Got an old laptop from a friend I’d like to rejuvenate, the plan is to set up a light distro so it wouldn’t be as slow as it is right now with windows 10.

Now, I’m aware windows updates can fuck up a dual boot system, so i have a few questions about how to minimize the threat of that happening.

What i think of doing is running a few scans to check the disk, then setting up Linux Mint, because it is beginner friendly, and (relatively) light weight.

What I’d need help with is trusted guides and also tips for setting up dual booting, I’m sure I’ll need to do disk partitioning and I’ve done that before but I’d still want to make sure I’m doing it correctly.

Any help would be welcome.

    • BlackRoseAmongThorns@slrpnk.netOP
      0·
      6 days ago

      Kinda need the old OS, it’s a close friend’s computer and it took too long to get just a few files out of it, i want to keep the rest just in case we missed something.

      (Also I don’t want to just backup the whole ass hard drive)

      • XTL@sopuli.xyz
        0·
        6 days ago

        I’d get a new drive. Install a sane os and need tool and use that. They should be cheap these days. Put the old one in a safe place in case you need something from it. When you find it years on and notice that there was nothing important there after all, recycle it. That’s a much safer approach.

      • neanderthal@lemmy.world
        0·
        6 days ago

        You could leave the Windows installation and not dual boot. Linux can read NTFS volumes. You will probably have to install ntfsprogs or whatever it’s called.

        • BlackRoseAmongThorns@slrpnk.netOP
          0·
          6 days ago

          If i understand correctly, i could leave the windows install as is, but disable it from appearing during boot, and install a program to read the files from the windows partition?

          If so that’s actually a perfect solution :)

          • FrameXX@discuss.tchncs.de
            0·
            6 days ago

            AFAIK on most distros and desktop environments the default file nanager can read NTFS partitions without any further setuo needed.

          • neanderthal@lemmy.world
            0·
            6 days ago

            Yes.

            To do this, open a terminal, and do this:

            sudo apt search ntfs

            It will be called something like ntfs-progs or ntfs-fuse or both.

            Then:

            sudo apt install PKG1 PKG2

            Alternatively, the synaptic package tool has a nice GUI

            • BlackRoseAmongThorns@slrpnk.netOP
              0·
              4 days ago

              I’m finally back, apparently linux mint comes with ntfs handling out of the box, just opened the file explorer (nemo), and opened a picture successfully.

              Only step left is disabling booting through windows.

      • MyNameIsRichard@lemmy.ml
        0·
        6 days ago

        You’re messing with partitions which means there is the potential for data loss, be it hardware, human error, or a random cat. You should, if the data is important to you, have a backup.