should I upgrade?

[ullopoer5]

I'm running your setup, believe it or not. Precision m70. I've upgraded to Windows 7, and can testify that it's a heluva different OS. The Precision is a powerful machine, and handles it VERY well.

Aero? Eats it for breakfast.

In the "windows experience index" - the worst score you'll likely see is a 3.8 / 8 for your CPU speed. That's expected. It's a powerful single-core centrino that runs at 2.0GHz (for me). I'm looking to overclock it to 2.3GHz (since I've read elsewhere that it's still relatively stable at that point).

So go for it. I have a 320Gb hard drive in mine. That's the max it will take. Make special note that you can't get a SATA drive in here, which is the real kicker for why boot time is as fast as it is. It's IDE or bust, and the largest IDE that this precision will read, is the 320Gb sized one. You ain't gonna find an IDE that huge going at 7200rpm... it's 5400 for sure.

Hope that helps.

The machine is weak but it will work reasonably well. Up the RAM though, 2GB isn't enough anymore.

At least do 3 minutes of research before you post something like that. Haha - The Precision m70 can hold a maximum of 2GB of ram.

Time for a new computer I guess. Heh

 

[jambonay]

Done

So I finally got a Kingspec 64 gig PATA SSD and did a clean install of XP with the system recovery disc and then a clean install of Windows 7 Pro upgrade and after a little monkeying around with the drivers it is up and running nicely. Definitely zippier in all respects.

BUT, I am having trouble with the second part of my plan as I had intended to use my old HD drive as an archive and to move over files, images etc. as I need them via a USB adapter. There is no problem accessing the old HD in this way but I can't figure out how to set or adjust the permissions so I can access the files, for example on the desktop or my documents folder, in my profile from the old installation on my old HD.

BTW, I have not had this problem with previous upgrades of various computers where I taken the hd from an old computer and added it to a new one as an archive. Don't know if this is due to Windows 7 security settings. Any Suggestions?

 

[Pauly]

Right click drive>properties>security>advanced>owner>edit>make yourself owner
Right click drive>properties>security>advanced>permissions>change permissions>change as required

The first step may be all you need to do

 

[jambonay]

I am still having trouble getting to files that are on my old hard disc which I am now using as a local disc attached to my now reinvigorated laptop. I can't figure out how to relax the security restrictions on the old hardrive so that I can freely access the documents in what was my old "my Documents" folder. Any ideas???

 

[Frostmourne]

I am still having trouble getting to files that are on my old hard disc which I am now using as a local disc attached to my now reinvigorated laptop. I can't figure out how to relax the security restrictions on the old hardrive so that I can freely access the documents in what was my old "my Documents" folder. Any ideas???

The easiest solution would be to download the Ubuntu live cd, copy all the data off it to another external drive, format it in Window's disk management and use it as a backup.