I have a Lenovo IdeaPad 3 15IIL05 that became extremely slow on Windows 11 and now boots to a repair screen. I tried installing a few supposedly lightweight Linux distributions, including Linux Mint, but ran into partitioning errors. Mint reported that the laptop had only about 8 GB available, and now the system seems to detect 0 bytes of storage. I'm not sure whether Windows is still occupying the drive or whether the SSD is failing.
The laptop has an Intel Core i3-1005G1 processor, 8 GB of RAM, and an M.2 SSD. I believe the drive may be 128 GB, but I'm not certain. Would a lightweight Linux distribution be suitable, and what should I check before attempting another installation?
2 Answers
Create a bootable USB with Ventoy, download the Linux Mint XFCE ISO, and boot the laptop from the USB. Test the live environment first to make sure the keyboard, display, Wi-Fi, and trackpad work. Before installing, use the disk utility or installer to verify whether the SSD is detected at its full capacity. If it shows 0 bytes or an unexpectedly tiny size, check the SSD’s health and reseat or replace it before trying to install. If the drive is healthy and you have backups, an installation that erases the entire drive should give the laptop a clean start.
Before choosing a distribution, confirm the exact hardware and storage capacity. With an i3-1005G1 and 8 GB of RAM, the laptop should be capable of running Linux reasonably well, especially with an XFCE desktop. However, if the installer reports only 8 GB—or even 0 bytes—available on a supposedly 128 GB SSD, the bigger issue may be the drive, its partition table, or a connection problem rather than the choice of distribution.
I checked what I could find and it has the i3-1005G1, 8 GB of RAM, and an M.2 SSD. I’m still unsure of the drive’s exact size, but the storage reading is the part that seems wrong.