Refurbish your old laptop
When a laptop is discarded into landfill, many different heavy metals and other minerals and poisons enter into the ecosystem. Why throw it away when it can be reused?
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Butterfly is super light on resource usage, meaning it will run on really old laptops that are really slow. So you don't really need to upgrade your laptop. If you don't want to upgrade your laptop, and assuming you have removed any files you want to keep, then skip to the next page and install Butterfly...
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If you do want to upgrade the laptop, then try the following steps to prepare your old windows laptop to install Butterfly. If you are stuck or concerned, there are plenty of tutorials on youtube or the web generally. Just do a web search for the thing you want to do and include your laptop's make and model...
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By the way... the creators and providers of Butterfly offer no guarantees in respect of any damage that might occur to either you or your laptop!
However, it is highly unlikely that any damage may occur. Always make sure the laptop is unplugged, and never force anything! If you have to force something then you are doing it wrong!
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Try looking up the procedure on the internet - include your laptop make and model in the search. Generally there are youtube videos showing how to disassemble and reassemble most makes of laptop.
Do I have the right laptop?
Butterfly requires an old windows laptop. It can be installed on old apple laptops but it is not advisable if you are a beginner.
Your old laptop should ideally be later than 2012. The more recent the better
Things to do...
Remove any files that you want to keep. You can either log in to the laptop or, if you have forgotten the password, then you can use a live usb of linux to boot the laptop and copy any files that you want to keep to an attached external hard drive. Here is a link to instructions on how to create and boot a live usb stick, so that you can view the laptop hard-drive.
Make any necessary upgrades. Butterfly is super light on resources so you may not need to make any upgrades at all. However, if you do, it is always best to use the maximum ram available, if possible. One thing that can be really useful to speed up the laptop is to fit a new harddrive. Many old laptops have a hard drive with moving parts. These contain several magnetic disks and work a little bit like an old record player. Because they have moveable parts they can be fragile and are always slow. Fit an SSD (solid state drive) and see a massive speed increase.
You don't need to install a new battery, but it can help make the laptop more portable. On older laptops the battery can be easily detached and replaced. On more modern laptops you will need to use a small screwdriver to remove the screws from the base, and remove the base, then unplug the battery and remove any screws that fix it to the case. Simply reverse the procedure to finish. If you are unsure, then search on google 'replace battery [your laptop make and model here]'.
You will need a functioning power adapter. You can generally buy these from either ebay or amazon. Search on either site with the keyword 'power adaptor' and your laptop make and model. If you cannot find one, then you might be able to buy a multi adaptor either online or at a local store.
Make sure you dispose of your old battery in a responsible eco-safe way at your local recycling depot...!!!