Install 22.04 on old (2014) laptop?

[Schwarzer Kater]

The Crucial MX500 will be worth it. And this is the right type of SATA SSD.

[…] may take some prying with a small flat piece of metal or plastic card.

Don't use metal but plastic!

[Qqmike]

Like this one, right? Actually, even 250 GB would do the trick for my user; in fact, more than enough.
https://www.crucial.com/ssd/mx500/ct...sd1/ct11178905

Just 10 #0 screws. I think I'll feel better if I first make sure I can open the case (maybe tomorrow). Never been opened, may take some prying with a small flat piece of metal or plastic card.

[Qqmike]

I located all the info! YouTube how-to + SSD specs/vendors. I'll think on this ...

[Qqmike]

I will check into this laptop thingy. YouTube is usually a good friend. Thanks.

[claydoh]

Actually, older laptops can be a little easier to open than new one, often quite a bit.
I will wager that there are simple tutorials for your model on the topic.
More so if it is a 'business' class laptop.
My 2013 i3 laptop, an HP -something-something-numbers 17" beast is a consumer grade laptop, and it has a simple panel to access the ram and HDD.
A SATA SSD, which can be had for around 25 dollars for a small 128Gb 500Gb model from a half-decent brand, It will be shaped like, connect directly, and work exactly the same as a spinning HDD. The motherboard won't know or care
But the speed difference is quite large, huge, and enormous.
On my i3 lappy, it makes it actually usable for daily tasks. I haven't thrown anything heavy at it yet, say virtualbox or Steam for old games.
On the original HDD, it was slow to boot, slow to log in, slow to load software, even simple things. Now it is *almost* ...snappy?
Larger SSDs tend to be faster than smaller capacity ones, among the same brand and model, though it probably is not as noticeable on an older system.

[Qqmike]

Many thanks. If this were a desktop PC, of which I have built several, I would consider SSD. I just don't have experience working with laptops, don't even know how to begin, how to open one. And it is an older machine, anyway, 2014. I suppose the mobo would support an SSD, though.
Well, I will not hesitate then to use, say KDE Partition Manager, to delete the partition table and build a new GPT and go from there.
Thanks, again.

[Schwarzer Kater]

I expect no problems at all with the former installation(s) if you create a new partition table.

You could additionally swap the HDD for an SSD to speed things up a bit - otherwise Kubuntu 22.04 will run perfectly fine on this machine (Snaps aside… <- partly personal opinion ). Take a look at my laptop specs - not much different from yours and I am sure that I will keep this machine for some more years!

[GreyGeek]

My new HP 17-cn1*** had Win11 on it. I booted into a Live USB of Kubuntu 20.04, ran the install and at its HD preparation section I blew everything away and created a new partition table using EFI, @, @home and swap. My BTRFS install went on beautifully from there. Later I moved @home into /home and took out the line in /etc/fstab that mounted @home to /home. Then I deleted @home.

[Qqmike]

… continuing my 1st post (above), going to install 22.04 on the (old) 2014 laptop:


That laptop came with Windows 8, now upgraded to 10, NEVER used any more, and I’d rather just clean up the hard drive and use it for Kubuntu only.

As you can see, there are 8 partitions, UEFI, 5 used for Windows.

To wipe this clean and start over, I would use KDE Partition Manager (from a live USB Kubuntu), delete everything, then create a new GPT, ESP, and /, /home, swap for K 22.04.

Anyone see any problems doing this? -->

Specifically, Windows: no problem wiping out its partitions? No lock-down things going on with MS, etc.?

(too lazy to do a dd zero wipe, and not really necessary)

Thanks.

[GreyGeek]

I would kick the can down the road for a few months and see how it fares with 22.04

Ditto. The wait for the 22.04 LTS isn't long, and it will probably be the last installation you'll do on that box.
If the battery hasn't been cycled in a long time it may have less discharge capacity than that 4hr+ implies.
I kept my 2012 Acer plugged in all the time. It, too, had a 4 hour battery, but about 3 or 4 years ago I ran it on battery and it lasted less than 50 minutes. So, I replaced the battery for about $40. Now, however, I gutted it for the two SSD's I had put into it to upgrade my new HP.

If I hadn't gotten that unexpected xmas present I planned to continue using the Acer until one of us expired.

[Qqmike]

Wow, good replies, good -- and encouraging -- advice, everyone. I'll put it on the short list to-do. Thanks! 👍👌

[kc1di]

20.04 runs fine on my Lenovo with I5 and 8 Gigs of ram works just fine no problems.

[Bings]

I would kick the can down the road for a few months and see how it fares with 22.04

[jglen490]

A 4th Gen i5 is still a very capable CPU. 8GB for what you do, is more than adequate. I remember the first time I swapped an HDD for an SSD, it felt like stepping out of a Ford Tempo and getting into a Mustang 350 GT.

Yep, back up your data, do an update (or fresh install) to 20.04, and use it for a few more years. You can't go wrong

[Snowhog]

My HP Pavilion g7-1070us i3 M380 64-bit laptop is running 22.04 with no issues at all. This PC was first released in 2011, and according to my BIOS data, the BIOS shows Version F.04 and a Release Date of 02/11/2011, so it may in fact be (now) 11-years old.