Any question answered...

I'm having a nightmare trying to install ubuntu. My laptop originally came with Windows 7 and I still have the sticker with what I think is the licence code.

Can I just go and download a live CD of windows on a USB and install it using my licence code?

Cheers.

@Aroogah @aggi thanks I managed to get 90% of the way there then a grown up took over

Speaking of chains, do you also run KMC chains on your Campagnolo-equipped bikes? I was tempted to use a KMC missing link on a Chorus chain but I wonder if there is any point.

I always use KMC with Campag

I do on my Shimano bikes, with no issues so far, but I have read reports of a longer life on Campagnolo chains. As I always change chain and cassette together, and a Chorus cassette is like £90, a longer chain life starts to be financially relevant.

A cheap chain changed regularly will make more difference, I'd imagine.

What Campagnolo equipped bikes?

You've changed...

I've gone all Bob Dylan and gone electric...

Judas!

Can I just go and download a live CD of windows on a USB and install it using my licence code?

Most likely not, that code is for the exact OEM that came with the computer usually.

My suggestion would be to make a "live" Linux on a usb stick (from a working computer) and use that to get your important data off the old one.
Then figure out if the old one has a rescue partition you could boot into (google model number etc.)!

I'm pretty sure I have done this in the past (it may depend on which version the licence is for). I think I had to phone Microsoft to authorise it which is simple enough.

It isn't a live CD as such, just an install disc. It used to be the case that there was an extra step to get from the dvd version to a USB version but they may well offer a USB version now.

@hugo7

I've done similar to @aggi.
Downloaded the current full version from Microsoft's website to a USB. Pretty sure the installer can make the USB bootable these days.

Installed. Skipped the license key if it doesn't work immediately then phoned them up and got an authorisation code. You only need to say it's the same machine and you're just reinstalling the OS fresh, they don't go interrogating you.

Cheers!

Probably, if you can find a Windows 7 image. But security updates end in 1 year so it would be a bit of a short term solution. Expect to pay for a Windows 10 upgrade (if a machine that old supports it).

I think this may work for a Win8 key, installing 10, but does it work for Win7 key?

Win7 keys work for Win10 I think and end up with a legit W10 install
https://www.zdnet.com/article/heres-how-you-can-still-get-a-free-windows-10-upgrade/

I'm assuming Microsoft have decided there's no particular value to keeping people on Win7/8

My suggestion would be to make a "live" Linux on a usb stick (from a working computer) and use that to get your important data off the old one.

Honestly don't get me started. It's driving me insane. Had absolutely no problems with Lubuntu on my HDD. Replaced it with a new SSD and tried to install Ubuntu mate and have not been able to get the laptop to find the OS on it since.

Windows won't install either, so I'm thinking of cloning my other half's windows laptop onto the SSD, then plugging that into mine. However, it's a totally different laptop make and model. So I have little hope.

I don't actually want Windows, its just that I thought if I could at least get Windows to work, then I could narrow down what the problem is. And at worst shrink the partion and duel boot Ubuntu mate, just never using Windows.

How shit is trakpak? waiting on some bike parts from Merlin but tracker hasn't moved since it was announced. It's been a week now.

thinking of cloning my other half's windows laptop onto the SSD

Why don't you clone your old HDD with whatever OS was on it (it worked with the hardware, right?) onto the new SSD?

Maybe you have mentioned all this upthread but I'm not sure what the problem actually is you're having.
HDD with Lubuntu worked fine, (I assume) you wanted a speed upgrade so swapped new SSD for old HDD, and now computer won't accept this as a device to boot from?
Perhaps the SSD is faulty?

Your other half's Win installation will not work on the other laptop, for various reasons.

Legacy/uefi bios mismatch?

The old HDD had Lubuntu - originally chosen because the laptop was old. It's fine, and ran well, but it's a bit dated. I was hoping with a new SSD and 8GB RAM (previously 3GB) I would be able to happily run a nicer OS.

A quick look online seemed like an Ubuntu OS cloan would be harder than Windows cloan and most of the online guides are for Windows clowning. Plus installing a new OS didn't seem that hard.

Legacy/uefi bios mismatch

That's the answer I keep getting from the Ubuntu forum, but I've tried both installations, then also running with the bios settings matches and mismatched.

You trying with a USB3 stick by any chance?
I've had problems with them that were solved by trying an older USB2 stick

I am developing a theory that use of the word 'university'† rather than 'uni' precisely determines if someone was born before 1977. Does anyone disagree?

† or 'college' for Oxbridge, Durham etc

Does anyone disagree?

I disagree with "precisely". Obviously the distribution skews to "University" for older people and "Uni" for younger people, but at the crossover there will be a 50/50 split. Becasue there is no hard cut off, you could only say that the probability that somebody falls into the older or younger demographic can be predicted with a success rate of over 50% if you know whether they say Uni or University.
I also don't know whether that crossover is at "born in year x" or whether it's really at "born x years ago" where x changes by more or less than 1 for each year that passes. Is "Uni" infecting older people as its prevalence grows in the general population, or do people start to switch back to "University" as they mature?
What you are developing is not a theory, it's a hypothesis. You now need some proper observational data to test it, and if you want to test it properly you need a longitudinal study.