hammerforged Posted January 26, 2010 Report Share Posted January 26, 2010 I have a chance to get an older (6 years old) Toshiba laptop for free. My question is, will I be able to install Windows Vista on it or will I have to dig up a copy of XP? I have the Vista disc that came with my desktop, might be able to find an XP disc around here somewhere. How difficult will it be to do a re-format and install? Am I getting in over my head? Any advice/help would be most appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OUTSIDER Posted January 26, 2010 Report Share Posted January 26, 2010 How many gigs of RAM do you have?? If i remember correctly Vista needs two gigs of ram to operate successfully. you may be able to add RAM to your machine to make it work, i am not a computer whiz, but 2 gigs of ram is a starting point. You may be able to do a search of your computer model and see available upgrades and such. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gzilla45 Posted January 26, 2010 Report Share Posted January 26, 2010 I think you should definitely take it. Being six years old it is hard to say what type of hardware it has in it therefore I would think you would be better off with XP. 2 gigs of RAM for Vista is a bare minimum in my opinion so 2 or less and I'd be looking to put XP on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GWSmith Posted January 27, 2010 Report Share Posted January 27, 2010 Ross, If it's free take it...you can always take it to a good computer shop or Best Buys and tell them what you want to do. Have them reccomend what changes can be done and even if you decide to go a different way with it you can always donate it to a school;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redkneck Posted January 27, 2010 Report Share Posted January 27, 2010 Yep, if it's free it's a bargain, lol. Vista is a RAM eater, so you will probably have issues with that. You can always scrounge up an old copy of XP on ebay cheap. The cd's that usually come with your PC though generally have all the extra manufacturer specific crap on them too like drivers and stuff, I'd look for a stand-alone copy or at least one that came with a Toshiba. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeramie Posted January 27, 2010 Report Share Posted January 27, 2010 I personally dont like Vista at all. If it has XP or something LEAVE IT! But seriously, if you can expand the RAM it is really easy to do so and pretty cheap. Make sure you look up the specs to see if its possible. Best Buy can take the SN and look it up. We upgraded the ram in our old Toshiba and it made a huge difference. That laptop lasted about 8-10 years. We just bought a new Toshiba Widescreen laptop (17") the first of last year and so far, so good... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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