I don't want to come across as a tree-hugger—not that there's anything wrong with tree hugging—but I have become more conscientious about recycling. I'm not talking about plastic, glass, paper, or aluminum (although I certainly recycle all those); I'm talking about recycling my seemingly ever-expanding inventory of computers in an effort to . . . well, in an effort to keep the inventory from expanding.

You know what I'm talking about, right? You have an aged but functional system that experiences a disk crash. You could throw it away, or you could invest $100 for a new disk drive and put it back into service. Or perhaps you have a favorite working system with an old OS on it and you want to extend its life by upgrading it.

My personal focus on recycling led me to the following three projects:

1. I have a classic black MacBook that serves as my personal computer. I recently replaced the battery and decided I wanted to further extend its life by performing an in-place OS upgrade from Leopard to Snow Leopard.
2. I have an HP tablet that crashes every time I plug a USB device into it (or sometimes it crashes if I even look at it funny). I love the tablet hardware, but I hate the system unreliability. I thought I'd see whether Windows 7 would offer better stability than Windows Vista.
3. I have an older, single-core Compaq-branded laptop that experienced a hard-disk crash, but the rest of the hardware is fine. I decided to extend its life by installing Linux on it.

How did these recycling projects go? As you will see, it was a mixed bag.

Not Hot: Leopard to Snow Leopard

I've been using a MacBook as my personal computer for more than three years. I really like the ergonomics of the hardware, and I've become an OS X fan over time. For this project, I performed an in-place upgrade from Leopard to Snow Leopard. I thought, "What could possibly go wrong?"

As it turns out, lots of things went wrong, and at the end of the upgrade, my precious MacBook was virtually useless. All my user account permissions went awry, and no utility on earth could fix them. I can no longer change the contents of my dock. I can no longer save application-related preferences. In short, I can no longer use my MacBook.

In hindsight, this outcome was my own fault. All my years of Windows experience taught me to never do an in-place upgrade—always do a fresh install. I thought the experience would be better with OS X, but I was wrong, wrong, wrong.

Lukewarm: Linux on a Laptop

The original hard drive crashed on my Compaq-branded laptop, so I installed a new (and faster) hard drive and then decided to run Linux on it to avoid any Windows licensing ambiguities. I tried both Ubuntu and Fedora. Both OSs installed fine, but both had the same problem: They couldn't work with the integrated wireless hardware.

I ultimately got Ubuntu working on the laptop by purchasing a low-cost USB wireless adapter. So at the end of the day, this project was successful. But every time I look down and see that USB adapter sticking out the side of the computer, I sigh heavily and wonder why Linux can't provide better hardware discovery and support.

Hot: Windows 7 on My Old Tablet

As previously noted, I know better than to try an in-place Windows upgrade, so for my tablet project, I installed a new (and again, faster) hard drive. To be clear, my tablet wasn't on the approved hardware list for Windows 7, so my expectation for success was very, very low.

To my surprise, Windows 7 installed perfectly on the tablet. All hardware functionality was recognized and supported. Upon further testing, Windows 7 proved to be a much more stable OS on the tablet than Vista. I was shocked by my success.

What's even more shocking is that I ended up setting aside my hamstrung MacBook and adopting the Windows 7 tablet as my new personal computer. Of course, I've had a love-hate relationship with Windows for many years, so we'll see how long the love lasts this time.

Sean Chandler is a computer and network consultant with more than 30 years of field experience. Astro, a border collie with more than 40 dog years of data processing experience, provides technical support to his master, Sean.

Astro's Pick of the Litter

Speaking of recycling, my master recently got a new iPod Touch to replace the first-generation iPod Touch he gave away when he got his iPhone 3G. Why does he need both an iPod Touch and an iPhone? I think he was disappointed that he couldn't upgrade his iPhone 3G to an iPhone 3GS (he has another year on his contract before he can do that), and he wanted a consolation toy. However he tells me it's because he doesn't want to use up the battery on his iPhone playing videos when he's traveling. He seems happy with this solution because he can use the same chargers, cables, software, and peripherals on both devices. However, I'm not happy, because I want to play with an Android-based media player!

—Astro