HDD runs better on Windows 8?

[euless]

Hi

I read a comment somewhere that claims a laptop with HDD can run well on Windows 8, but poorly on Windows 10.

Is this true?

I have been working on a Lenovo Z51-70 with Windows-10 and a 1-Tb HDD. The owner complained that this laptop is just so slow to boot-up and gets annoying messages about the AMD Radeon Discrete Graphics driver not working properly. I also found that Windows Update takes many times slower than should be. During Windows Update, the laptop is borderline unusable. So, I reinstalled Windows-10 and debloated unnecessary start-up software. The boot-up is faster than before, but I think it is still slower than it should be. It was useable, after I disable Auto Updates. A few days later, the owner said the laptop started to lock up frequently. My research showed that this laptop's AMD graphics driver is very problematic with Windows Update, and there is a hack to maybe fix this problem. I didn't want to do this hack on someone else's machine, so I just disabled the AMD Radeon discrete graphics in the BIOS. And now it does not lock up anymore. But, of course, you lose discrete graphics.

I just learned some of these Z51 laptops came with Windows-8 from Lenovo. How do I verify that this particular laptop can run Windows-8? Should I try it?

The owner doesn't want to invest in an SSD. I agree it is risky to invest money into this laptop, since I read about the AMD Radeon driver issue. Although it does have a nice 16" display and JBL speakers.

Spec:
Lenovo Z51
Intel i7-5500U
AMD Radeon R9
8 Gb Ram

[dr_st]

Windows 10 is barely usable with a mechanical drive. It just has not been optimized for these limitations; SSDs were already mainstream when it was released.

[kfzhu1229]

Windows 10 in general is significantly more bloated than Windows 8/8.1 and has a lot of background services running constantly as well as Windows Updates that cannot be easily turned off.
With a lot of effort in debloating and then switch off Windows updates, Windows 10 can be made more lightweight and earlier builds of Windows 10 will then behave more similar to Windows 8/8.1
But on my Acer Pentium M Pen Tablet with 2.5" IDE HDD these days I'd prefer using it with Windows 8.1 Update 1. Doesn't have bloats of Windows 10 and has a lot more advanced tablet support than Windows 7 (plus Onenote works much better in 8.1 and even better in windows 10)