Absolute Beginner

[kiwipaul]

Are you using just the USB? I found I had to keep redoing things when I booted up; Google Chrome for example - had to reinstall that (not that I ever got it working).

That is because you've not installed it. When you boot your USB their should be an Install Icon on the desktop. You use this to install on a second USB (at least 32GB).

Be careful because if you use the default install Mint will install wherever it thinks best which could be your Windows disk. If you use the default option I'd recommend you def disable your W10 drive (even if it means unplugging if you cannot disable in BIOS.)

I disabled my W10 disk in BIOS so that Mint could not see it and installed to a 32GB USB. Took me a while to figure out some of the ans to the question it asked but got their eventually. It's now been working fault free for more than 1 month and I'm learning a lot from it.

[kiwipaul]

Things have moved on a bit since then. With UEFI boot you can have multiple bootloaders, not like legacy where the last OS installed overwrites the bootloader that was previously there.

20GB is too small for /, you will fill it up quickly. my / partition is 34GB, is 20GB used and I don't used flatpaks or snaps. DO NOT use timeshift with the defaults.

I'm not using UEFI but legacy.

20GB root is fine so far used 11 and 9 available and I have no swap or Home partition both are on root.

It's only a trial to see if is an acceptable alternative to W10 and so far it's looking good.

[YoungElder]

Do you need any Windows apps? If NO, then my suggestion is fit an SSD, probably about 240GB and if a desktop to SATA 0 with the Windows SATA 1. Install Linux Mint, maybe with the Windows disk disconnected so nothing can go wrong.

You should be able to read all the data on the Windows disk when reconnected.

If a laptop (you should always state what computer you are using when asking a question), replace the disk with the SSD and do an installation. Also buy a cable, SATA to USB and copy all the data from the removed disk i.e. pictures to the Pictures folder, documents to the Documents folder, etc.

This is what I do for installations I do for new users. There are various apps I also install from the Software Manager such as Audacity for sound recording, Audacious for listening to saved sound files, etc. I have a list of steps I take and it seems to satisfy new users. Note that little things such as the dictionary for LibreOffice Write for your country should be downloaded.

The best method for trying linux with safety.

[RollyShed]

What about Microsoft Word 2007?

What do you mean "Microsoft Word 2007". We're talking about using an office suite, LibreOffice, that will do everything including editing PDFs. Microsoft Office can't do half of it. LibreOffice is installed by default.. FREE.

Sorry about that, I've edited my initial post to include the information it's a laptop.
It's an Acer Predator Helios 300 PH317-54

This YouTube shows 10 screws -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qCWh4UyfQU
The YouTube also shows how to do everything you might need to do. Why he is installing a hybrid drive I don't know. Fit an SSD and get all of its advantage i.e. 10x speed increase.

I hadn't thought about copying my files/data over. It's basically just to watch Netflix, Youtube,

Just to watch videos from the web, if any problems it will be your internet connection.
Copying files and folders is so you can chuck Windows and still have any data you might have in the way of pictures, videos and documents.

Yes, I tried watching streams from the USB boot method but I had difficulty getting Firefox or Chrome to just, work.

I can't think what you've done wrong because it should work "out-of-the-box" as they say. I've certainly not had problems and used a USB on enough computers.

[FringeExplorer]

Do you need any Windows apps? If NO, then my suggestion is fit an SSD, probably about 240GB and if a desktop to SATA 0 with the Windows SATA 1. Install Linux Mint, maybe with the Windows disk disconnected so nothing can go wrong.

You should be able to read all the data on the Windows disk when reconnected.

If a laptop (you should always state what computer you are using when asking a question), replace the disk with the SSD and do an installation. Also buy a cable, SATA to USB and copy all the data from the removed disk i.e. pictures to the Pictures folder, documents to the Documents folder, etc.

This is what I do for installations I do for new users. There are various apps I also install from the Software Manager such as Audacity for sound recording, Audacious for listening to saved sound files, etc. I have a list of steps I take and it seems to satisfy new users. Note that little things such as the dictionary for LibreOffice Write for your country should be downloaded.

Absolute guide for a beginner.