MS Windows, Surface, PC computers, phones, Xbox, cash points & tills appreciation

This machine seems to be dad's from the early days.

Got a full operating manual for either DOS 3 or 4 in the loft. Mum said it was her 'most borrowed' book when it lived on her desk at work, to the point a snotty male argued she couldn't take company property home with her. He was a little pink-cheeked when it came about it was not company property after all.

https://youtu.be/fUyU3lKzoio

Windows 10

problem:

• stuck in a spinning circle of dots
  
• on one occasion was told error = unmountable boot volume
  
• after that tried the steps on this tutorial:
  https://youtu.be/q4rp--5xWSg
  
  
  

However, in the command menu(?) I went through all the steps, until 18:23

after hitting "A" at 18:36 he says; "you should be good to go" - does this mean it will do something, because nothing happens?

Or is the idea of this that you then use this copy to boot from, in which case how?

Cheers.

ps Any other guides would be appreciated.

I'm usually in the mac thread, but have been tasked to get a new windows pc to the nursery our kids go to.

They're after a basic pc with windows 7. They use Word, some excel action and the usual browsing.

I've been offered this for literally peanuts, question is if it'll be good enough for the above?

Intel Core i5
8 GB RAM
500 GB HDD
Windows 7 Pro

I know a mac would work fine, but will this spec be fine on a windows machine?

Should be fine.

If possible I'd get a cheap SSD, stick windows on there and use the 500GB HDD for storage but it will be ok without.

nice one, thanks for the reply! Good thinking on the ssd!

Dredge. I need a copy of Windows XP for a VM to run some old software that controls some old hardware interface. Any tips on where I may find a copy?

Two options spring to mind. Buy a copy on eBay or download a torrent.

Yeah, makes sense (and is pretty obvious, tbf, so thanks for even bothering to answer). I guess what I was asking without working through the actual question is: Is it still possible to download a legit copy from MS if you have a key (which I'd be happy to buy from ebay, or find a copy of somewhere in my records)?

If not, torrent with SPs is the best option, I think.

No worries. I think that as far as Microsoft is concerned, XP no longer exists.

That was my worry (although I was getting mixed signals after a bit of googling, but I suspect a lot of the stuff about being able to get an ISO from MS still was old). Come on down to virus town!