Today, I am going to show you how to install Linux on your old computer to give it a new life. If your computer is sluggish, Linux can always help you rejuvenate it. For this, you need a Linux distro and software called Win32 Disk Imager. To download the Linux distro, you can do a quick Google search and to download Win32 Disk Imager, you can visit their official website.
I will briefly describe step by step the whole process to make a clean installation of Linux on your old computer. If you are an expert user, you may have already known all these processes. But I'm going to cover the whole process so even the beginners can understand it.
As I mentioned earlier, the very first step you have to take before proceeding is to choose what distro you are going to use. This is completely up to you and you can choose whatever works for you. For demonstrational purposes, I am going to use Ubuntu as our distro.
How to Make A Bootable USB With Win32 Disk Imager
Once you have picked the distro, go to its website and download the ISO file. Since we are using Ubuntu, I've already prepared my ISO. Once you have downloaded the ISO, you have to download the application with which creates the bootable USB. For this, you can even select software like Rufus. However, I am going to use Win32 Disk Imager. Finally, you need a USB drive to contain the installation files. Make sure to back up all of your data because this process will erase everything.
Once Win32 Disk Imager has been downloaded, double click on the Win32 Disk Imager application to launch it.
Now, connect the USB you want to use to the computer. Now click on the "Select" option to choose the ISO image with which you want to create the bootable USB.
When you click on "Select", a file explorer will open. From there you have to locate the ISO file that you've downloaded.
Once you have selected the ISO file the rest of this process is completely automatic. Hence, unless you want to change something leaving everything as it is and clicking on the "Start" button is sufficient to create your bootable USB drive.
When you click on "Start", Win32 Disk Imager or Rufus will show you a warning notifying you that all of the data on the flash drive will be lost. Simply, click on "Okay" and continue.
Now the creation process will start. Wait for it to finish, and once the process is complete you can leave the USB and restart your computer. If your BIOS settings and boot order are correct, you will be logged in the boot mode. If it doesn't you may have to set the boot order manually.
To do this, restart the computer by immediately pressing the key that it shows while booting up. In general, this should be F12, but depending on the BIOS and the PC, there may be others such as F1, F8, F9, F10, TAB or ESC. When you see the menu, select the bootable USB drive and press Enter to boot the computer through it and that's it.
