Question Blu ray drives in old laptops?

[consptheory77]

Someone tossed away three laptops because they couldn't get them working, tossed them my way to fix them and keep them if I could, which I did, but I'm wondering whether it is worth it to upgrade them with a (small, cheap) SSD and put in an internal blu ray drive to make them essentially portable blu ray players. One is a Samsung 300E, the other is a Toshiba Satellite C55, and the third laptop is circa 2005, I may not even bother. But I know that drives come in three form factors (7.5mm, 9.5mm and 12.7mm) as long as I match the form factor, is there any other obstacle to compatibility?

 

[consptheory77]

OK, so don't do an "upgrade".
Have you tried a full wipe and clean install of 64bit Win 10?

No, I don't have a Win10 disc, just a Win7 one. It would be an interesting experiment, but I've spent enough time on this already I don't know I want to upset the apple cart enough to find out.

What is the advantage of Win10? Better security, compatibility with current programs, and "support" although I think I'd be hard pressed to ever actually call Microsoft.

But Win7 is good enough, gets the job done, as the laptop's function is merely to function as a 14 inch blu ray player.

 

[USAFRet]

No, I don't have a Win10 disc, just a Win7 one. It would be an interesting experiment, but I've spent enough time on this already I don't know I want to upset the apple cart enough to find out.

What is the advantage of Win10? Better security, compatibility with current programs, and "support" although I think I'd be hard pressed to ever actually call Microsoft.

But Win7 is good enough, gets the job done, as the laptop's function is merely to function as a 14 inch blu ray player.

No more updates for Win 7, incl any security issues.
If these things are ever connected to the internet, that can be a concern.

You can create your own Win 10 USB to try an install, and see what happens.

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

If you know the WIn 7 license key, you can almost certainly activate a brand new Win 10 install with it.

 

[consptheory77]

You can create your own Win 10 USB to try an install, and see what happens.

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

If you know the WIn 7 license key, you can almost certainly activate a brand new Win 10 install with it.

Microsoft seems to say this will work.

Since I've spent all my free time the past few days messing around with this, though, I don't feel like spending more time, but if I try it, I'll let you know what happened.

I'd infer from Microsoft that the present version of Win10 won't install as an upgrade from Win7 without the clean install because (a) it's not really supposed to do so, and (b) the existing partitions from the Win7 install pose a conflict.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...-install/f30cb72b-34f0-433d-9600-41deedcf7c1d

 

[USAFRet]

The actual "free upgrade" period ran out long ago.
It still works.

If it fails, Win 10 will run Unactivated, seemingly forever. There will be a sometimes appearing watermark at bottom right.
I have a Win 10 Pro instance installed in a VM, to test exactly this. Dec 8 2016. 3.5 yrs Unactivated. Still runs just like all my other systems (except for that little watermark).

 

[consptheory77]

The actual "free upgrade" period ran out long ago.
It still works.

If it fails, Win 10 will run Unactivated, seemingly forever. There will be a sometimes appearing watermark at bottom right.
I have a Win 10 Pro instance installed in a VM, to test exactly this. Dec 8 2016. 3.5 yrs Unactivated. Still runs just like all my other systems (except for that little watermark).

Yeah, I forgot that even an unactivated copy will run I think for 30 days without a nag or a watermark or anything. So I did try this using the SSD drive - and guess what? It installs 64bit no problem! System information says it's 64bit! How badly must the original Windows installation been corrupted to insist on such a major error? Windows 10 update, unlike my previous experience, did not take forever to complete, but it did hog the bandwidth. System on Windows 10 still runs a little warmer (at least initially) with the SSD, as it also did with the HDD, I guess the newer operating system just makes more demands on the processor? And with Windows 10, the battery isn't worth even a hour.

On the one hand, I'm inclined to just send the Win7 HDD version to my relative. One the other hand,
while he doesn't have internet, so he's not going to be online, I do want it to be secure if that changes.
Also, he has aides that come and go around the clock, and sometimes the aides steal things, and while a laptop would be a pretty conspicuous thing to steal, I want to take a precaution against that; doesn't Windows 10 have some kind of "lojack" feature?

 

[USAFRet]

Yeah, I forgot that even an unactivated copy will run I think for 30 days without a nag or a watermark or anything. So I did try this using the SSD drive - and guess what? It installs 64bit no problem! System information says it's 64bit! How badly must the original Windows installation been corrupted to insist on such a major error? Windows 10 update, unlike my previous experience, did not take forever to complete, but it did hog the bandwidth. System on Windows 10 still runs a little warmer (at least initially) with the SSD, as it also did with the HDD, I guess the newer operating system just makes more demands on the processor? And with Windows 10, the battery isn't worth even a hour.

On the one hand, I'm inclined to just send the Win7 HDD version to my relative. One the other hand,
while he doesn't have internet, so he's not going to be online, I do want it to be secure if that changes.
Also, he has aides that come and go around the clock, and sometimes the aides steal things, and while a laptop would be a pretty conspicuous thing to steal, I want to take a precaution against that; doesn't Windows 10 have some kind of "lojack" feature?

There is no "30 days" as there used to be. The Unactivated Win 10 restrictions start from Day 1, but it runs seemingly forever.

Battery life? There is no real diff between 7 and 10 for that.

Security?
Well...7 no longer gets any security updates. If a semi-uninformed user goes online with it sometime tin the near future...

I've not heard of any 'lojack' type thing as a part of Win 10.

 

[consptheory77]

I've not heard of any 'lojack' type thing as a part of Win 10.

It's called "Find My Device"

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/11579/microsoft-account-find-and-lock-lost-windows-device

 

[USAFRet]

It's called "Find My Device"

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/11579/microsoft-account-find-and-lock-lost-windows-device

There ya go! I learned something new today...

 

[consptheory77]

Battery life? There is no real diff between 7 and 10 for that.

Of course I've got to remember to turn Bluetooth off, but after doing that, I'm showing about an hour and a half at "best performance", Win 7 had at least a few more hours at the same setting.

https://www.windowstechit.com/18612/windows-10-vs-windows-7-battery-life/

 

[USAFRet]

Of course I've got to remember to turn Bluetooth off, but after doing that, I'm showing about an hour and a half at "best performance", Win 7 had at least a few more hours at the same setting.

https://www.windowstechit.com/18612/windows-10-vs-windows-7-battery-life/

And in my little $200 Asus Transformer (Win 10 Pro), I've gotten 9 hours of continuous movie playing.
Yes, 9 hours.

 

[consptheory77]

Although the system information now says "64 bit OS, x64 architecture", the laptop still won't see all 4GB, and I have tried all the methods here

https://windowsreport.com/windows-10-isnt-using-all-ram/

It isn't that big of a deal, the system is zippy enough, but I'm still wondering what the dynamic is here.