Upgrading Windows 7 To Windows 10 On Old Computer Without USB?

paulyjustin said:

Hi there. Its an inspiron 15r n5010. This computer is from 2010 so very old computer.
Ram is 4gb and hard drive is a 500gb hard drive... not sure 5400rpm or 7200rpm.
The laptop is very slow and lags a ton.

Thanks,

The lag is probably more due to accumulated OS updates and junk. An in-place upgrade (even to W7) would probably speed it up no end as this clears out a lot of junk and set most of the registry back to defaults.


As for performance, it's a higher spec machine than my System One in My Computers below (I do have more modern higher spec machines, but there's only room for two system in my specs ).

It has the same speed and size of RAM (DDR3, 1333Mhz, 4GB), but it's cpu has a higher spec. That model came with either a 2nd gen. Intel Core i3 or i5. The entry level cpu for that machine was an Intel Core i3 2330M, which has a benchmark better than my Pentium B950, 2526 vs, my 1716. I'm perfectly happy with the performance of mine running 1903, Windows 10 runs better on it than Windows 7 ever did. That Inspiron should be up to the job too.

PassMark - CPU Comparison Intel i3-2330M vs Intel Pentium B950


Like mine, it came originally with 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium. It also had MS Office 2010 pre-installed (but not activated). If that was purchased and activated then Office will be retained on upgrading to W10. If the free Office Starter 2010 was activated instead, then the upgrade will remove it as Office Starter 2010 is deemed by MS incompatible with W10. The Media Center that was included in W7 Home Premium will also be uninstalled.

Dell Inspiron N5110 Specs - CNET

[QUOTE=Bree;1742751]@Berton, the OP has just successfully upgraded one W7 machine by following Brink's tutorial. He recommends downloading the MCT, then using it's Upgrade this PC now option rather than making an ISO.

Upgrade to Windows 10 from Windows 7 for Free


What were/are the pro and con when comparing the methods?

If your laptop is very old you might find it doesn't support the instructions required for 64 bit Windows 10 - in that case you will need to install the 32 bit version.

A cheap SSD will drastically improve the responsiveness of the old laptop and is a worthwhile upgrade.

zbook said:

Bree said:

@Berton, the OP has just successfully upgraded one W7 machine by following Brink's tutorial. He recommends downloading the MCT, then using it's Upgrade this PC now option rather than making an ISO.
Upgrade to Windows 10 from Windows 7 for Free

What were/are the pro and con when comparing the methods?

Well the first and most obvious advantage is that, as W7 cannot natively mount an ISO, it avoids the need for burning to a DVD (if the PC has an optical drive) or a usb if it hasn't. MCT's 'Upgrade this PC now' is the closest thing to the 'Update Assistant' that's available to a W7 machine.

With each new feature update Microsoft warn that using an ISO to upgrade is for 'advanced users' only as it bypasses any checks for known blocking issues. Using the Update Assistant apparently doesn't. I would assume that the MCT would behave like the Update Assistant in this regard.

Yea the lag is because this laptop hasn't had a clean reinstall in a long time. I mean its extremely slow... and that is understatement.


This laptop is an i3 processor.


You would suggest i do the same upgrade to it like the one i did with my windows 7 dell desktop? Again both my old dell xps desktop and this laptop.. this laptop isn't mine though... was bought back in 2010. The person rarely uses this laptop but does store pictures and some files there as their main computer is a macbook. So i thought maybe i should upgrade their laptop to windows 10. I mean they don't use the laptop anymore but putting some things there. But Idon't do it now, then would you say the computer would be obsolete since you won't be able to upgrade to windows 10 for free later on? I won't be able to access this computer till later on and i see the last date to upgrade windows 10 is not that far away right?


The thing is there is no way we would pay for windows 10 upgrade for this laptop as well this laptop is already not worth much. But say you want to use it in future, you obviously want it to use windows 10 right?


