Rene_Thomas
New Member
Hello all,
I am strongly considering installing a Linux operating system on my laptop, a Hewlett Packard nc-6220 netbook.
It already has an operating system, if Micros*** Windows XP is still classed as "operating"; ie. It is no longer capable of updating the version of the Chrome browser it uses, which will not even allow me to access this site, hence me spending ages typing out this post on an elderly and ailing smartphone.
Until recently I've been running Linux Ubuntu on my laptop and though I have only rudimentary knowledge of Linux, and of computing generally, I attempted to update the Ubuntu OS to the newest release.
In doing so, the laptop crashed so badly it wouldn't boot up to the desktop no matter what I did. I had much help from some very clever and kindly folk on linux.org but my attempts to heal it led only to the realisation that the laptop's internal HDD was malfunctioning.
Eventually I remembered that when my wife's laptop broke, she had also bought a secondhand HP nc-6220 to replace it, just like mine, though hers was running Windows. Suffice it to say, that computer soon got sick and wouldn't power up, but, as our throwaway culture recommends, she bought yet another new one rather than have the hassle of repairing the old one(s). So when I found this machine lying round I saw my chance to extricate its HDD and swap it with the one in my old laptop.
Thanks to an online video and a screwdriver this worked a treat.
My laptop is up and running after its internal hard drive transplant, but only running an all-but-obsolete version of Windows.
I'm not in too much of a hurry to remedy that, but I don't lile using it to go online because I'm worried about it getting a virus. It seems Windows is much more prone to catching them than Linux, which seems to have built-in immunity.
I have an Ubuntu 14.04 LTS bootable USB stick. Can I just plug that in to get it going on Linux or do I need to do complicated things like making partitions?
Ideally I'd like to get onto another distro of Linux, maybe Lite or Mint, but Rome wasn't built in a day, and beggars can't be choosers.
Any recommendations as to my first steps back into Linux-land, my good compatriots?
I am strongly considering installing a Linux operating system on my laptop, a Hewlett Packard nc-6220 netbook.
It already has an operating system, if Micros*** Windows XP is still classed as "operating"; ie. It is no longer capable of updating the version of the Chrome browser it uses, which will not even allow me to access this site, hence me spending ages typing out this post on an elderly and ailing smartphone.
Until recently I've been running Linux Ubuntu on my laptop and though I have only rudimentary knowledge of Linux, and of computing generally, I attempted to update the Ubuntu OS to the newest release.
In doing so, the laptop crashed so badly it wouldn't boot up to the desktop no matter what I did. I had much help from some very clever and kindly folk on linux.org but my attempts to heal it led only to the realisation that the laptop's internal HDD was malfunctioning.
Eventually I remembered that when my wife's laptop broke, she had also bought a secondhand HP nc-6220 to replace it, just like mine, though hers was running Windows. Suffice it to say, that computer soon got sick and wouldn't power up, but, as our throwaway culture recommends, she bought yet another new one rather than have the hassle of repairing the old one(s). So when I found this machine lying round I saw my chance to extricate its HDD and swap it with the one in my old laptop.
Thanks to an online video and a screwdriver this worked a treat.
My laptop is up and running after its internal hard drive transplant, but only running an all-but-obsolete version of Windows.
I'm not in too much of a hurry to remedy that, but I don't lile using it to go online because I'm worried about it getting a virus. It seems Windows is much more prone to catching them than Linux, which seems to have built-in immunity.
I have an Ubuntu 14.04 LTS bootable USB stick. Can I just plug that in to get it going on Linux or do I need to do complicated things like making partitions?
Ideally I'd like to get onto another distro of Linux, maybe Lite or Mint, but Rome wasn't built in a day, and beggars can't be choosers.
Any recommendations as to my first steps back into Linux-land, my good compatriots?