How to Install Ubuntu Linux on PC or Laptop with USB Drive (Easy Tutorial)

Summary

In this video, Tim from YourSixStudios demonstrates how to install Ubuntu Linux on an old laptop with Windows 7. This easy-to-follow tutorial takes you through the steps of downloading the Ubuntu ISO file, flashing it onto a USB drive using Etcher, and configuring your computer to boot from the USB. Tim provides step-by-step guidance on how to navigate the BIOS to change boot priorities, install Ubuntu, and set up internet connection post-installation. He also covers how to properly erase an existing Windows installation and prepares your machine for a fresh start with Linux, ensuring an easy transition from Windows to a more secure Linux environment.

Highlights

• Tim installs Ubuntu on a laptop running Windows 7 for better security. 🛡️
• He uses a 16GB USB drive to install Ubuntu, downloaded from ubuntu.com. 💽
• Instructions on how to flash the Ubuntu ISO to the USB using Etcher. 🔧
• How to access BIOS and change boot order for USB boot. 🔄
• Guidance on installing Ubuntu and erasing Windows 7 in the process. 💻
• Setting up initial Ubuntu settings and connecting to Wi-Fi post-install. 📶
• Steps on how to remove unwanted Windows partitions completely. 🗑️

Key Takeaways

• Installing Ubuntu Linux is straightforward and enhances security for older laptops. 🔐
• You'll need a USB flash drive with at least 6GB of free space. 📀
• Download the Ubuntu ISO from ubuntu.com and use Etcher to flash it to your USB. 🖥️
• Boot into your BIOS to change the boot order to your USB drive. 🔄
• Choose to either erase Windows or install Linux alongside it. 💾
• Remember to choose the right drive for installation, especially if you have multiple drives. 📂
• Post-installation, connect to the internet to facilitate driver updates. 🌐
• Delete Windows partitions to free up space and start fresh with Linux. 🚀

Overview

Tim from YourSixStudios takes you on an exciting journey of transforming an old Windows 7 laptop into a secure Linux machine! Citing security concerns due to outdated support, Tim decides it's time for an upgrade and shows us just how easy it is to breathe new life into older hardware with Ubuntu Linux.

All you need is a USB drive and some free space to embark on this upgrade adventure. Download the latest Ubuntu from its official site, flash it onto the USB using Etcher, and get ready to bid goodbye to Windows 7. Tim guides you through accessing BIOS settings to prioritize USB booting, making the transition a smooth and educational experience.

Once Ubuntu installation begins, Tim walks you through set-up options, choosing whether to keep or replace Windows entirely, and connecting to Wi-Fi to make sure everything runs perfectly. By the end, not only is your laptop rejuvenated, but you also free up space by erasing those old Windows clutter, ready to take on fresh digital ventures with Ubuntu!

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:00: Introduction and Preparation This chapter introduces the task of installing Linux Ubuntu on an older laptop that currently runs Windows 7. The narrator, Tim, plans to upgrade the laptop for safety reasons as Windows 7 is no longer receiving updates. The chapter explains that the installation process is simple and requires a flash drive of at least 16 GB to accommodate a 6 GB download. Tim directs the audience to obtain the Ubuntu installer from a web browser by visiting the official Ubuntu website.
• 01:00 - 03:00: Downloading Ubuntu In this chapter, the focus is on downloading Ubuntu, a popular Linux distribution. The speaker advises users to go to Google and search for Ubuntu, then navigate to the download section specifically for desktop versions. They recommend downloading the current version, which is 24.4 LTS. The process does not require entering an email address. Once you hit download, you can save the file to a designated folder, such as 'Downloads', for easy access.
• 03:00 - 05:00: Creating a Bootable USB Drive To create a bootable USB drive, start by downloading the necessary files to your computer. The download is relatively small (5.7 GB) and is saved to your 'downloads' folder. Next, visit the website et.io to download Etcher, a tool that will allow you to write the downloaded files onto your flash drive. Simply download Etcher to your PC to continue the process of creating a bootable USB drive.
• 05:00 - 09:00: Booting from USB and Accessing BIOS This chapter provides a guide on how to download an operating system installation file to your computer. It illustrates the process specific to Windows 11, while briefly mentioning Mac and Linux as other available options. It describes how to save the download in the Downloads folder and offers tips on finding the file using browsers like Google Chrome or Brave, and through the file explorer.
• 09:00 - 13:00: Installing Ubuntu The chapter explains the process of installing Ubuntu. It begins by instructing the user to navigate to the downloads folder on their computer. The next step is to plug in a USB thumb drive so that it can be detected by the program being used for the installation. The narrator mentions refusing a prompt to format the drive as it has already been written for the purposes of this installation.
• 13:00 - 16:40: Post-Installation Setup In the 'Post-Installation Setup' chapter, the process of transferring the Ubuntu Linux download to a USB flash drive is explained. First, the user is instructed to select 'flash from file' and navigate to the downloads folder to locate the Ubuntu Linux file. This file is then written over to the USB drive, ensuring the correct device is selected. The process may take approximately 5 to 10 minutes. After the transfer is complete, the USB is ready to be plugged into the computer for further setup.
• 16:40 - 20:00: Managing Partitions and Final Steps The chapter provides a step-by-step guide on managing partitions and navigating the final steps of system setup. It focuses on changing the boot order by accessing the BIOS menu through specific function keys. The instructions emphasize patience, noting the slow boot time of some computers and the importance of selecting the correct function key (such as F7) to access the boot options.

