Am I doing this right?

[ubuysa]

Fair enough, although can't see why it would be unstable if its just a Windows install, personally I always re-install fresh, usually on a 6-12 month schedule anyhow. Just thought might be easier for people not ofey with it.

It's just not wise to use it because it was installed for one purpose only and that was to soak test the PC. You just can't be sure how it was installed or even whether it's complete. It's much wiser to scrub it and install a fresh copy yourself so that you know you're starting from a completely stable platform. If you order a PC sans OS then installing your own should be something you're able to do.

 

[Charlas]

It's just not wise to use it because it was installed for one purpose only and that was to soak test the PC. You just can't be sure how it was installed or even whether it's complete. It's much wiser to scrub it and install a fresh copy yourself so that you know you're starting from a completely stable platform. If you order a PC sans OS then installing your own should be something you're able to do.

Wouldn't trust anyone with an install to be honest, even hp/dell/eom of your choice, as its always full of garbage anyhow, but was just saying, a Windows install should work nowadays anyhow, if it stable enough to use for testing it should run fine for an end user. But I do agree it should be re installed, but as I've said, I don't trust anyone doing it anyhow, so hey.

 

[Charlas]

I've got an install from USB/Lan that does 99% of all the 'junk' I install anyhow, just keep the OS build up to date on it, and Choco takes care of most everything else, so never takes me any effort, just time with it sat there doing its own thing. I, however, have so much stuff I need to install from VS/SQL/UDK/Tooling that if I did it myself would take me 48 hours, and I'd still forget something

 

[ubuysa]

I've got an install from USB/Lan that does 99% of all the 'junk' I install anyhow, just keep the OS build up to date on it, and Choco takes care of most everything else, so never takes me any effort, just time with it sat there doing its own thing. I, however, have so much stuff I need to install from VS/SQL/UDK/Tooling that if I did it myself would take me 48 hours, and I'd still forget something

Interestingly, @Tony1044 posted about a new native Windows Package Manager a week or so ago here.

 

[Charlas]

Interestingly, @Tony1044 posted about a new native Windows Package Manager a week or so ago here.

Yeah, looking forward to it

 

[Tony1044]

Wouldn't trust anyone with an install to be honest, even hp/dell/eom of your choice, as its always full of garbage anyhow, but was just saying, a Windows install should work nowadays anyhow, if it stable enough to use for testing it should run fine for an end user. But I do agree it should be re installed, but as I've said, I don't trust anyone doing it anyhow, so hey.

That's the thing though - it may not be stable. There's a difference between a soak / burn-in test and running day-to-day.

For one thing, I'd hazard there are loads of ghost hardware devices due to the way it's imaged.

One of the things I noticed when I was testing autopilot and I ran the wizard to reset the copy of Windows on the machine (telling it not to keep anything) was that it removed a ton of bloat that was very nicely listed. Some of it I expected to see, but some of it was new to me (this wasn't a PCS machine it's worth noting).

I am personally, like yourself, a fan of a clean install of the OS from scratch anyway. That way I can be relatively sure it has nothing I don't want such as extra "management" applications or embedded dodgy root certificates (Lenovo did this a few years ago, followed by messing with the BIOS to either reinstall one or add in some backdoor software (I forget which - might even have been both!) even if a scratch build was put on...naughty!).

 

[TimJohnson517]

Yes, you could fit the old 1Tb HDD from the old one as a storage drive, that would be fine.

I would just select 1 primary M2 drive of 500Gb for the OS and programs.

Also, you can carry your existing windows license over and save further on the windows cost.

Will I need to by a caddy to insert the 2.5" SATA HDD? or should it slot straight in? Thanks.

 

[Tony1044]

Will I need to by a caddy to insert the 2.5" SATA HDD? or should it slot straight in? Thanks.

There's usually a small mounting bracket inside the laptop (if it needs one) that you remove and attach the SATA SSD.

Some laptops don't even have that and it just slides right on in.

Either way, there should be no need to buy any kind of caddy.