Faced with something similar, I purchased a replacement drive and an external drive case/adapter (USB). I installed Linux to the new drive and loaded the old into the external case. If we need files I can connect it up and copy data over at will. That might be a thought for you, but a lot for her to handle without help.

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linuxuser371038,

I recently purchased a Lenovo ThinkPad E15 15.6 inch Ryzen 5 5500U 16GB 256GB SSD Windows 11 Wifi laptop from:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/greenitsales

I have bought computers from here in the past and this business laptop was in very good condition and I am very pleased with it.

If your mother’s existing laptop is from the XP era or is very long in the tooth, then she may need to consider getting more recent hardware.

The same seller currently has a similar Lenovo E15 with Intel i5 10210U 8GB 256GB:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/196468986...kAAOSw8uNmSuo1

If you are interested, the seller will always take a sensible offer.

It is only about 4 or 5 years old, just a cheap laptop from amazon but runs windows 10.

linuxuser371038,

For an easy-mode distro for your mother, look no further than Peppermint OS-Devuan:
https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...-review-39231/

POSD is based on Debian (Bookworm) and Devuan (Daedalus).

It is just so easy and straightforward to use, especially by family members (and others) who don’t have much of a clue about using computers in general, least of all Linux.

There is a single button for Simple Update.

Type the user password and the rest is semi-automated, including automatic closure.

In addition Peppermint OS-Devuan looks stunning.

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