupdates10

I thought Windows allowed all editions to pause the updates, like the 2004 version onwards? Maybe I was wrong. I would never update windows because I had issues earlier and only want to use the system for basic purposes, is it better to go with the LTSC version if that's the case?

12 hours ago, Mockingbird said:

Microsoft unofficially still allows you to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10 for free.

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2020/02/04/how-to-upgrade-to-windows-10-for-free-in-2020/#6bcf1d7d75ff

 

https://www.zdnet.com/article/heres-how-you-can-still-get-a-free-windows-10-upgrade/

 

First, you need clone your Windows 7 drive from your old hard drive to your new SSD.

 

Then, you can upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10 and have an activated copy of Windows 10.

Cloning wouldn't be a good idea for me as there are a lot of junk that I don't want on my new SSD. I've installed a lot of softwares during the last 2 years utilizing the drive to the maximum...and it has accumulated a lot of broken and unwanted files which I wouldn't want. That's why I wanna go with the fresh install.  

8 hours ago, Circaflex said:

Or alternatively, you can activate using the key on the side of the computer case, or if you have the original install media with the product key.

I do have the original OEM product key saved on my GDrive if it would help in any way, but it's for the Win 7 Home Premium x64. Can you upgrade to Win 10 directly with that product key? 

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

One thing to keep in mind is that Toshiba has exited the laptop business, selling it off to Sharp.  Because of this, it is possible that downloads for it may eventually disappear.  You may wish to download any device drivers, BIOS updates, documentation and any other files specific to your laptop, make one (or more) copies, and store them in a safe location, in case you ever need them for some reason.

 

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

[n_K]

If you're just using it for basic use and worried about performance and security, is it worth chucking a lightweight linux disto on it instead? You can get the old AMD drivers working with the latest kernels, you get security, you can have less bloat than windows 10's default and it should run good on that hardware. If all you need it for is things like chrome then you're covered for applications