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This Toshiba Satellite belonged to my Grandfather before he unfortunately past away. I was very close with him. He tought me many things as a kid. However I feel like he helped to bring out the curiosity in me. We would spend hours in his basment making things out of wood. I loved working on those projects with him. So I feel like I almost owed it to this laptop to breathe some new life into it. Starting out it had 4GBs of RAM, a 500GB HDD, and was running Windows 8.
So I started out is backing up the old files. There wasn't much on it. It was wiped when it was given to me and I hardly used it. So I wasn't super worried about trying to save anything. So following the backup I did a refresh to keep to same OS installed for the imaging process later. It was my first time copy drive to drive with an imaging software so I didn't want to get to crazy. Also thought it would be a good skill to learn so I can potentially help others with computer issues.
While the computer set itself up again I hopped over to my new laptop and made my way out to the Linux Mint website as this is the new OS I was going to use. I began getting some experience with Linux whilst learning Cyber Security and Penetration Testing. And I have started to like it. So I figured I should find a daily driver distro to use as the only Linux distro I have used has been Kali. So my plan is to copy the 500GB HDD (files and OS) to the brand new 1TB SSD I bought to use instead. That way to new SSD should just be plug and play. In order to get a new OS to install onto the SSD I used Rufus to flash an image of Mint (iso) onto a flash drive and use it just like you would use any Windows install disk for example.
This laptop has 3 USB ports however only 1 USB3.0 port on it so I made sure that the new SSD was plugged into that port for the fastest write speed. I installed the the Acronis True Image software to copy the image of the original HDD to the new SSD. Left that to run over night so it had as much time as it needed to complete the process.
Once the imaging was complete it was time to get into the fun part. Hardware upgrades!
Started by removing the battery and taking off a small cover that allowed access to the RAM and HDD without further dismatling the laptop. I removed the RAM and HDD. However I was also adding new thermal paste to the CPU at this time as well so this won't be enough. So I went back to removing screws till I could remove the optical drive and the entire bottom case of the laptop. Next step is to remove the fan and the heatsink from the CPU. At this point I have remove everything neccessary to proceed with the repair. I cleaned up the old crusty thermal paste with isopropyl alcohol and a cotton swap. Applied some new thermal paste and began the reassembly of the laptop.
After putting everything in and attempting to place the case back on I realized that I had to place the case back on FIRST then put the SSD in since there was a space within the case to make access easier. Unike modern laptops. Anyway before I go down that path. I took the SSD back out. Placed that case back on to the laptop. THEN put the SSD into the laptop. Here is a before and after look at the hardware.
Slapped the battery back in and gave it a boot. And it came to life. So proud. Then it pops up. "CPU fan error". Wow shut it off and think. What could I have done wrong. I know I put thermal paste on the CPU. I made sure that the heatsink was properly attached to the motherboard. I double checked that. I know I put the faaaannnn iinnn.... oh that makes sense. I forgot to plug the CPU fan back into the motherboard lol. So I tear the whole thing back down. Plug the fan in. And try my luck again. This time no CPU fan error. Just a POST and time to set up Windows. So I quickly run through that process and checked the temps and Device Manager to ensure everything was good to go. Everything looked good so its time to set up the BIOS so that I can boot an OS from an alternitve source before the SDD was checked.
Once the the laptop restarted it booted Linux Mint off the flash drive. I just ran the installer. Just as I did with Windows I ran throught the setup. Got Mint installed to the SSD. Shutdown the laptop. Removed the flash drive. Gave it a boot and bam Mint. After everything was said and done the laptop has 16GBs of RAM, a 1TB SSD, and now running Linux Mint.
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