4 replies to this topic

[Kevin Turcotte]

My Uncle is looking to replace the dying hard drive in his netbook. It's a Dell Inspiron Mini 10 (1010). I advised him to just buy a whole new netbook/notebook, but he only wants to spend around $50.
Anyway, once he purchases the hard drive, I can install it easy enough, but he bought it used, and doesn't have the recovery CD/DVD. Would I be able to just download a copy of Windows XP with SP3, put it on a USB stick, install it, and activate it with the activation code on the Windows XP sticker on the bottom of the netbook? If so, where can I grab the official 32 bit Windows XP with SP3 build? Would I have to install any drivers or anything? If that won't work, is there another way?
It won't take Vista or Windows 7. Well, it probably would let me install it, but with 1 GB of RAM, I'd rather not.

[MrDan]

When replacing a HDD in a netbook be careful. Make sure you buy one which is small enough for the netbook. Measure the height of the hdd in there currently; it should be around 7mm - 10mm. Don't buy one over the height!

As for the XP license stickers, I think it will depend. Some have VL licenses and others are just regular retail licenses. The only way to tell is to try I guess!

Windows 7 starter actually runs REALLY well in netbooks with 1GB of RAM.

Why not just get a $50 HDD (height dimension dependant) and spend a bit more and put in another 1GB of RAM (DDR2 DDR3)?

Good luck

[Kevin Turcotte]

Unfortunately, I guess the RAM is soldered in, so it's limited to 1GB only. Windows 7 Starter looks fine for him-how would I go about getting it?

Edited by Kevin Turcotte, 01 October 2011 - 08:17 PM.

[MrDan]

Unfortunately, I guess the RAM is soldered in, so it's limited to 1GB only. Windows 7 Starter looks fine for him-how would I go about getting it?

Pm is on your way!

[hydra]

You can also request the media from Dell.  The last time I did this they sent it in the mail and didn't charge me anything.