Windows 10, Linux, Ubuntu

[johnwash1]

Thank you John for responding. 1)I chose Lubuntu 17.04 back in October.

A reasonable choice back then, but a better choice is to use the long term support releases, which are supported for several years. So back then it would have been better to choose 16.04, now it would be better to choose 18.04.

When an Ubuntu release reaches its “end of life” it receives no further maintenance updates, including critical security upgrades. It's highly recommended that you upgrade to a recent version of Ubuntu at this point.

17.04 is already beyond end of life. Such releases only get 9 months of support.

It's not just about the length of support. A new version comes out every 6 months and although it's fairly solid they're exploring new possibilities, whereas the long term support releases, every 2 years, nn.04 (where nn is an even number, corresponding to the year, and 04 is April), they know they have to support it for 3-5 years and so it's as stable as they can make it.

So 18.04 is the one to go for. And will continue to be so, even after the release of 18.10, 19.04, 19.10. When 20.04 comes out you wait a few months for it to settle down, then upgrade.

Or if you're like my wife, even then you don't upgrade! She was on 12.04 and continued with it despite 14.04 and 16.04 coming out. Only when the 5 years were up did she move to 16.04, and that's what she's still on!

2) I have access to an older system with 2 GB of ram. Downloaded Lubuntu 17.04; it is sitting on the desktop as an icon/file. Reviewed a basic tutorial found on Lubuntu.me/support. It contained a link at the bottom of the page for https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Lubuntu

Lubuntu (Ubuntu with the LXDE desktop, less resource hungry) should run fine in 2GB.

3) Also reviewed "Installing the system using an USB flash drive" and "Recommended preparations before changing a windows partition". I was trying to avoid the scenario of the "ball-bearings" falling out of my drive. This section recommended getting a backup before proceeding with the Linux installation.

Always good to have backups, for anyone.

I chose to "Backup everything: for recovery use" or "To restore the whole system to its current state." I wanted to place the backup on the flash drive. Was also considering doing a factory reset after the USB flash drive back up. Is this necessary or advisable?

Not necessary. Advisable? Up to you. Might be good to clear the cruft out of Windows, but that's not relevant for a Linux install.

Had obtained the 256 GB USB flash drive to enable me to have complete recovery backup of my windows system/all important files, and to have room to run the selected Linux version(s) side by side with windows, without windows, or to select other Linux versions to test. Thus, keeping all testing in one location without the need of a virtual environment.

Note: Did not prepare the flash drive into a bootable flash drive as I was told it was not necessary. I have done this in the past, but have forgotten the process. Suspect that is why the flash drive "ran out of space". I think making it Bootable creates partitions on the flash drive. This may need to be addressed before moving on.

If your 256GB USB has been delivered formatted (and I've never heard of them not being so), that should be fine for your backup provided the total storage that your using on your hard drive is less than 256GB. You make the backup of your Windows system, when it's finished you use 'Safe eject' to ensure everything is written to the USB, you wait to be told it's safe, then you take out the USB stick and store it in a safe place. It plays no further part in your Linux journey, but if something goes wrong, you can fetch it from its safe place and use it to roll back to your world as it was.

You didn't answer my question: You need to tell us more about how you did that backup.

Without an answer to that we're just making wild guesses about why the backup may have failed.

Alvays anzer zer qvestions, jah?

Very best wishes, let's make this the summer of progress!