alright I want to convert my windows 8 laptop to linux can someone walk me through it?

Question

I have a lenovo P500 idea pad 8gb ddr 1TB hard drive blah blah google it. I want to convert my windows 8 laptop to linux to get rid of this horrible abomination called windows 8 and I was wondering will I lose my files and other computer crap during the conversion. And what will I need to do to well do so. Sorry for the abruptness I really hate the keyboard on this laptop and do not feel like typing all the little details and what not. So someone please help. About linux not the crapy keyboard.

Answer 1

the general idea is this:



1. backup your files !!! make more than one copy, this can be to a usb flash drive, external hdd/ssd, online (cloud) storage etc



2. in Windows 8, in power options, disable the option for hibernation as shutdown method.



3. download the linux systems you might use, best to get a couple, in case you make a mistake, and one isnt compatible enough or something.

http://www.linuxmint.com/oldreleases.php

(the xfce edition is light, plenty of options, very customisable, doesnt require fancy graphics)

https://www.linuxliteos.com/



4. burn the linux installers (which will be .iso files) onto blank dvd's, using a program called infra recorder or imgburn, its good to have them around, you never know when you may need to rescue something. or usb flash drive using a program called unetbootin.



5. go into Windows disk management, shrink the Windows 8 system partition, as you will very likely need Windows for something, someday. make sure you know what the partitions are, shrink the system to a safe usable size. leave the unallocated space alone.



6. you may need to change a bios/setup/UEFI setting, to disable secure boot feature.



7. choose your boot device by pressing F8 or something, it will tell you (briefly).



8. run the system from dvd/flash drive to check temperatures (install psensor), cpu usage, graphics, mouse, external devices etc work, some may need full installation to know..



9. if you proceed to the install wizard of a linux system which is based on ubuntu, then it will usually have the same installer method. when you get to a page of the wizard, showing installation options, choose install to free space, or "something else" for manual partitioning.

for manual, in the unallocated space choose the plus sign to create new partition, this is what you want:



-- swap:

filesystem: linux swap/swap

mount point: no mount point

size: 4-8 gb



-- linux system:

filesystem: ext4

mount point /

size: the rest of the unallocated space you left for linux.





i think thats everything..

Answer 2

You can usually install a linux distro so that it dual boots. Meaning, when you turn on the computer, you get the option to load either linux or the existing operating system. The more user friendly distros like Ubuntu is set up to offer to do this for you in the installer. I would suggest making a backup of the recovery partition. You can do this by typing "Create a recovery drive" when you're at the tiled Metro UI. That way in case you encounter any issues, you can just run the recovery software to reinstall W8. If you want to fully switch to linux, you're going to have to format the HDD/SDD, meaning that everything on it will be erased.



For a walkthrough on doing it, try Youtube.

Answer 3

Take a look at this link to see if it can help you get Linux installed.



http://www.everydaylinuxuser.com/2013/09/install-ubuntu-linux-alongside-windows.html