So.. I finally installed Zorin on a fresh SSD this weekend..
The installation went FAST and EASY and I'm proper chuffed with the OS,
it's Brilliant!
Now it's just to come to terms with a new working environment,
and become acquainted with the unfamiliar
(the perceived quirkiness of Linux from a Windows User perspective).
Some tasks are quite intuitive, and straight forward, whilst others are very non-intuitive, and cryptic.. for example : installing applications without an auto-installer, and using command lines (which I can go a lifetime without using in Windows).
This latter complication underlies the topic.
In preparation for installing Zorin -- I flashed a USB Boot ISO using BalenaEtcher,
which worked perfectly. I also flashed a Kill-Disk Boot USB for erasing the original SSD with Windows 10, so Windows 7 could be installed. Another USB Boot Win7 ISO was made using Rufus, and I assumed it would work just as well as the Etcher made Boot USB, and I went ahead and erased the SSD with Kill-Disk, then tried to boot with the Win7 ISO -- But it Failed to Boot.
I suspect the BIOS (from 2015) needs a firmware update to recognise Rufus boot files..
unfortunately Lenovo has ended all support for the L450 laptop, and no firmware updates are available.
I find myself without a Windows machine to try another Windows Boot ISO programme. There is only a Linux machine now.
WoeUSB is a programme designed to flash Windows USB Boot ISOs in Linux.
However it has no auto-installer, and is a pig to manually install.
I managed to load all the dependencies for WoeUSB, and still unable to install the application.
Without WoeUSB there is no possibility of installing Windows 7 on the old SSD,
and this is not good -- since I still need Windows for work.
If anyone here is familiar with WoeUSB --
some installation advice would be very much appreciated.
Cheers!