Had a client in the other day with a VERY old windows XP Machine.
The hard drive was very noisy, and it was generally in a rather poor state, taking ages to boot up after many attempts.
I did an immediate backup of his files, photo’s & documents, in case the HDD gave up the ghost.
It took ages, as the HDD really was on it’s last legs, but a few hours later, everything was safely backed up to a memory stick for him…Phew.
After sorting the failed graphics card out, and a few other bit’s n bob’s, it was back up & running again, starting first time every time.
He asked how much a new PC would be, and I saw his face drop.
Things are pretty tight for him at the moment, as they are with us all these days, so there was no way he could really afford to replace the machine.
As a self-employed chap, with only quite basic office/photo requirements, there’s no need for bells & whistles.
I had a this solid little HP Pc in for recycling the other day, after a local digital artist upgraded to a custom built Photoshop beasty to help with her growing workflow demands.
As it’s a Windows 8 machine, it’s the perfect candidate for refurbishment, and far too good to be scrapped.
After removing the Artist’s hard drive and returning it to her for security & peace of mind, I set about getting it up to modern standards.
First off: Cleaning out the airways & power supply, so it can breathe properly. The former owner is a cat lover, and it showed!
However it was not too bad, and the first stage of cleaning was completed in a few minutes.
Next up, before going any further is testing the power supply with my trusty old Antec gadget.
It’s looking a bit worse for wear these days, but still does the job well, (bit like me I suppose…)
Now that I knew it was electrically safe & sound, it’s time for some hardware upgrades.
The original spec had only 6Gb of RAM, which was fine back in the day, but just won’t cut it now.
Then it’s time for a fresh CMOS/RTC battery & some fast storage, with a brand new SSD.
There are some rather cheap & nasty drives about, but a decent branded one like the Lexar is literally just a few quid more, and has a decent 3 year warranty too.
After a final clean-up in the case, it’s time to plug everything in & get Windows installed.
As it was originally a Windows 8 machine, it will happily upgrade legally, as the licence is locked to the motherboard.
In with the stick (using the faster USB-3 sockets on the front to speed things along nicely)
Then into the “Bios” to make sure everything is setup correctly.
After thats saved,
it’s back to the boot menu.. to select the USB drive with the Windows 10 installer,
and we are away!
As the licence/activation key is tucked away out of sight in the Bios, and not on a sticker on the case, click the “I don’t have a product key” option for now.
(It will automatically activate once the computer is connected to the internet later, so don’t panic)
Then select the correct version of Windows that matches the built in licence (in this case Windows 10 Home)
Accept the licence terms,
Choose “Custom: Install Windows only (advanced)”,
Then we get to the “Where do you want to install Windows” screen.
If the HDD/SSD you were using had an operating system already on it, and you don’t need to save any data. Highlight each partition and click delete until it looks like this pic.
Then select “Drive 0 Unallocated space” & click next.
Once that stage is done, the machine will restart automatically.
After selecting your language & keyboard settings, a username & password (not really required), you’ll eventually get to the Windows desktop, Yay!
DONE.
Now we have a perfectly capable little machine, that should serve my client well for a few years, for just £150.00 with a 12 month warranty.