Installing Linux Mint on a Asus UX32VD Laptop (or any laptop) PART 1 - Burning the ISO to USB

Note : Before you proceed, you should use Clonezilla to completely backup the hard drive of the UX32VD. The reason being, once you install Linux, it will clear the recovery partitions and other goodies you need to reinstall Windows 8 should you ever have the need to. I will detail how to use Clonezilla in a later post, including how to use Clonezilla to make a perfect backup of a hard drive. If you don't do this you will never be able to go back to Windows 8 (or whatever OS/recovery partition your vendor has).

Hi,

In case you didn't read the italics, you shouldn't do the following until after you've backed up all data on your laptop. This process will destroy all data and partitions on your laptop.

I have an Asus UX32VD laptop ultrabook. Today I decided to wipe Windows off it (I have Windows on my desktop and for various reasons require Linux on my laptop).

First, get Linux Live USB Creator. It's a great little program for creating Linux boot disks. It can even get the ISO for you, boot from Windows and a half dozen other neat things.



Above are the options I chose to download and burn Linux Mint. Note that I downloaded the Linux Mint DVD first, and used Linux Live USB Creator to read the ISO rather than use the Linux Live USB Creator's download ISO option within the software. But it shouldn't make a difference.

Next you will want to enter the UX32VD BIOS. Press ESC when you startup your computer and you will enter the BIOS screen. You need to do the following :

1. Disable Secure Boot

2. Enable Legacy USB support

Save, then reboot. When you press ESC again, you will see a choice to boot from your newly created Linux ISO. Boot from the CD.

I will write about the install process itself next, along with how to setup partitions and use the free 25 GB SSD included in the UX32VD for blazing speed.