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  #1  
Old 07-27-2011, 03:03 PM
TheDon's Avatar
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Old Laptop suggestions

So I was bored and dug out my old laptop to see what I can do with it. I started it and it works perfectly. I replaced it with a dell 3 years ago.

It has XP which is nice and a pentium 4, 50 gig hard drive, etc.

I need to get all of my old music out of itunes and put the music I am missing back into my library. As well as my photos.

Then wipe it clean and I want a complete and total wipe and have XP fresh so I can replace the crappy family computer with this not so crappy laptop.

any help, links on what to do would be great.

I should be able to transfer via ethrenet correct? I've never done that before.

I was toying with putting linux on it but Winders should work fine. I might actually need to update it to 7 if this thing can handle it


nevermind.. I need at least a gig of ram and it has 504 mb. and 16 gigs of hard drive space.. jeeze 7 is a pig.

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  #2  
Old 07-27-2011, 03:05 PM
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Turn it into a Scanner and Dyno.

http://www.nology.com/laptopdyno.html
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  #3  
Old 07-27-2011, 03:23 PM
TheDon's Avatar
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TX76513 View Post
Turn it into a Scanner and Dyno.

http://www.nology.com/laptopdyno.html
nothing I own uses OBDII.......
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  #4  
Old 07-27-2011, 03:49 PM
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Clay pigeon substitute?

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  #5  
Old 07-27-2011, 03:52 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TX76513 View Post
Turn it into a Scanner and Dyno.

http://www.nology.com/laptopdyno.html
Alero gone?
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  #6  
Old 07-27-2011, 03:59 PM
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Doing it via the ethernet is not a problem, just need to turn file sharing on and make sure they're all on the same workgroup. It will probably take a lot longer than just throwing it on an external drive though. I toyed with all that stuff a couple years ago with an old laptop...ended up throwing it out as it was outdated and I have plenty of other gadgets. Sadly it worked fine, I suspect a lot of computers and laptops are tossed simply for being slightly obsolete
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  #7  
Old 07-27-2011, 04:32 PM
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I would make a ghost copy to something else before I started anything...
Just in case....
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  #8  
Old 07-27-2011, 04:55 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by leathermang View Post
I would make a ghost copy to something else before I started anything...
Just in case....
I've never done that.


As far as transfering files there is only maybe 3-4 gigs of music I actually want and 2-3 gigs of photos. I may just burn them all to DVD's for hard back up and copy to my new laptop.

Toying with going with Ubuntu.
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  #9  
Old 07-27-2011, 06:40 PM
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Before wiping the OS off the old drive, make sure you have a good (licensed) copy of XP or 7 or whatever you'll be using. Student discount via the university can be a wonderful thing for Microsoft products.

Check craigslist for cheap RAM.
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  #10  
Old 07-27-2011, 09:07 PM
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  #11  
Old 07-27-2011, 09:57 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Matt L View Post
I pop the old disk into one of the external bays in my workstation to do that. If it's a SSD, I then do a security erase (for better performance with the new OS).
Any recommendations for something to wipe the drive clean for a nice clean install?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Matt L View Post
You can't buy a copy of XP safely. The only way to get it is used, and then it may be pirated and useless.

Old laptops don't hold much RAM, and what they hold is insanely expensive. Better to run an OS that works on less RAM.

Linux comes to mind. I tried Ubuntu a few times, but I'm more of a purist and prefer Fedora. And not by using that rpm-fusion repository - use that and you're in worse shape than using Ubuntu. I can download or compile all non-free parts by myself. Mostly that's just Flash and MP3 support, a total of two shared objects (called DLLs in the Windows world).
I was looking at Puppy Linux, Someone suggested Natty, and then Kubuntu.
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  #12  
Old 07-27-2011, 10:27 PM
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I think I might go with Kubuntu and I think make an install DVD

then I can do the first thing you suggested. I've never done the second thing you posted


The only snag I forsee is my family that would use the laptop. If it has linux then they might not be able to sync their iPods to it.
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  #13  
Old 07-27-2011, 10:43 PM
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check my last post. I added some stuff
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  #14  
Old 07-28-2011, 06:51 AM
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For copying the files to the new computer, I always keep a spare external enclosure that converts the internal drive to USB.

You simply remove the drive from the computer and slide it into the enclosure. Then, you can plug it into the new computer and browse and copy at will.

They're cheap, like around $10 at Tiger/Comp USA.

After you copy everything you want off of it, you can just format it.

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