Also if i were to upgrade this laptop, you say i 100% have to ask them to copy all the important files on this laptop to an external hard drive right? Because there is always a small percentage chance that when i do the windows 10 upgrade, something could go wrong? Have there been cases/examples of members here having this happen to them? The other thing though is i not sure if this laptop has viruses or not so if they were to copy files from it to external hard drive, aren't you risking virus/malware transferring to that external hard drive though?

paulyjustin said:

You would suggest i do the same upgrade to it like the one i did with my windows 7 dell desktop?

I would suggest you do the upgrade but keep all installed apps and user files. This would also keep all their user accounts and passwords so they could continue to uses it just as they did before the upgrade. It would also leave open the option (available for 10 days after the upgrade) to go back to W7 if they find W10 too difficult to use.

...Also if i were to upgrade this laptop, you say i 100% have to ask them to copy all the important files on this laptop to an external hard drive right?

No, I wasn't suggesting that you have to tell them to back up all their files first, I was suggesting you use Macrium Reflect Free to make a system image before attempting the upgrade. You don't even need to install Macrium on the W7 laptop to do that, if you have Macrium installed on another machine you can make a bootable Macrium recovery usb. That can be used to make an image of any machine that can boot from it.

NB: neither was I suggesting you tell them not to bother backing up their files! It's always good to have more than one backup and it would help them think about what they really need to keep.

The thing is there is no way we would pay for windows 10 upgrade for this laptop as well this laptop is already not worth much. But say you want to use it in future, you obviously want it to use windows 10 right?

Correct, you'd want Windows 10 for the future. Once it has been upgraded it will have a free digital licence for W10 Home.

Even if they don't like W10 after the upgrade (or would prefer to keep using W7 for as long as possible) and go back to the previous system, that digital licence is permanent. It will allow Windows 10 Home to be installed and activated at any time in the future.

HI there. Well i have not used mac free yet... i still have not tried this.


I wanted to do this with my laptop but still haven't... just been hesistant with it.


Well the thing im concerned is that laptop has virus in it. So i dont want to make a macrium copy of it and save it to one of my usb sticks which i know is good.. like having it infected with virus. Or is that to worry at all?


But you would say even if i do the upgrade now and make sure i keep all files and apps, it should go as planned right? Are there examples of ppl here having upgrade issue and not only that didn't work, but their files got deleted etc?


Yea i thought its best to upgrade it since you can't anymore. But because this person has files/pics there, i dont want to ask them to make backup because it would be unconvenient for them to do it now.


But just doing the upgrade itself without backup you say is risky right? Im curious what percentage of upgrades here fail etc. I had no issue with my windows 7 dell desktop when i did it. Only thing was it was very slow.

paulyjustin said:

Well the thing im concerned is that laptop has virus in it. So i dont want to make a macrium copy of it and save it to one of my usb sticks which i know is good.. like having it infected with virus. Or is that to worry at all?

A Macrium image cannot of itself infect another PC even if the machine that was imaged contained a virus.

Only if you mount the Macrium image, particularly if you run any apps from it, do you run any risk of infection. As long as you don't mount the image on another PC to explore it you are completely safe from infection. Even if you do mount it, Defender (or whatever other AV you use) should protect you from infection.

But just doing the upgrade itself without backup you say is risky right? Im curious what percentage of upgrades here fail etc. I had no issue with my windows 7 dell desktop when i did it. Only thing was it was very slow.

No upgrade is entirely risk-free, but upgrading to W10 version 1903 seems by all reports to be highly reliable. The Macrium image before you start is your 'insurance policy' for the unlikely event that the upgrade fails badly.

Okay this is what i meant to say. Say i have an external hard drive or usb flash drive. Say i have files there and know this external hard/flash drive has no malware or virus. But now i want to copy things from that old laptop with windows 7 into this but im not sure if there is virus/malware in that old laptop.


So you are saying if i put a macreium image on that external hard drive/flash drive, there cant be virus/malware on it? Where say i connect the external hard drive to my own laptop only on... nothing can transfer?


What do you mean by mount th mac image? Like you mean open that program while it being connected to your own laptop? Yea this is why i didnt want to do a mac image with that old laptop with one of my usb external/flash drives.