A Worthy Repair for a Mature Laptop?

[Greyhorne]

I've got an HP Laptop with a corrupt install of Vista HP on a failing HD.
HP Support no longer has any restore discs, (not that I even want to restore Vista) and informed me I'm on my own.

The failing original HD

SEAGATE MOMENTUS 5400.4
ST9250827AS
250 GB
5400 rpm
8 MB cache
SATA 2.6, 3.0 Gb/s
512 bytes sector size

The Replacement HD, yet to be installed

SEAGATE MOMENTUS 7200.4
ST9500423AS
500 GB
7200 rpm
16 MB cache
SATA 3.0 Gb/s
512 bytes sector size

I assume I'll still need to return to the HP site to download drivers, but
I'm fed up with all their bundled software, so its just as well there are no restore disks.

My question is should I anticipate any partition issues or compatibility problems with this replacement?

Secondly, I just heard windows 10 will be released next month and will be freely upgradable from Win7 or 8.
I really didn't want to have to buy an old copy of Win8 but any idea if 10 will be able to run on this system?

Thanks!

[ninjaken]

Hi Greyhorne

You should have no issues with your replacement hard drive!

Ok, so you need to purchase an OS, if you choose to go straight to 10 you will have to wait until the installation disk becomes available (probably September) and you may have some hardware compatibility issues.

The route I would take is to install Windows7 sp1 (the least likly to be problematic). First, check that HP have Win7 drivers for your laptop model then purchase an OEM version of 7 with sp1.

This way provides a free upgrade to 10 and, if 10 goes 'belly up', you still have Win7 to fall back on.

[Ensign Tzap]

Originally Posted by ninjaken

You should have no issues with your replacement hard drive!

Maybe not....
But the new hard drive will run hotter.
Thus, it may not last as long, or not very long at all.

Originally Posted by ninjaken

Ok, so you need to purchase an OS, if you choose to go straight to 10 you will have to wait until the installation disk becomes available (probably September) and you may have some hardware compatibility issues.

The route I would take is to install Windows7 sp1 (the least likely to be problematic). First, check that HP have Win7 drivers for your laptop model then purchase an OEM version of 7 with sp1.

This way provides a free upgrade to 10 and, if 10 goes 'belly up', you still have Win7 to fall back on.

I looked at the CPU Spec's of Greyhorne's HP Laptop.
This is a 32bit machine.
I haven't even heard if windows 10 comes in a 32bit version.
So, if your going to replace the OS, go with Win7 32bit version.
Since it is a mature OS, HP will most likely have drivers for it.

Otherwise......
Consider just getting a new Laptop that has Win8 on it, that offers the Windows 10 upgrade when it finally comes out.
And sell or trade in the old HP.


Signed: Ensign Tzap

[ninjaken]

I agree with Ensign Tzap, The replacement drive will run slightly hotter than the original drive and may have a slightly shorter life. Having said that, you get good ones and bad ones, a drive may last for years or fail tomorrow! The main cause of short life and failures in laptops is restricted airflow, as long as they are regularly cleared of dust and fluff and the air vents are not blocked during use problems should be minimised.

According the HP specifications via your shortcut, the processor is a T3200 dual core with 64 bit technology, however, while the specs don't indicate 32 or 64 bit for either hardware or software, the drivers (including the chipset) for the HP Compaq Presario CQ70-120US are for both 32 and 64 bit versions of Win7.

You can check the Windows 10 system requirements here http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/windo...specifications where you will see that you can upgrade both 32 and 64 bit versions of Win7, 8 and 8.1.

[Greyhorne]

Thanks for the replies guys, but upon further review

(I went to the Seagate site for documentation), the sectors of this new 500 Gig drive is 512kb Logical/ 4KB Physical .
Even before this, the consensus seemed to favor getting a new machine.

Think I should return this Hard Drive?

[Ensign Tzap]

Originally Posted by Greyhorne

Thanks for the replies guys, but upon further review

(I went to the Seagate site for documentation), the sectors of this new 500 Gig drive is 512kb Logical/ 4KB Physical .
Even before this, the consensus seemed to favor getting a new machine.

Think I should return this Hard Drive?

If you still have the receipt, then yes.
But you could put it into an External Hard Drive case and use it to backup the hard drive on the laptop.
That way if the laptop goes down.
You still have copies of the important files.

I dug into the system spec's some more, and found a data PDF.
http://static.highspeedbackbone.net/...g_ds_10015.pdf
The Processor is a Dual-Core, and is capable of running in 64bit mode.
But.....
The Bus Speed is only 667Mhz FSB,
and the max supported memory the Mother Board can handle is 3072MB.

This leads me to believe that this is a 32bit machine, running 32bit Vista Home Premium on it.

One way too confirm this is:

1. Open System by clicking the Start button , right-clicking Computer, and then clicking Properties.
2. Under System, you can view the system type.

IMO this laptop would not be a good candidate for Win10.
It is already 7 - 6 years old now, and just getting Win7 to run on it will be a challenge.
So, getting Win10 to run on it will be a nightmare.




Signed: Ensign Tzap

[Greyhorne]

Yeah, I think your right Ensign. It arrived last week, bought it off Amazon.
Never returned anything through the mail like this.
Guess they'll likely charge a restocking fee, and whatever shipping will be.
Maybe I'll think about that enclosure.
They don't typically use full size drives for that?
These laptop drives look so delicate, even with an enclosure around it.

[Greyhorne]

Originally Posted by ninjaken

Hi Greyhorne

You should have no issues with your replacement hard drive!

Ok, so you need to purchase an OS, if you choose to go straight to 10 you will have to wait until the installation disk becomes available (probably September) and you may have some hardware compatibility issues.

The route I would take is to install Windows7 sp1 (the least likly to be problematic). First, check that HP have Win7 drivers for your laptop model then purchase an OEM version of 7 with sp1.

This way provides a free upgrade to 10 and, if 10 goes 'belly up', you still have Win7 to fall back on.

Thanks Ninjaken,

I'm still considering that, the feat apparently entails partitioning this drive to sectors divisible by 8 for some new standard they've changed to now.

[ninjaken]

Thanks Greyhorn,

I've had a look at the specs for both your new and old drives both are configured with 512 Bytes per sector, there is no need to worry, just let the windows installation do the work.

It may be helpful for you to know that I have an HP laptop of similar age to yours (mine is 7-8 years old) and has a slightly lesser spec.
It is a Compaq nx7300, It came preinstalled with 32bit Vista Business but also had options for 64bit Business and Enterprise versions. The processor is a T5500 dual core @1.66GHz - 677MHz FSB and it has 2GB of ram installed (shipped with 1GB ram). I installed 32 bit Win7Pro on it 3 or 4 four years ago, it was a perfectly normal and problem free intallation, and after downloading and installing drivers from HP and receiving all updates from Microsoft, in my opinion, 7 proved to be a far better OS than Vista on this machine.