Please Advice - Windows 7 Or 10?

Hello guys!

I am not sure if this is the right section for posting this issue. If it isn’t, I apologize in advance.

I bought a new SSD for my old Toshiba Laptop since its stock HDD is about to fail, according to HD Sentinel and CrystalDiskInfo. They both say I have 176 reallocated sectors on my HDD and the drive health according to HD Sentinel is 23%.

My PC Specs are as follows: https://i.imgur.com/5iWwfDo.jpg
I’ve got a couple of questions if anyone can help me out in this regard:

1. Which Windows OS is suitable for my laptop right now? It currently has Windows 7 x64 and runs fine for me since I don’t open more than 5-6 tabs at a time on chrome. I would like to install Windows 10 but I’m not sure if my laptop would run it like the Windows 7. My intention is to use this laptop for at least 2-3 years for basic use if all goes well. I am also planning a Ram upgrade to a total of 8GB since it has only 3GB installed, but it might take at least a month more due to the current pandemic.

2. Will the drivers of my laptop be available on Windows 10? I heard the support for older laptops are less on Windows 10.

3. Which version is lighter for my PC, Home or Pro? Which should I go for?

4. As I mentioned earlier, is 176 bad sectors really bad for my HDD? How long do I have until it dies, to backup the data?

Thanks a ton in advance for helping me out.

Regards.

 

if anything on your hard drive is important to you: backup it up. and, considering that your mechanical hard drive is starting to fail, and this tends to be one of those mysterious computer thingy's ... it could fail next week, or it could take another year to completely fail. in either event, when a hard drive starts to develop bad sectors, you really need to replace it as soon as possible. as time goes on, you will just get more bad sectors. and until you get the hard drive replaced, i would back up my data on a daily basis to minimize any data loss when the hard drive does fail.

as for win10 vs win7, my preference would be win7. it sounds like you can do everything you want right now on your win7 computer. if planned basic use for it is just 2 more years, i would see no reason to upgrade(?) to win10. web browsers and anti malware programs will still be supported. if you have to have win10, then go for it, otherwise i would not bother. but that is just me. you have to decide for yourself. i think it's twice a year, microsoft releases major updates for win10, and every time there seems to be nothing but problems. but then, you might not experience these issues. it's almost like rolling dice with win10 updates.

maybe a windows person will chime in and answer some of the other questions. i'm an apple kind of guy, but my whole family uses windows, and i always get that call when things go south on their computers, so i am a bit biased. anyway, i do wish you good luck with it.

 

If you dont have 10, you are behind the 8 ball security, and application wise!
You must move with the times, or be wide open!
Remember.....its 2020

 

Guys, older versions of Windows 10, like 1809 or 1909 is better? Or should I go with 2004?

 

If you get Home I believe you have to accept the current version, 2004, but with Pro you can defer version upgrades for up to a year. I have done that so I can stay on 1909 which is so stable on my systems. I don't think any one version is better than any other, but later versions have additional features you may or may not want.

 

Thanks a lot guys for the responses. The version I'm planning to get it 18363.815. But the latest in that is 18363.1016 - so how do I get from 815 to 1016 without going to 2004 version? Is it possible? Can I download the 1016 updates only, after getting the 815 version?



Thank you

 

2004 is stable across all devices on my LAN.
Also blends well with Linux devices.
The latest versions put to death most newly developed malicious scripts from accessing your OS kernel using SHA1 authentication req......it simply wont let them run!

 

The key question is which version - Home or Pro? If it is Home then you don't have any meaningful options when it comes to being selective about updates as your system will be updated progressively via Windows Update to the latest version 2004. This may not happen immediately but it will happen and you can't stop it. All you can do is defer it for up to 35 days. With Pro you do have a few more options as to when updates can be installed but unlike Win 7 there isn't any way you can just freeze your system at a particular update state. You will at some point have to let it move forward. So in answer to your question it doesn't make much difference what build number you initially download and install as Windows Update will go into action and progressively update you.

I think it is this aspect of Win 10 that has caused the most anti-10 reaction with users who feel that Microsoft has taken control of their systems out of their hands. Personally I don't have any problem with it and appreciate the stability it has conferred on my systems.

 

You might want to read THIS. It puts a rather different slant on avoiding updates you don't want but doesn't affect what you need to do to get started.

 

Going with the Pro version...though I don't have any use of these "Pro" features...let's hope for the best.