HP Stream - re format and install lighter OS?
HP Stream - re format and install lighter OS?
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Discussion

Skyedriver

Original Poster:

23,633 posts

313 months

Thursday 7th November 2019
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Now the title sounds like I know what I'm doing but don't be fooled...
I'm in the market for a new laptop/tablet for my wife and a new laptop for me, which will happen anyway, but there's a project that woke me up about 5.30 this morning,

We have an HP Stream 13 in the loft. The 32GB is filled with Windows and it's always been slower than an old man with a heavy wheelbarrow.

The are a few "how to" guides on the internet about installing Linux or Ubuntu after dumping W8/10. Is it really as easy as suggested?
It doesn't really matter if I screw it up completely as it's only in use occasionally for a tune I might want to try on guitar.

Damn thing has always been rubbish, I was conned by HPs marketting like a lot of others. Not even heavy enough to use as a boat anchor.

Anyone here actually done this and able to point a novice meddler?

Thanks

Paddymcc

1,308 posts

222 months

Thursday 7th November 2019
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They run great with cloudready and very easy to install too.

Paddymcc

1,308 posts

222 months

Thursday 7th November 2019
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They run great with cloudready and very easy to install too.

XB70

2,494 posts

227 months

Thursday 7th November 2019
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I also got hooked into one of these - very keen to know what can be done!

Thanks in advance

Skyedriver

Original Poster:

23,633 posts

313 months

Thursday 7th November 2019
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My ignorance showing, what is cloud ready?
Is that something based on the the cloud I assume.
How do you install it and remove windows?

sjtgeray

320 posts

218 months

Friday 8th November 2019
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I've used CloudReady on old HP desktops and Lenovo Laptops. Works well enough for Youtube and Browsing/Gmail etc. Only shame is you cant play DVD's on it

stevejh

799 posts

235 months

Friday 8th November 2019
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Coincidentally I found my wife's old HP Stream in a cupboard last night and was wondering if it could be used for anything other than a paperweight. I will be watching this thread with interest.

LordGrover

34,189 posts

243 months

Friday 8th November 2019
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Paddymcc said:
They run great with cloudready and very easy to install too.
Not heard of this before. Will find a lappy and give it a spin.

Jinx

12,022 posts

291 months

Friday 8th November 2019
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I'd suggest https://lubuntu.net/ if you don't get on with cloudready's Chrome.

Skyedriver

Original Poster:

23,633 posts

313 months

Saturday 9th November 2019
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sjtgeray said:
I've used CloudReady on old HP desktops and Lenovo Laptops. Works well enough for Youtube and Browsing/Gmail etc. Only shame is you cant play DVD's on it
Tried twice to download onto a 64GB USB stick.
It gets to 100% then I get a Fail Runtime Error Couldn't download
And Memory Stick is empty.

This POS is the most annoying POS I've ever had the displeasure of using....

Could try the Ubuntu but that needs 25GB and 4GB RAM to run apparently

Edited by Skyedriver on Saturday 9th November 10:39

AJB88

15,960 posts

202 months

Sunday 10th November 2019
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Cloudready is an OS based on Chromium aka ChromeOS, allows you to turn any machine basically into a Chromebook.

Even allows you to take an old Chromebook that is no longer supported and give it a new lease of life.

Skyedriver

Original Poster:

23,633 posts

313 months

Sunday 10th November 2019
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Quite ready to turn this hp POS into very small pieces but having stripped as much as I dare off it, I have a whole GB of space left on the HD.

AlexC1981

5,857 posts

248 months

Sunday 10th November 2019
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Jinx said:
I'd suggest https://lubuntu.net/ if you don't get on with cloudready's Chrome.
Lubuntu runs reasonably well on an ancient Pentium M laptop we have, so it should run nicely on the OP's HP.

AlexC1981

5,857 posts

248 months

Sunday 10th November 2019
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Skyedriver said:
Quite ready to turn this hp POS into very small pieces but having stripped as much as I dare off it, I have a whole GB of space left on the HD.
Make up the installation USB stick on another PC. Stick it in your HP, switch it on and with any luck it will boot from the USB stick. If it doesnt you might need to find the button to tap (often escape or an Function key) to enter the boot menu or bios to enable you to choose the option to boot from USB.

I'd let it reformat your drive to get rid of Windows completely. If the experiment is a failure you can always install Windows from scratch again, and it will run better than it does now. No computer will run well with only 1GB of drive space free!



Duke of Kidderminster

761 posts

158 months

Wednesday 13th November 2019
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How are you installing it on the HP Stream 7 tablet?

I have created the USB stick, boot from it, then it sits at the keyboard/mouse screen. It hasn’t recognised that there is a touch screen so no on screen keyboard. I also can’t plug a keyboard in because it only has 1 usb socket which has my drive in it. If I plug a usb hub in then it doesn’t recognise anything!

But catch 22...

psgcarey

612 posts

193 months

Thursday 14th November 2019
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I picked up a cheap HP stream 14 with 32GB HDD,

With Windows 10S I have 10GB left, and for web surfing, youtube, iplayer etc... runs perfectly fine.

I'm not sure these PCs were designed to run Windows 10 Pro, hence running 10S.

Also, are you running Storage Sense? It's found under settings/system/storage and clears out files that are not needed to clear up space, including windows update files.

Skyedriver

Original Poster:

23,633 posts

313 months

Thursday 14th November 2019
quotequote all
psgcarey said:
I picked up a cheap HP stream 14 with 32GB HDD,

With Windows 10S I have 10GB left, and for web surfing, youtube, iplayer etc... runs perfectly fine.

I'm not sure these PCs were designed to run Windows 10 Pro, hence running 10S.

Also, are you running Storage Sense? It's found under settings/system/storage and clears out files that are not needed to clear up space, including windows update files.
Not heard of Storage Sense, use CCCleaner

Windows 10S not heard of that, IIRC this damn thing came with W8 but updated itself but won't update anymore as there aint no room at the inn. How do I get W10S, do I need to clean W10 full fat off first?
Funny thing is, since I managed to get a little over a GB free space, my wife has been using it for family tree etc and says it's fine!
We were going to get her a new laptop or macbook , maybe for the minute we don't need to.
(Son now has as an all singing and dancing PC to do his homework....

psgcarey

612 posts

193 months

Thursday 14th November 2019
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Skyedriver said:
Not heard of Storage Sense, use CCCleaner

Windows 10S not heard of that, IIRC this damn thing came with W8 but updated itself but won't update anymore as there aint no room at the inn. How do I get W10S, do I need to clean W10 full fat off first?
Funny thing is, since I managed to get a little over a GB free space, my wife has been using it for family tree etc and says it's fine!
We were going to get her a new laptop or macbook , maybe for the minute we don't need to.
(Son now has as an all singing and dancing PC to do his homework....
Storage Sense was just an inbuilt utility that came with Windows 10 S.

Here's a link to a Microsoft FAQ about 10 S.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/4020089/w...

It's basically a cut down version of 10 Pro, so takes up less space, and has a few less features. For simple home browsing it works fine for me. This laptop came with it pre-installed with an option to upgrade to 10 Pro if wanted, although it warns it's a one-way trip. I'm guessing you would have to start from scratch, but it would give you around 10GB free space to play with.

psgcarey

612 posts

193 months

Thursday 14th November 2019
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LordGrover

34,189 posts

243 months

Friday 15th November 2019
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To regain space hit Start/Windows button and type disk clean-up, select it from the list.
Once it's open select Clean up system files.
Does a good job of safely clearing out old update files and previous versions.