I have used Rufus to create a new usb with a GPT partition table. Same result as before. The usb is not recognized as a boot possibility. The same is the case with a flash drive created by Balena Etcher.
One my friends came by with an usb with the most basic version of Mint created by use of Balena Etcher and that worked!
So the problem is narrowed down to the usb including the files created on it or the combination of the usb and the usb slot on my pc.
I think the last possibility is most likely since the iso image is verified, works in virtualbox and can be burned to a dvd which can booted.
My pc is 9 years old and the usb is brand new. Unfortunately, I don’t have access to play around with the Mint usb.
I have tried to change the default boot order and also to change the boot order (f9) for the devices recognized as bootable. No success. I think that maybe my brand new usb is not recognized by the BIOS.
My feeling is generally dualbooting is not recommended these days. One problem is the actual dual booting part where linux boot configs will get wiped if you boot into recovery or something like that. Dual booting can be pretty tricky once you start mucking around with the boot parameters.
I would try and find an old SSD 64GB or 128GB and just replace your hard drive with that and play around. Replace back again when you need to.
It’s all fun and games until someone has an non-functioning computer.
You are right about the age - 9 years old but it is running really well so it seems a waste just to dump it when Windows 10 runs out of support. Even if I skip the idea to setting up dual boot I need to get a bootable usb. I don’t feel comfortable skipping Windows and rely on a DVD that can’t be verified, so I have to figure out how to boot a full featured Linux.
I can play around with Ubuntu in VirtualBox with some performance penalty but it is not an option to replace the ssd since this involves unscrewing approx. 30 screws, removing 10 electrical connections, removing the keyboard, replacing the ssd and putting it all back in again!
Not using Windows myself but providing support for Windows systems of a friend. There is a tool WhyNotWin11 to check the cause(s) why your hardware is not supported by Win11. Very often the problem seems to be a missing TPM 2 or Secure Boot. Occasionally, these features can also be activated with an older BIOS.
The problem of an unsupported CPU can sometimes be avoided by changing the registry accordingly (HKLM\SYSTEM\Setup\MoSetup , "AllowUpgradesWithUnsupportedTPMOrCPU"=dword:00000001).
Of course everything without any guarantee ! But it might be worth looking it up on the internet…
I have been on vacation for some days therefore I have first noticed your post now.
Thank you for the information. I have a closer look on the possibility to upgrade to Windows 11…
I got hold of an older usb stick and used Rufus to flash the Ubuntu iso-image. The usb stick was recognized immediately as bootable. Ubuntu boots very quickly and as described in the tutorials.
It turned out that my bios was too old to recognize my brand new usb stick.
I will have a closer look at all comments and decide what to do now. Thanks to everyone……
