New Laptop to replace Toshiba satellite 660

cepheus

I'm starting to get an occasional hard disc failure warming on my Toshiba 17 inch satellite 660, so perhaps this is a good time to replace it.

Looking at the specifications I'm surprised how little laptops have moved on over the past 4 years. This model is on my short-list however there is a comment which suggests the chip is being underutilised.

Acer Aspire E5-552G Laptop, AMD FX, 8GB RAM, 1TB, 15.6", Grey £379

http://www.ebuyer.com/726168-acer-aspire-e5-573g-laptop-nx-mvmek-011
I'll be using it mainly for Internet, word processing & spreadsheets, not gaming. I usually plug it into a different VDU when at home, so screen might not be that important, but less than 17" when away would annoy me.

Would windows 10 be backwards compatible with most freeware? That worry attracts me to windows 8.

This is Windows 10 but the spec seems impressive for the price

http://www8.hp.com/uk/en/products/laptops/product-detail.html?oid=8904113#!tab=specs

grumpycrab

Apart from the hard disk, is the Toshiba OK? If so, could replace disk (upgrade to SSD is recommended). e.g. make a backup image of existing disk and/or data files. How much existing disk space is used? Could upgrade to 10 (after copying existing disk to SSD) or clean install. (preferred to 8).

cepheus

grumpycrab wrote: »

Apart from the hard disk, is the Toshiba OK? If so, could replace disk (upgrade to SSD is recommended). e.g. make a backup image of existing disk and/or data files. How much existing disk space is used? Could upgrade to 10 (after copying existing disk to SSD) or clean install. (preferred to 8).

The USB sockets are not very secure, the flash drive disconnects if you touch them, but everything else is OK. how much is a replacement SSD? Seems worth considering. I have an image and backup, although only the backup is on a separate drive.

cepheus

Presumably this would fit?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Toshiba-Q300-Internal-SSD-SATA/dp/B011MFGU7S/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1456739054&sr=8-3&keywords=ssd+drives+toshiba

I'm a bit confused what drives are in my computer . It displays around 150 GB for the C drive and 150 GB for the D drive, but if I attempt to back up any of C on D it claims it's the same disc. Is it just a partition?

NiftyDigits

cepheus wrote: »

Presumably this would fit?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Toshiba-Q300-Internal-SSD-SATA/dp/B011MFGU7S/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1456739054&sr=8-3&keywords=ssd+drives+toshiba

I'm a bit confused what drives are in my computer . It displays around 150 GB for the C drive and 150 GB for the D drive, but if I attempt to back up any of C on D it claims it's the same disc. Is it just a partition?

It's a 320GB SATA HDD divided in to two partitions. I wouldn't bother to clone the drive. Better a clean install on to an SSD.

grumpycrab

e.g. 240GB SSD £45
http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/sandisk-240gb-ssd-plus-sata-6gb-s-2-5-solid-state-drive-44-99-dabs-code-b23g9216-2403863
480GB £80
http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/sandisk-480gb-plus-sata-iii-2-5-inch-7mm-ssd-79-99-code-ssd-today-only-2404487
or Amazon (price matched) https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B018X8LB2G/

cepheus

NiftyDigits wrote: »

It's a 320GB SATA HDD divided in to two partitions. I wouldn't bother to clone the drive. Better a clean install on to an SSD.

Where would this clean install come from? I assume a standard backup from my external drive would provide a non clean version. From memory I think in backup there is an 'advanced ' option which offers Toshiba's windows version presumably via the internet. I'm not sure what would happen if the laptop saw a completely blank disc though. Presumably a boot up file would be necessary as well which the bios would detect and lead me through the process? The last time I was given a physical windows disc with a computer was the 98 version!

grumpycrab

cepheus wrote: »

Where would this clean install come from?

"clean install" = remove current hard disk; insert new hard disk (SSD recomended); install W10 from bootable media... many guides, e.g. (using existing W7 key)
http://www.howtogeek.com/224342/how-to-clean-install-windows-10/
(Option One: Create Installation Media and Install Windows from Scratch)