Unable to set up the operating system.
Unable to set up the operating system.
Booting from USB isn't always possible. Some systems require a CD or DVD. I've seen devices work with an SD card too, since they act more like a traditional hard drive. It's unpredictable. Ultimately it depends on your laptop. You might need a CD/DVD. If the machine is quite old, expect to use a version of Linux from earlier releases. Many distros are phasing out support for older hardware. Some still keep legacy versions. Usually I start with Mirrors, like this James Madison University Linux Mint Mirror (version 7). You probably don't need to go that far. Try the newest release first—17.3 works if it doesn’t, and if it does, try 17.3 before you upgrade. If the hardware can't handle a resource-heavy distro such as Mint, lighter options like XFCE are better. You should still be able to locate older versions for any distribution in a similar way.