SONY PCG Z505JS laptop migrate to Ubuntu

[Adam Boettiger]

I have a unique challenge. I have been using Macs for a very long time and
know little about PC's, but have a SONY PCG Z505JS laptop PC with a Pentium
3 chip running Windoze 98. The thing was bought in 1999 so is about six
years old. I'm thinking as this was used very little and it's nice and slim
it would be a perfect Ubuntu notebook.

The challenge however is that It originally came with an external CD player.
It has one USB port and a networking port and a PCMCIA card slot.

What I'd like to do is wipe Windows 98 completely and use the laptop as a
dedicated Ubuntu notebook, preferably with internet access.

The problem is that all the .iso files I have are either on CD or are on my
LaCie USB 20G external hard drive. I've tried plugging the USB hard drive
into the USB slot and booting from the external usb drive but it is not
working. I went into BIOS and I don't even think it is recognizing the
external drive.

Any ideas where to begin?

/AB