Revitalizing old laptop

I have older laptop still running ok just slow on XP.
I want to revive it and use as car repair laptop only, with only Tech stream sweet on it.
Besides formatting HD, what can I do to speed it up without os reinstall? Will need Internet
on it but it has Bluetooth allright.
Basically is there way to format it without os reinstall? It's not likely to pull new windows.
Thank you.

 

Adding RAM when possible would definitely help but for a real speed transformation then replacing the hard drive with a SSD is the answer. To house just XP and some software a 64GB or 120GB drive would be sufficient. It's easy to transfer your existing OS using free cloning or imaging software, and for anyone handy replacing the hard drive is simplicity itself.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820171645

 

The only headache with upgrading to an SSD on an older machine is whether the HDD interface is EIDE or SATA. Even if you upgrade to an SSD on an original SATA (not 2 or 3) you only get about 25% of the rated speed out of it. All drives are rated for SATA 3, so a SATA 2 will max out at about 250-275 MB/s if the rated read speed is 530, and half the 250 if the SATA is first generation.

Also, if this laptop only has IE8 it's a fair shake it won't even render the webpage, let alone run Crucial's scanner.

Make, model, OS and Service Pack please.

And, no you cannot format the drive without reinstalling the operating system.