I have been toying with installing a linux distro on an aging Sony laptop (Vaio VGN FW 11E, circa 2009 2.3ghz processor, 4Gb RAM) which is slowly grinding to a halt. The plan is to swap to an SSD drive as old drive about to fail and create a dual boot machine. While all that sounds like I know what I am doing, the SDD cloning and installation are the parts I feel confident in, the Linux part a complete blank.I would appreciate some suggestions /guidance for a suitable Linux distro.
Rob
Hi Rob, and welcome to the site! Are you really sure the hard drive is failing? Windows systems tend to get slower and slower with time, and that may be the reason for "grinding to a halt" even with perfectly working hardware. If this is the case, then cloning only brings your troubles to a new drive (although SSD should still be faster and may mask the trouble). Have you ever done a Windows System Recovery (not System Restore)? Recovery takes the computer back to the brand-new state, just like when you bought it, so important files need to be backed up before doing this.
Being from the 2009 era, your laptop is likely BIOS-based (new systems are now UEFI based). This actually makes it a little easier to install Linux in a dual boot setup with Windows, and also offers you a few more Linux choices because some Linux versions are still not UEFI ready. I usually recommend Linux distros from the Ubuntu family for new users because they are often better at detecting hardware (like sound and wireless networks adapters)... so, Ubuntu itself, or Linux Mint, or Linux Lite are all pretty good choices. With 4 GB of RAM, you should be able to run anything really.
Before you actually install Linux, you can put it on a DVD or USB flash drive and boot your computer with that, and use it to see if your hardware works properly. You can use this "Live Linux" method to also run some tools to check out your hard drive to see if it looks like it has problems or not. It's even a good idea to make 2 or 3 (or more) of these "Live Linux" DVD's so you can try out different versions to see what appeals to you visually, and for functionality.
So, I would save the money and not buy a SSD unless it really is needed. I would use System Recovery to reinstall Windows (Vista? or 7?) so that Windows runs better, and then I'd add Linux to the mix last. (Well, actually, I would skip Windows and go Linux only!
) But other folks here may offer other opinions as well. Whatever you decide to do, we will be glad to try to help you achieve it.
Cheers
