Linux install

[KabeRinnaul]

So, somehow or other my sister got a laptop (Dell Inspiron with Vista installed) from someone for either free or cheap, but which can no longer boot Windows. I've decided the best way to fix it is to just install Linux from a CD or USB. But the only USB stick I have on hand is only 1.8 GB. Any suggestions on what install to use or how to otherwise go about this?

Edit: Nevermind, might be broken more than that. Diagnostic I've been running just hit this:

Hard Drive DST Short Test
Test Results: Fail
Error Code 0142.
Msg: Error Code 2000-0142
Msg: Hard Drive 0 - self test unsuccessful. Status: 79

[Chromatix]

A new hard disk shouldn't cost too much. Prices for them are currently higher than normal due to shortages, but even so...

A 1.8GB USB drive is enough to install Ubuntu with.

[RottenFruit]

Damnsmall Linux happily confines itself to 50MB...

[KabeRinnaul]

Thanks for the help on that one, but also have a different question about it now. Planning on seeing if I can fix it for her as a (probably belated at this point) Christmas gift. Any suggestions on a hard drive to replace the bad one, or do I just need to load a new OS and ignore that one?

[Chromatix]

The best drive you're likely to find cheaply at retail is the Seagate Momentus. You'll need to look at the old drive to see whether you need SATA or PATA. After that, just get the capacity which fits your budget - Linux is not very demanding on disk space, but for example a music collection might be.

If the machine happens to take SATA, you might want to look at the SSDs on offer. A small (say 30GB) SSD will run Linux perfectly happily and very quickly and, these days, might even be cheaper than a higher-capacity mechanical disk.

[emax4]

SSDs are blazingly fast, but at a price. The cheapest you can find is at a ratio of around $1 per GB, so a 60 GB SSD may cost $60 (after rebates). Check Newegg.com and slickdeals.net every so often though. The cheaper way is to just install a new hard drive, but there's a catch: not too long ago there was a flood in Taiwan, so hard drives have gone way up in price, almost doubling what they normally are. Tech forecasters say the production is starting soon and should be normal on or around January.

What's the model of the Dell laptop too? Most laptops have the hard drive in an easy-to-access location, so you probably won't have to disassemble the whole machine to replace the drive.