Re: Switch from Ubuntu to Mint
- Posted by irv Dec 31, 2018
- 1120 views
Tom, I paid a service agent to upgrade my computer including moving to SSD, create partitions, install Windows and Ubuntu. It was worth $100 to me to have it done quickly by someone who knew what he was doing.
You were probably right to do that. Windows - especially Windows 10 - installation can take hours, and isn't exactly user-friendly.
My advice, if you can live with Ubuntu for a while, do so, and later, when you feel more secure about changing the OS, try others such as Mint. Normally, installing a Linux os is very simple and quick (only about 15 minutes, unless it also has to relocate some files that Windows has scattered around the disk). When that happens, the relocation (and defrag) takes a while.
I install a new Linux version every few months, and have never had the installation process damage Windows. On the other hand, re-installing Windows will wipe out everything on your computer.
First thing you should find out - and remember - is which key you press while rebooting to access the boot menu. On mine, it is F11. You will someday need to know this - regardless of what OS you decide to use. If you watch the screen carefully when you reboot, you may see a message telling you which key that is. Or ask the person who installed it.
If you hold that key down and press the power button on the computer, a nice screen will open with a list of disk drives, DVD drives, and other options. You can edit the order that the disk drives are listed so that the disk you want to boot from is at the top of the list. If you put the DVD drive there, then when you reboot, the computer will look at the DVD first. If there's not a bootable disk there, it will go on to the next item down the list. That should be your hard drive. Therefore, this doesn't interfere with the start up in any significant way, and can remain set that way in the event you may wish to boot from the DVD sometime.