How to Install Ubuntu Linux on PC or Laptop with USB Drive (Easy Tutorial) Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 hey everyone this is Tim from your sex Studios today in this video I'm going to be installing Linux auntu onto this older origin laptop that has Windows 7 on it and I don't believe they update that anymore so just for safety reasons I'm going to be upgrading to Linux over here and is actually rather easy you will need a flash drive and the download is 6 GB and this one is 16 GB so make sure you have one of these at hand so we can actually install it then open up a web browser and you can just go to buntu right here it is abun to.com otherwise
• 00:30 - 01:00 you can just go to Google and then type that in so under here let's go to get auntu and then go to download right here to desktop and then we can just go to where it says download so the current version I'm going to be getting is 24.4 LTS and then select download and you don't need to type in your email address or anything like that and it's going to pop up for you just go ahead and save the file now I put this into my downloads folder so I can just find this
• 01:00 - 01:30 easier so you can decide where you want it so downloads is fine and then it's going to download in the upper right so mine is downloaded already 5.7 gab so it's not a very large download at all now there's one other thing that we will need to get so we can actually write this to our flash drive we want to go to this website it is etcher et.io press enter and then download this to your PC so just download it and then
• 01:30 - 02:00 uh choose the operating system you're on Windows Macos Mac and then here's Linux down here so I'm on Windows 11 so I'm going to go to download right here and I have this going to my downloads folder as well just download that and then you can see it in your downloads folder here so if you're on Google uh is this Brave actually otherwise we can go on down to file explorer and then we can just find it through here so let's scroll through
• 02:00 - 02:30 here and go to my downloads folder and we should be able to find it so here's download and then just go to uh eter right here open this up just like this and at this point in time plug in your little USB thumb drive to your computer so it can actually be detected by this program so I'm going to plug in my USB flash drive right now and it wants me to format it so I'm going to go to deny because I actually already wrote this over here
• 02:30 - 03:00 so go to flash from file right here and select this then go to your downloads folder right here and locate the Ubuntu Linux download and select that and this will write it over to the USB flash drive just make you sure you have that selected and it might take maybe like 5 to 10 minutes to complete but once we have this copied over to our flash drive let's go over to our computer now all right now let's plug in our USB be
• 03:00 - 03:30 device over to one of the free slots here on the side of our computer so this should work and let's go ahead and power it on now when we power it on we're looking for an option it's going to be one of the F keys that we can launch our computer into the BIOS menu or if we can change the boot order so if I press power this computer boots really slow and it's going to say F2 for setup or F7 for boot options so I can press F7 and then it's going to bring me to the boot option options right here and I
• 03:30 - 04:00 can see my SanDisk uh USB drive selected right there so I can boot it directly off that otherwise what you might want to do is go on over to your bios menu so let's go to enter setup right here so it's going to be one of these keys on the top it's just going to say on the bottom here and we can go on over to boot on the top right here scroll on down and you want to try to boot off of that sandis so my SanDisk is showing up under boot option number three and I can
• 04:00 - 04:30 select this otherwise you can just change it on over to boot option number one right here so now we can just restart it and we should be able to boot directly off that uh USB device so if it's not booting up automatically just go into your bios menu and change the boot order you might want to change it to boot option number one and then we should be good to go so let's exit without saving and then launch our computer all right let's press F7 boot
• 04:30 - 05:00 options and then going down to SanDisk press enter and now it's going to go ahead and start this up so it says try or install auntu let's do that and it's blinking and we should go to the next screen here and here we go we can see the logo here and it's loading up 24.4 all right so let's pick a language I'm going to go to English and go to next right here then it says assess
• 05:00 - 05:30 abilities so I'm just going to go to next then go to English go to next uh we can connect it to the internet right now if we want to otherwise we can do that later I'm just going to do that later let's go to next and then we can go ahead and install it otherwise you can try it right here install uh alongside or instead of your current operating system so I'm going to go ahead and completely get rid of Windows 7 for users who want to be guided through the setup so let's go to
• 05:30 - 06:00 interactive installation and then we go to the default selection and then I'm going to install third party software for graphics and Wi-Fi hardware and here's where you can decide if you want to go ahead and completely get rid of everything on your hard drive it says erase dis and install ubu Tu so let's do this and then go to next so this will completely get rid of Windows 7 and then you can select your drive so I have three different drives on here I have an SS SD right here it looks like so maybe
