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I’m on an HP Pavillion dv4-2145dx. If I delete Windows 10 and install Ubuntu, will I have to reinstall drivers such as graphics, networking, hardware, etc.?

K7AAY
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WG481
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    It's an old computer. All drivers are usually included in e.g. Ubuntu 18.04. – Knud Larsen Mar 27 '20 at 15:48
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    Don't delete Windows 10! You'll need it for Windows-only apps, and to do BIOS/firmware updates. Install Ubuntu in a dual-boot configuration. – heynnema Mar 27 '20 at 16:43
  • @heynnema So, I can't dual boot. When I got this PC, my drive was set to dynamic, therefore destroying my only hope and dual booting (I know there are converters out there or I could use a HDD, but I don't exactly have money to spend.) – WG481 Mar 27 '20 at 17:23
  • You can copy your data and media files up into the cloud for free, confirm they arrived AOK, completely erase and reformat the internal drive using gparted from a LiveUSB, and either go 100% Ubuntu/flavours or reinstall Windows 10 from Microsoft's Media Creation Tool then install Ubuntu/flavour alongside it. Detail follows in my answer. – K7AAY Mar 27 '20 at 18:55

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Maybe; with tens of thousands of PC models out there, Ubuntu can't test them all. However, with an older machine such as yours, Ubuntu 18.04 and the 18.04 'flavours' (more on those in a minute), probably all the drivers are already included.

Test by making a LiveUSB or LiveDVD and boot from that before you remove Windows. This process will not remove or alter your Windows.

Download Ubuntu's ISO file at https://ubuntu.com/download , or for a supported 'flavour' with a different Desktop Environment, download from https://ubuntu.com/download/flavours . Flavours are popular with older machines such as yours, as the standard GNOME3 desktop uses more CPU and resources than the flavours; or, you could say that flavours run faster because they use fewer system resources. There are also look-and-feel differences. Flavours include everything needed to run any app which will run on standard Ubuntu.

Next, check for download errors by https://tutorials.ubuntu.com/tutorial/tutorial-how-to-verify-ubuntu#0 .

Make a LiveUSB following these instructions on your Windows PC with https://tutorials.ubuntu.com/tutorial/tutorial-create-a-usb-stick-on-windows#0 .

Reboot the PC, and instead of rebooting into Windows, use your Boot Options menu to choose booting from the LiveUSB. Run from the LiveUSB and do functional testing (i.e., Ethernet OK? WiFi OK? Bluetooth OK? Can I run the important apps already installed with the LiveUSB?

Once you know everything works, you can proceed with permanently installing Ubuntu/flavour, and perhaps even reinstalling Windows after fixing the Dynamic disk partition problem you mentioned.

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To back up your data and media files before Ubuntu installation, Microsoft currently (Spring 2020) offers you 5GB of cloud storage for free with every account at https://Outlook.com and https://Live.com. Google now offers every Google account space in Google Drive where you can easily upload 15GB of content to save their cloud now, and download later. https://Mega.nz gives you 50GB for free per account today.

Once your data's safe in the cloud, you can erase the drive, get your preferred Ubuntu/flavour installed and working AOK, then download your data.

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Ordinarily, this would work, but the Windows Dynamic partitioning of the drive in that laptop prevents this. You'd need to erase the drive, and reinstall Windows in Basic partitioning space on your drive, to take advantage of this:

You can also install Ubuntu or its flavours alongside Windows without removing it, so every time you reboot, you have the choice of running Windows 10 or Ubuntu. Ubuntu and flavors can read from and write to files saved in the Windows NTFS drive partitions, which is handy.

For a dual-boot system, install from the LiveUSB following these steps https://tutorials.ubuntu.com/tutorial/tutorial-install-ubuntu-desktop#0 but when you get to 6 Allocating Disk Space choose Install Alongside Windows. The Ubiquity installation app used by Ubuntu will walk you through shrinking the Windows 10 NTFS disk partition to make room for Ubuntu.

K7AAY
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