Dell D410 i386 32bit computer

End of support for Ubuntu 18.04 i386 architecture.

Shame. In 2005 the Dell D410 was brand new. Solid business computer it was less than 2kg. Mine still runs but it's time to change.

Windows XP still runs the programs meant for it. Disk Management says it has a Healthy(System) of 55GB shared with a Linux partition of 63GB. The original 60GB spinning hard drive has been replaced by an mSATA card with 128GB from Vaseky. We will get back to the drive, later.

32bit i386 Processors

The D410 came out during a time of change. Consumers were offered hardware and software that gradually ended the ended the old generation of computers. Today we only see 64bit processors from Intel and AMD. Microsoft only produces new software for the new computers.

Inside every computer is an abacus. We talk about 8bit processors that do math with 8 beads and can count 256 values on a rod byte of data. Arduino and 8051 use clever math and can go above 64000 values for 16bit calculations.

32bit computers can work natively with numbers almost to 4 billion. Going above that means extra mathematics. Advanced Micro Devices AMD developed a 64bit architecture of new processors.

Original HDD vs SSD

The original HDD hard disk drive is a Seagate 60GB that spun metal disks at 5400 spins per second. The SSD solid state drive card is shown in an adaptor with metal 40pin IDE or PATA interface. The silver foil stuff is an anti-static bag from an electronics delivery. Minimize handling components and follow precautions.

Only 60GB and much slower than the SSD. Compare the Benchmark speed with the SSD card in the Vaseky module. Read/write speeds three times faster in the solid state drive.

Cloning

Next project, Clone Drive with CloneZilla is to clone the dual boot SSD drive we are taking out of the D410. We can keep it and re-install it in the computer in the future. Look closely at the screenshots and you will see which drives are being used.

How are the drives laid out?

The layout for the Windows XP installed in the factory was a simple ntfs format partition. MBR master boot record is located at the start of the drive and the BIOS of the motherboard finds a kernel to boot.

Dual Boot with GRUB

After the hard drive was cloned onto the newer, faster SSD there was 60GB of space to install a second or third operating system. Ubuntu had several distros and release 18.04.5 had come with end of support warnings. I had been told.

Starting the computer brings me to a GRUB grand unified bootloader screen with boot options for Windows and Linux. Something like this.

During installation Linux installed GRUB configuration files. The computer boots with GRUB and when you select Windows from GRUB it then goes to the MBR in the Windows partition.

Hardware

Hard drives with the PATA connector are still available. But we can build better with adaptors and the newest drive technology. Next project is to clone Windows XP onto a gumstick memory drive. We need to look at some hardware.

All of these drives will work in the D410. We just need a 40pin IDE PATA adaptor for our gum-stick memory cards and the Dell laptop edge connector. We re-use the drive caddy that came with the original drive.

A view from the bottom shows how the front of the caddy works as a handle and you can still purchase the edge connector needed to install into a Dell computer of that time period.