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Question

Dell latitude 610 hard drive

Feb 18, 2016 3:52PM PST

I have been given this laptop as it was being thrown away. The hard drive has been removed. I use one of these for work that belongs to my employer. I used their charger to get the computer to turn on. I can do some diagnostics on it with the F keys but it shows a problem with the hard drive of course. I see hard drives and chargers on E bay so I could get it going for 30 bucks or so. It would be just to play with and probably load music cd's to sync to my mp3. When I had it running the there was no cursor and the trac pad did nothing. I navigated the diagnostic screens with the arrow keys. I was able to get to the screen to select trac pad or mouse and it was on trac pad. Questions: 1) Is the trac pad not working because of no hard drive? 2) Some of the hard drives for sale say SATA, what is this?

Discussion is locked

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Answer
1. Likely.
Feb 18, 2016 4:35PM PST

2. While you can find out what SATA is on the web you can find new 500GB HDDs for this laptop under 50bucks on amazon (new!) Can't imagine ebay when good new stuff is same price.

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Also.
Feb 18, 2016 4:48PM PST

Try it out with a Linux distro to see what's what. Linux is free and runs off dvd/usb, no need to install.
Dafydd.

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Linux usb
Apr 10, 2016 4:29PM PDT

Thanks. I am looking at a Linux Mint 17.3 Bootable 8GB USB Flash Drive on Amazon. Are you saying the computer will run off that with no Hard Drive installed?

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I've run Linux from other that Hard Drives for a long time.
Apr 10, 2016 4:34PM PDT
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Yes it will.
Apr 10, 2016 4:38PM PDT

You can run Linux off the USB and save if the drive is "persistent". If not, get another drive to save to. This could be another USB drive or a HDD.
Dafydd.

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PS.
Apr 10, 2016 5:01PM PDT

You'll have to set the BIOS to boot from USB.
Dafydd.

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Thanks for reply
Feb 18, 2016 6:59PM PST

Have not checked Amazon yet but was going to. Just did not want to buy a drive while unsure about the cursor/trac pad issue. Thanks again.

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(NT) That's where a Linux boot can help.
Feb 18, 2016 7:18PM PST
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Answer
So you buy a New HDD
Feb 18, 2016 5:25PM PST

for this laptop and go to Dell with the Tag Number on the bottom of the laptop and reinstall Windows. Seems simple enough....

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Answer
I am guessing no Hdd. means no OS?
Feb 18, 2016 8:55PM PST

I can buy a refurbish laptop for 100-150 bucks that's completely functional.

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Ground shakes.
Feb 19, 2016 9:57AM PST

Here's a nugget. If the machine had Windows 10 installed and activated, Windows 10 might install and activate again.

Game changer.

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Yeah,
Feb 19, 2016 12:58PM PST

that is a possibility.

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thanks for reply
Feb 19, 2016 6:53PM PST

Yes that is why i don't want to invest a lot into this.

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Answer
I don't use hard drive in my old laptop
Feb 19, 2016 2:01PM PST
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The latest
Jul 4, 2016 7:42AM PDT

It did not boot from the flash with Linux. I made a dvd with another computer of the contents on the flash. It spins up the dvd but still no boot. The setting in the bios for, where to look, is correct. I talked to a guy in a computer shop, he downloaded something to a disc, tried it on a computer in his shop and it booted that computer. I tried that disc in the Dell and got this message. "This kernel requires a x86-64 cpu, but only detected an i686 cpu. unable to boot- please use a kernel appropriate for cpu. When I told him that, he said the computer was old and I was wasting my time. Info on the processor from the bios: type- pentium m, id- 06d8, min speed- 800 mhz, max speed- 1.86 ghz, cache- 2048 kb, hyper threading capable- no.
1) upgrade cpu? 2) version of linux not compatible with cpu? 3) use it for a doorstop?
Thanks in advance.

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That means it's a 32 bit only system.
Jul 4, 2016 8:33AM PDT

In a way that's good news but now your efforts will be to get the same OS but in 32 bit form.