Options to using/Installing Linux on legacy Windows 7 PC with no UEFI

What are my options in retaining my current W7 OS on my HDs (boot sectors are on a second physical drive) but using or installing Linux now given Chromium based browsers are no longer supported? I don't want to wipe it out and start from scratch.

Additionally, I have flaky CD/DVD drive and when I ran Ubuntu a few years ago from CD it was very slow. I tried different Linux OS version and it still wasn't a good experience.

I personally dislike Linux because I find it's too complicated (for my old mind) to do even the simplest and basic tasks. However, it seems I just may have to get used it it.

I don't want to trash my W7 PC which is from 2009/2010. I would like to do banking and other every day tasks, assuming my financial institutions will support Linux). My motherboard has no UEFI support. It's an ASUS P6X58D-E X58 ATX LGA1366 3PCI-E16 PCI-E1 2PCI CrossFire SLI USB3.0 SATA 6GB/S Motherboard. My CPU is an i7 930 with 6GB of RAM and 1GB GPU.

1) You can use EasyBCD to fix the fact your boot code is on the second drive. This more than likely happened because you had two or more hard drives connected while installing Windows.

2) EasyBCD can be used to allow you to boot from two operating systems (Linux/Windows) on the same drive if you wish. For Windows users going to Linux I'd recommend using Zorin. Zorin OS - Make your computer better.


4) I'd use two hard drives for Linux and Windows independently instead of dual booting on one hard drive. For A) security and B) mitigating disaster among other things.

3) UEFI is NOT a requirement for the latest and greatest.

4) Clone your current Windows 7 drive to another so you don't lose it.

5) There was a thread here some time ago discussing how a user was having issues with their bank and the use of Linux. This can be fixed by forging the useragent (UA) via a browser add-on should it be necessary (unless the bank uses other browser fingerprinting). I'm sure not all banks are low IQ chimps and think Linux is nothing but malware or whatever. The opposite would be true as it pertains to Windows!

6) I hate Windows 10 as well with a MASSIVE universe size passion. And Windows 11 is even worse nothing short of a cockroach sandwich regurgitated by a COVID-19 infected bat. BUT! I'm rolling something called Tiny10 right now. It has all the bullcrap stripped right the hell out of it; Cortona, Dropbox, Facebook, even Edge and Internet Explorer, etc. LOL! May not be for all, but so far so good here. It does require a product key. Monitoring the network adapter, there is some small amount of telemetry, but nothing massive. I have blocked the most pertinent IP addresses in my router. My router is an ASUS model flashed with the third-party firmware ASUS Merlin. It's very easy to flash with this firmware and these routers are more forgiving to possible bricking than other routers.

7) Ventoy can be used for booting via USB drive rather than optical media. You just format a USB drive with Ventoy and copy/paste the Windows or Linux ISO file onto the USB drive and boot the USB drive like you would optical media (CD/DVD/Blu-ray). That's it!

I have Win 7 and Lubuntu on my computer,
As F22 Simpilot suggested, I would install Linux on a separate drive.
First thing to do is to transfer the boot sectors from second physical drive to the Win 7 drive. Then you can install Linux on a partition on second drive.
Please post a whole window Disk Manager image of your drives. Don't forget to expand the columns so we can read them. How to post a disk Manager image
If you have a MiniTool or AOMEI Partition use it instead or Windows disk manager.

Thanks for the responses!

A few concerns arise though.

1. How would I use EasyBoot to change the boot code to C drive? Is the software free?

2. I don't want to partition my drives. There's too much risk and headache even if I back everything up.

Additionally, I would need a non-destructive partition manager (something like Partition Magic) which could create a partition without destroying the data. However, I know from experience, there's still a good degree of risk during this process.

I believe I would need to backup two physical drives instead of just one (Windows 7 OS) should I keep the two OS's on two different physical drives.

Decades ago, I did run a dual-boot set up: Windows 95 and Windows XP, I had issues with dual booting so I'm apprehensive in going this route.

3. This all seems to require a lot of time and effort, that's not something I'm prepared to do for reasons I shall not go into.

4. All my financial institutions use fingerprinting, one in particular is really anal and blocked access to my online account because I was using a VPN with fingerprinting and their chimps felt my system was compromised and insisted I "blow it up" by reformatting and installing Windows despite no evidence to the fact my Windows (11) was compromised.

I suppose the best option would be then to do boot from a Linux USB. Which version of Lubuntu is suitable? There are several to choose from.

If there are other options, please let me know. Thanks

Changing the Boot Partition

@Sammy888, I think you didn't read my post #3.
- You should fix the current booting, that is, transfer the boot sectors from second physical drive to the Win 7 drive.
You don't need any special softwre to do it. You can do it with diskpart and bcdboot. Very simple.
Then you can install Linux on a partition on second drive.
- Linux needs two partitions. If you don't want to install on the current drives, buy a small SSD for it.

Please post a whole window Disk Manager image of your drives. Don't forget to expand the columns so we can read them. How to post a disk Manager image
If you have a MiniTool or AOMEI Partition use it instead or Windows disk manager.

There are many Linux versions.
- Lubuntu is a light Ubuntu version.
- Linux Mint

@Megahertz07, I read post #3. I don't think you read the part where I said I'm not going to partition any drive.

Changing the boot drive may seem simple to you, it's not to me.

Unless there's a "turn-key" method where the process is fully automated (no copying relevant files) I'm not going to mess with the boot method. It's 2023. No need to manually copy files anymore if using an decent application which is supposed to be designed to perform the task.

I'm also not going to spend any money on any additional drives or peripherals (it sucks being poor especially with inflation, gouging, and greedy corporations).

Sammy888 said:

Megahertz07, I read post #3. I don't think you read the part where I said I'm not going to partition any drive.

I did read that you don't want to partition any drive. What you're asking it's impossible
If you want to keep Win 7 in one drive and data on the other, how do you expect to install Linux without creating a new partition?
Every OS has to be in its own partition, Windows partition formatted as NTFS and Linux formatted as ext4