A quick Google tells me your laptop is running Windows 8 or 8.1, and that you have a UEFI type BIOS. You can correct me if that's not the case. The UEFI system makes booting and installing Linux very difficult sometimes.
Before you do much else, I would highly recommend that you make a set of recovery DVD's. There should be a built-in HP Recovery Manager app that will do this. These DVD's will allow you to get Windows reinstalled if something goes wrong.
I am wrestling with a differrent HP model laptop, and it is extremely difficult to get Linux working on this model. Even though I have been able to get Linux installed, it only boots about half the time, and it freezes on shut down 100% of the time. Your model may be more Linux-friendly than mine... I hope so. Linux used to be very straightforward to install on just about any kind of computer... but it is not always so easy now with UEFI.
Good luck!