Since my computer is still off to be repaired, I have my mother's Notebook as Interim machine. But before she could give it to me, I used my Dad's old and probably heavily infected Notebook. Now since he has no interest in getting it back, I thought give it a try to revive it. My Initial plan is to install a Linux distirbution and my first idea was Ubuntu as it was the only Distribution I came up with directly, but maybe MINT would be better?
Anyway I had Trouble so far. I first used "unetbootin" to create a bootable USB stick, the Notebook would Show me a removable device in the BIOS (hard drive, CD/DVD and Network were the others), however booting from that device would result in jumping back to the menu I could choose the booting source from. Moreover, trying to open the stick on that very machine ultimately lead to the error "you're usb device is not formated" asking me to proceed and do so (Windows wasn't able to complete the process though). I grabbed the next stick, but it resulted in the same Problem after all.
Funnily though, it was no Problem to Input the stick in my mum's computer and to use it as normal.
My next step would be to burn the iso to a DVD, which I would have done already, if I still had DVDs at home. Times are a-changing.

Maybe someone has experience on such things, as I am a bloody newbie to any form of UNIX System I choose to use because I chose to want it^^

The System:
Windows XP SP3
Intel Pentium 1.7GHz
2 GB RAM
ATI Mobility Radeon 9600/9700 Series

I use Ubuntu on a bit more powerful laptop but MINT would be okay choice too. Both are good & popular distros.

Quote :

My next step would be to burn the iso to a DVD, which I would have done already, if I still had DVDs at home

Not really an answer but from USB there are more things that can go wrong. DVD is guaranteed to work.

May not be helpful at all but I'm always using lili for my bootable Linux USB drives. Works flawless on Windows. http://www.linuxliveusb.com/

Depending on how old your BIOS/Laptop is it may also not be able to boot from USB at all? I know I've still got some old machines who wont do the USB dance.

Quote from TFalke55 :

Since my computer is still off to be repaired, I have my mother's Notebook as Interim machine. But before she could give it to me, I used my Dad's old and probably heavily infected Notebook. Now since he has no interest in getting it back, I thought give it a try to revive it. My Initial plan is to install a Linux distirbution and my first idea was Ubuntu as it was the only Distribution I came up with directly, but maybe MINT would be better?
Anyway I had Trouble so far. I first used "unetbootin" to create a bootable USB stick, the Notebook would Show me a removable device in the BIOS (hard drive, CD/DVD and Network were the others), however booting from that device would result in jumping back to the menu I could choose the booting source from. Moreover, trying to open the stick on that very machine ultimately lead to the error "you're usb device is not formated" asking me to proceed and do so (Windows wasn't able to complete the process though). I grabbed the next stick, but it resulted in the same Problem after all.
Funnily though, it was no Problem to Input the stick in my mum's computer and to use it as normal.
My next step would be to burn the iso to a DVD, which I would have done already, if I still had DVDs at home. Times are a-changing.

Maybe someone has experience on such things, as I am a bloody newbie to any form of UNIX System I choose to use because I chose to want it^^

The System:
Windows XP SP3
Intel Pentium 1.7GHz
2 GB RAM
ATI Mobility Radeon 9600/9700 Series

The most gentle start would be to grab a version of Ubuntu that comes with a preinstalled lightweight desktop environment such as XUbuntu. Mainline Ubuntu nowadays requires some degree of 3D acceleration which the ancient Radeon likely won't provide. Booting off a DVD should not be a problem, nor should be the installation itself.

Successfully booting directly from a USB stick used to be a bit of a challenge back in the days your laptop is from...

Thanks for your Responses! Meanwhile my dad gave me 10-20 DVDs and I had to download CD Burner XP, since there was no burning Software on my Computer. When trying to boot Ubuntu 16.04. from a DVD, it says that the kernel requires PAE Support, so I now download 12.04., both mainline and Xubuntu, as I've found a Forum, where it said those LTS versions would still Support a non-pae cpu.

EDIT: Now I get EDD Error 8000 reading sector xxxxx I read somewhere that it is mostlikely due to the DVD and a new try could fix that. So I burnt it to a second DVD, same error but different sectors

My most promising try so far...

The installation media is broken. If you're installing from a CD, it's most likely burnt improperly. Try burning the image at a lower speed or get a different batch of DVD media, the drive in the computer may have trouble reading those that you're using now. You may also try redownloading the installation image on the off chance that the image itself is corrupted.

Thanks for your tipps and tricks.
I tried three different dvd burners in three different systems with two different burning software packages each in all possible writing speeds. All failed. I have the feeling that the DVD drive in the old notebook might be broken. Since USB and DVD drive failed, there is not much more I can do to get it going. Sadly. Network installation seems not to be an option either as I have trouble accessing the network adapter from the BIOS.

There is also this possible error: http://askubuntu.com/a/265222
I would test if the DVD drive works (with a known-to-work windows CD maybe) and then ask at linuxquestions.org

Quote from Gutholz :

There is also this possible error: http://askubuntu.com/a/265222
I would test if the DVD drive works (with a known-to-work windows CD maybe) and then ask at linuxquestions.org

Since the DVDs work on a different, newer laptop I guess it is the drive.