RAM or SSD upgrade for my Dell..? Pls suggest the right choice !

[vidhubhushan]

i think it is associated with the hardware, the motherboard specially and the windows version. imho upgrade is just some incentive / offer to keep customers on windows.

 

[karthik316_1999]

Don't mess up. Just login with your microsoft account on your laptop which will link your activation key with your account. Then, download all latest drivers and prepare a bootable windows 10 USB drive. Keep the drivers on a separate USB drive. Replace the HDD with a SSD and only after that continue with a fresh intall.

Ok so I have backup up all my data and ready to test the upgrade to windows 10 on my existing hard drive before I could install my new SSD and have windows 10 installed on to it.

I visited the Microsoft website as advised and logged in but I cannot find any option where I can register my current version of windows 8.1 to my laptop or to a specific product key. When I click on windows 10 upgrade option, it asks me to pay money to obtain the o/s..

Am I missing something here? kindly advise...

 

[SaiyanGoku]

Ok so I have backup up all my data and ready to test the upgrade to windows 10 on my existing hard drive before I could install my new SSD and have windows 10 installed on to it.

I visited the Microsoft website as advised and logged in but I cannot find any option where I can register my current version of windows 8.1 to my laptop or to a specific product key. When I click on windows 10 upgrade option, it asks me to pay money to obtain the o/s..

Am I missing something here? kindly advise...

*answers.microsoft.com/en-us/window...-account/e02cfbd6-cb85-480f-8d34-adf6220c14fe

*www.digitalunite.com/technology-gu...n the Start button,password and click 'next'.

Scroll down to "How to link your computer to your Microsoft account"

 

[karthik316_1999]

okay, so this is getting tougher than I expected...

I've downloaded the media creation tool from Microsoft & attempted to install Windows 10 thrice since morning but the installation fails abruptly in the middle.. (somewhere around 73%).. I've attached the screnshots.. This happens at around 3:10 timestamp on the above youtube video.. when the pc is supposed to restart after a successful install..

Tried various correctional steps mentioned online in several websites but still in vain..

Screenshots are attached.. and some info below as detected by "Setupdiag" is as below..

Error: SetupDiag reports abrupt down-level failure.
Last Operation: Finalize
Error: 0x80004005 - 0x50015
LogEntry: 2022-03-03 18:35:05, Error DISM DISM Provider Store: PID=2300 TID=5112 Failed to get the provider DISM Package Manager from the remote provider store. - CProxyProviderStore::GetProvider(hr:0x80004005)

Refer to "Tutorial - Debug system error codes - Win32 apps" for error information.


Any help is appreciated...

 

[vidhubhushan]

don't remember whether i encountered an error like this or not.
when i upgraded my old computer running windows 7 prof., i downloaded win 10 iso from ms site, used rufus to create a bootable installation usb drive and then upgraded it. it worked.

 

[karthik316_1999]

Yep.. that's what I would do for a normal installation..
In my case though, am I not aiming to get a digital license ?
Else, the point of this entire discussion is lost..!

 

[vidhubhushan]

well if i would have the same issue, to check, i would simply clone the disk to ssd and then use the bootable usb drive to upgrade with Internet connectivity on.

 

[karthik316_1999]

Hmm.. I really doubt if the hard disk is a reason behind this error...
& your experience with cloning is also not that smooth...!
I've chosen the usb drive option & attempting the upgrade installation (from within windows) just now... Will keep posted

 

[vidhubhushan]

Hmm.. I really doubt if the hard disk is a reason behind this error...
& your experience with cloning is also not that smooth...!
I've chosen the usb drive option & attempting the upgrade installation (from within windows) just now... Will keep posted

my cloning experience is ok. windows works through that ssd without any issue. only occassionally after restart it shows an error message and asks to press F9 to select another windows. pressing F9 loads it again from ssd and it works without any issue. sister uses it regularly except when we are sleeping so i haven't found the time for a clean reinstall.
this could also be due to same original hdd with windows intact present in it and cmos battery issue.

 

[karthik316_1999]

Thanks to all the contributors.. Typing this on Windows 10..! The USB drive installation worked & the OS is activated with a digital license it says..

Will be replacing the HDD with a SSD in a few days and attempt to install win 10 with the same USB drive that I had used now.. Hope things will be smooth without any further actions from my side...

 

[SaiyanGoku]

Thanks to all the contributors.. Typing this on Windows 10..! The USB drive installation worked & the OS is activated with a digital license it says..

Will be replacing the HDD with a SSD in a few days and attempt to install win 10 with the same USB drive that I had used now.. Hope things will be smooth without any further actions from my side...

Unplug the HDD before trying to install OS on the SSD.

 

[karthik316_1999]

Sure thing...

 

[vidhubhushan]

good to know it worked

 

[karthik316_1999]

Your vendor is right. Issues can be resolved by upgrading RAM & adding SSD. But do this step by step (don't buy unknown brands)
1. Upgrade your SSD first and see if you find any improvement over your previous issue.
2. If Step 1 fails then install 4GB RAM


Upgrade to Windows 10 at least.

As seen from the picture, the RAM usage peaks to 85% with just 6 tabs on my edge browser.. Should I upgrade the RAM first or still stick to the 'SSD first' advice?

 

[SaiyanGoku]

As seen from the picture, the RAM usage peaks to 85% with just 6 tabs on my edge browser.. Should I upgrade the RAM first or still stick to the 'SSD first' advice?

Why not both? You'd be opening the laptop either way.

 

[karthik316_1999]

Budget concerns..
Plus someone told me, each penny that you put into this 8 yr+ old lap is not worthy..
Not that I'm interested to invest a new laptop now though... hence, some picky questions... i'm sorry !

 

[SaiyanGoku]

Budget concerns..
Plus someone told me, each penny that you put into this 8 yr+ old lap is not worthy..
Not that I'm interested to invest a new laptop now though... hence, some picky questions... i'm sorry !

You can either choose to buy a new laptop for >=50K or spend just ~5-6k for SSD and RAM (and HDD enclosure)
Also, if you want to sell it off, what is your asking price?

 

[karthik316_1999]

New laptop is out of the question...
Amongst SSD & RAM - I'm trying to figure out which is more vital to my requirements...
Just trying to learn which component would give me more bang for the buck.. for now..
Or do you mean to say that without upgrading both these components 'at the same time..' , I would not see any difference ?

 

[SaiyanGoku]

New laptop is out of the question...
Amongst SSD & RAM - I'm trying to figure out which is more vital to my requirements...
Just trying to learn which component would give me more bang for the buck.. Or do you mean to say that without upgrading both these components.. I would not see any difference ?

Replacing HDD with SSD would take more work than simply upgrading RAM. For RAM upgrade, unless you are running a 32 Bit OS, you won't need to reinstall it. But SSD would make it more responsive and it'd feel almost like a new laptop.

 

[karthik316_1999]

Off I go.. to get my 'Crucial' !