• 06:00 - 06:30 I should just install it on here so this one says it's an SSD so I'll probably want to go ahead and install on that just because it would boot up a lot quicker as opposed to our hard drive so it says SSD right here and then create your account and it says it requires a password and let's go to next and go to your location so I'm over here go to next and then review your choices dis set up erase dis install going to my SSD right here applications security okay
• 06:30 - 07:00 looks good let's go to install fast free and full of new features all right looks like it's installed let's go to restart now and that didn't take very long that only took me about maybe like uh 5 to 10 minutes to install it onto this computer so it says please remove the installation medium and then press enter so removing this press enter all right and it should start up and I might have to type in my password we'll have to see so here's the boot options again down here F2 or F7 now if
• 07:00 - 07:30 you have multiple different hard drives onto your computer you might still have areas of Windows like 7 on or Windows 8 so since I install it onto a different hard drive it's booting up onto uh one of the older hard drives and not the SSD that installed on so I'm going to have to go back in the Bios menu and Boot It Off of the SSD first and I put that first in the boot options so if you just have one drive on your computer this won't be issue but since I have three
• 07:30 - 08:00 different drives on here uh the Windows 7 Drive is still booting first so let's go to F2 once I have the option all right and go on over to boot so under boot now I'm going to go down to hard drive BBS priorities right here and then I'm going to go to boot option number one and then I'm going to change it over to the drive that I installed uh boot into so it's the one with the SSD let's select that first and then we have boot
• 08:00 - 08:30 option number uh two and three we can just change this or we can just leave it how it is looks like these are both the same drive right here so let's go back and then we want to make sure we save this so let's go to save changes and then go to yes now we can restart the computer otherwise we can go to where it says boot override and we can pick the SSD from here as well so once I get this loaded up I'm going to want to go ahead and completely erase those other drives
• 08:30 - 09:00 and get rid of Windows 7 all right let's select my user right now and type in the password whatever it could be and then we should be able to see the desktop all right so I can connect to the internet now so I'll probably do that just get any kind of like uh generic kind of drivers installed so I can use my graphics card or my audio devices if those aren't working so let's go up to the top right and select Wi-Fi and select this and then go to all
• 09:00 - 09:30 networks and we can find my home networks under here so let's just turn this on and any visible networks appearing yes I got three of them so let's select this one scump and then type in the password and then go to connect and we'll see if it's working it's connected so looks like I don't have the most bars on here for some reason but we can open up Firefox now that comes default installed otherwise I've been enjoying Brave so let's go on
• 09:30 - 10:00 over to the storage right here and we can see the drive that we installed auntu on and this is what it looks like otherwise we can go to storage right here and we can see everything under here so there's other locations as well so we have this storage drive and it looks like we got some other things in here like Coral paint downloads and we can go and just get rid of that let's right click onto that and go to properties looks like not a lot is being used so we can open this into the disc
• 10:00 - 10:30 now what you can do is just select your drive under here so I'm going to go up to where my uh Windows 7 is located on this drive right here and then you can select it and you can go to the little delete option right here and then you can just delete it and type in the password and Windows 7 should be no more on this computer so it's all just free space and then we can go into here and if we really want it we could just partition the different uh you could format the partition right here uh you can resize it you can check it you can
• 10:30 - 11:00 repair it so unless you actually want to create a new one you can go to the little plus icon right there as well so we shouldn't have to worry about Windows 7 anymore I'm just going to and delete everything off of here as well go to delete all right and it looks like we're good and then here is where uh Linux is installed so now to actually use these we have to create a partition on them otherwise they won't show up under storage so we want to go to the plus icon and we can go to the partition size and we can go to to next and then you
• 11:00 - 11:30 can name the volume whatever it is um hard drive HDD number one so otherwise you can just give it a number or a letter so let's just do s and then go to uh create right here and type in your password authenticate so that should show up now and we can do the same thing on the top one here now we should be able to see it show up on the left here and we can go
• 11:30 - 12:00 to other locations so here's s and we're still waiting for f perfect so we can see the one where auntu is installed and then here's F and then here is s so nothing is in those drives at all so we should be good to use the computer freely now but hopefully this video did indeed help you out did leave it a big Thumbs Up And subscribe my Channel Down Below for more check out videos coming up next on your six gaming