Refurbishing an 08 MBP

[mediaman0610]

Hey everyone!

I have an idea I've been toying around with for a few months. To give a little background my Mom is having some computer issues and will need a new one soonish. Since she doesn't have a lot of money for a new one, nor does she need anything too fancy, I've considered giving her one of my old MBP's. But before I do that it'll need some TLC.

So the question is, is it worth the time and money to get my '08 MBP in working order or should she just buy a cheapish PC?

For starters I know it needs a new power cord, but no big deal there. Is there a quick and easy way to run some diagnostics that will tell us what if any parts need attention? In an ideal world I'd like to give her MBP fully updated, from Leopard to Yosemite.

Of course, she's never used Mac before, so out of curiosity, would it be possible for the MBP to run a Windows drive natively (i.e. not Bootcamp)?

Further more, is this something that I could do myself or would it be best to take in somewhere?

Thanks guys! No pressure here, just an idea that's been tossed around a little bit.

 

[Bending Pixels]

The big question is - what applications does she use on her Windows computer that aren't available on the Mac?

The applications DVD that came with your MBP should include the diagnostics program. Reboot, hold down D (for diagnostics) and let the diagnostics program run.

As respects to swapping drives, I believe you would still need the bootcamp drivers to get Windows to run. There may be a hardware conflict as the Windows drive has drivers for it's current machine.

As to opting for a cheap PC - do you really want to have your mom deal with The Mess (Windows 8)?

 

[mediaman0610]

The big question is - what applications does she use on her Windows computer that aren't available on the Mac? ...
As to opting for a cheap PC - do you really want to have your mom deal with The Mess (Windows 8)?

As far as I know she using no applications on her PC which cannot be found on Mac. I doubt she even purchased the Office Suite because she didn't want to spend the money. Most of the stuff she uses that for is work related, thus she does it at the office.

Is there a way to do this without the original Boot Disk? For whatever reason I can't find it. After several large moves and upgrading to a new MBP I'm not surprised.

I wish Win 8 on no one.