Should I upgrade or buy a new desktop?

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It's a Windows Vista with 5 GB or RAM, and it's a 32 bit computer. It was made in 2007.

The main problem is it's speed and its computer crashes. Should I buy a new one, or is there a way to upgrade this one?

All I need it for is to type up essays for school and to surf the web.

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Type: Question • Score: 7 • Views: 2,683 • Replies: 17

@Anonymous1234567890,

If all you want is to surf and write papers, scrub the hard drive, re-install the operating system and you should be fine. If you have some skills or a techie friend, install Linux and open office and then you should have a blazing fast system.

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^ I agree with Engineer.
For a beginner, I'd recommend Ubuntu or Linux Mint as it is the most user friendly and has a large support group online. Once you get comfortable, try other Linux distros.
For a Linux users that's looking for stability and safety with their desktop, Linux Mint is the winner, but if you're one of those people who anxiously wait for the next release of their favorite operating system, then Ubuntu is the best option.
Currently I have Linux Mint and Fedora in my 2010 desktop PC. If you can't choose between two distributions, set up a partition so you can dual boot them whenever you want, like I did.
If you need help with partition: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=762232

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@engineer,

What does it mean to "scrub" the hard drive? Like, with a sponge? Would cleaning it with compressed air help? Sorry, I'm not good at this.

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@Anonymous1234567890,

What engineer means is to wipe out (thus the word scrub is appropriate) all of the past information from the hard drive, and this is done by a software that overwrites the entire drive several times with random gibberish. Smart people scrub their hard disk before throwing away PC's or laptops in order to make sure that all the data stored overtime on the computer is securely destroyed (protects against identity theft). Before you scrub the PC hard drive, make sure to back up all the important files and data in another external hard drive. Most of the high end scrubbing software will overwrite free space on your drives, and then permanently delete all data by low level formatting that re-initializes the disk and resets the values of each and every magnetic domain.

1 Reply

@Enzo,

How would you go about installing the software? Won't the computer not work after everythings been wiped clean? Will it even start up anymore for me to go online and download a new operating system to install it? I don't have my old Windows Vista CD, so I can't just insert one. Even if I had a CD, my CD drive doesn't open, so I wouldn't be able to put one in.

1 Reply

@Anonymous1234567890,

Create a bootable USB thumb drive if your CD/DVD drive is broken. If BIOS doesn’t support booting from USB, then there's a way around it. Click the image.

http://www.howtogeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/sshot113.png

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@Anonymous1234567890,

Hello Anonymos,
Every thing said by the engineer is right. I completely agree with him.
"Scrub" means you have to clean the hard drive with sponge any soft piece of cloth. And you can also clean it with compressed air.

1 Reply

@autobiostimulation,

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@Anonymous1234567890,

One question that might help make all of this easier. Often, computer makers will put a copy of the operating system in a hard drive partition just for this purpose. When you look at "Computer", do you see one hard drive letter (likely C) or is there a small second one that is almost completely full. If that second one is there, it likely has a fresh copy of your operating system on it ready to restore your working copy.

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Personally, I would ditch the crappy Vista system and upgrade. Or better yet, ditch the PC and get a Mac.

1 Reply

@Mame,

But ditching the PC is going to cost several hundred dollars and all the OP wants to do it surf and do some word processing.

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@engineer,

True.

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@engineer,

First - back up all files. I assume there are a lot of documents files you want to keep.

Depending on the size of the hard drive, there is no reason to scrub, clean or delete everything on the hard drive.

If you want to install linux you can do it as a dual install. Most linux versions can do it these days without much need for command line work. You just need enough space on your hard drive. Unless you have a lot of video files, a 500G hard drive can easily have both Windows and Linux.

Reinstalling the operating system is a great way to speeed up a system. Over time it gets bogged down with all the things you've installed and no longer use. But doing a reinstall means you will have to reinstall most of the programs you still use so make sure you have those programs and the time to do it all. It can take several hours to reinstall programs and document files as well as install all the upgrades for Windows.

1 Reply

@Anonymous1234567890,

Anonymous1234567890 wrote:

What does it mean to "scrub" the hard drive? Like, with a sponge? Would cleaning it with compressed air help? Sorry, I'm not good at this.

I think this is a good indication that you should not be using Linux or trying to install anything on your own.

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@parados,

If I don't scrub but install Linux, will my still computer boot faster? It takes 5 minutes for it to boot and shut down right now, so that's always been a bit of an issue. Will it be faster if I scrub and then install Linux?

All my files are saved on a "MY Passport Essentials USB" should I disconnect that before I do the scrubbing? If I don't, will it be scrubbed too since it's connected to my desktop and constantly saving new changes?

Finally, can I install my Microsoft Office Suite 2007 on this new operating system if I do this complete scrub? If not, what do I use to write my essays for school on? Will it be as good as Office 2007, allowing me to do everything I can do now on Office, like inserting Pie graphs and pictures in my document?

Another concern of mine is that my computer is extremely slow and crashes when I run more than one program, like my web browser and Microsoft Word. This is an issue when I need to write papers and do research on the web. Will I see improvement in this area if I do a complete scrub and install Linux?

1 Reply

@Anonymous1234567890,

Anonymous1234567890 wrote:

If I don't scrub but install Linux, will my still computer boot faster? It takes 5 minutes for it to boot and shut down right now, so that's always been a bit of an issue. Will it be faster if I scrub and then install Linux?

All my files are saved on a "MY Passport Essentials USB" should I disconnect that before I do the scrubbing? If I don't, will it be scrubbed too since it's connected to my desktop and constantly saving new changes?

Finally, can I install my Microsoft Office Suite 2007 on this new operating system if I do this complete scrub? If not, what do I use to write my essays for school on? Will it be as good as Office 2007, allowing me to do everything I can do now on Office, like inserting Pie graphs and pictures in my document?

Another concern of mine is that my computer is extremely slow and crashes when I run more than one program, like my web browser and Microsoft Word. This is an issue when I need to write papers and do research on the web. Will I see improvement in this area if I do a complete scrub and install Linux?

>Boot up time can be easily reduced by cutting back the number of unnecessary startup tasks, as well as deframenting your PC hard drive.

>You don't have to disconnect the external hard drive before scrubbing, if you plant to follow through with it. But seeing as you're inexperienced, I'd recommend you do disconnect the external drive, just to be on the safe side.

>It is possible to install Microsoft Office Suite 2007 in Linux and properly functioning as on the vista using a free program called WINE (Wine Is Not an Emulator). Click on the images to see the procedure as to how to accomplish this.

1]

http://techwikasta.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/front.jpg

http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/playonlinux-office.png?6cc8a5

>The possible cause to slow process and imminent crashes when executing more than one program is likely due to unnecessary or redundant installed program that overload background functioning, leading to system conflicts that slow everything down. Another likely factors that I can think of are a decline in RAM (from fragmented memory and memory leaks), registry bloating, and/ or corrupted registry files.

P.S: You can similarly have itunes running on linux with the aid of WINE.

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Actually, Anonymous1234567890, scrap what I said. I agree with rosborne, and I'd suggest your best course of action I'd recommend is just buying a cheap netbook. And I say that because you don't seem that computer savvy looking at the questions you've asked so far, which leads me to believe that you won't have a hair left on your scalp if you initiate the process of installing a new OS, or even reinstalling your OS to factory fresh state. No disrespect or anything, but just an opinion that can potentially help you avoid wasting your precious time spend on this matter. If you have tons of time to blow off, then by all means do whatever you may, and this experience may as well get you more familiarized with computers and the jargons that follow.

0 Replies

Should I upgrade or buy a new desktop?

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