I was unaware from this post that User had been swindled as you put it. Even more reason for a phased approach as suggested below. I write as an octogenarian squeezing as much as I can out of assets. I want to avoid a football match scuffle between Partick Thistle and Celtic supporters.
My suggestions are as follows.
The clue was in OP writing “I dont have a clue”.
Newcomers to Ubuntu or other OS need a navigation aid other than heated discourses like this adding to their confusion about the path forward.
Drawing on my current engineering interests in reliability engineering I might if time permits at some point create a crude failure analysis tree which if taken up could be voted on by Ubuntu community. The important points ranked to avoid failure.
Basically all the likely failure events are listed and the community might vote on their relevance.
The newcomer then has a community vote on the likely failure points to eliminate. Navigating away from failure. A navigation path.
My view is that if the raw newcomer wishes to explore Ubuntu there should be a prototyping base where the very thought of changing existing Microsoft is deferred. There are multiple options as suggested.
We have overlooked the option of the raw newcomer learning the ropes by the simple mechanism (zero impact on Microsoft Windows) such as ephemeral Live USB.
That is instead of installing Ubuntu with all the risks we start by learning
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=303878
One poster writes in above post …
“It’s not a cheesy, stop-gap solution. It is useful to glean solutions and approaches from others while learning the ropes in creating your own ISO.”
I go further and suggest that there should be an official download with a burned in moodle.org tutorial to help the USB user to get to grips with dual (or n+1) booting.
https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=390831
Bridging knowledge gap between Windows user and battle hardened Ubuntu users.
Regarding gparted (from a search on whether it is installed by default):
“GParted is not pre-installed on the final installed version of Ubuntu, but it is included in the Ubuntu Live USB/DVD (the “Try Ubuntu” mode). It is widely used there to manage partitions before installing. On a fully installed system, you can install it using sudo apt install gparted.”
Then I learned on the ephemeral USB how to install gparted and partition the test HDD(s) as they were replaced with SSD’s.
Albeit HDD’s old but still reliable for some usage.
A later learning phase would be to clone (using gparted) the HDD onto a more modern SSD (SSD becoming more expensive) so there is an argument for recycling HDD’s for archiving and avoiding “bit rot” with SSD if thrown in a drawer and not used for years.
So my stages (roughly thought out) might be:
Stage 1: Assess knowledge of end user migrating from Windows to Ubuntu (or vice versa).
Stage 2: Purchase USB(s) for Live USB experiments.
Stage 3: Review ephemeral usage where the Live USB can be “base camp one”. Just as a “gateway” in exploratory terms.
Stage 4: Learn Ubuntu by “Try Ubuntu” mode.
Stage 5: Learn BIOS settings.
Stage 6. Learn rEFInd capabiitities and how to customise the configuration file with different themes.
Stage 7: Install rEFInd on host Windows and ephemeral USB.
Stage 8: Learn backups to various recycled drives.
Stage 9: Learn media options (HDD, SSD) from placing media in external containers such as StarTech (I use), to placing SSD inside second drive caddy (if there is one), to simply sticking SSD with velcro to workstation innards. Ensure USB 3.0 ports available. Buy a powered USB 3.0 expander if needed. Or even as I have a USB switcher (StarTech again 4 port) which allows the Ubuntu caddy/caddies to be physically switched between Users. Advanced usage mode. Useful for family sharing of assets.
Stage10: Learn data recovery methods using ephemeral USB.
Stage 11: Learn the dangers of using Ubuntu Tools to reconfigure Windows. If you must shrink partition use Windows tools. But try to avoid entirely shrinking Windows partition and allowing it to live with it as part of the nest. Coexist.
I reserve options to rethink these as I turn to moodle.org to write them up. Or even a Jupyter notebook or other. I have scenarios ahead where I need to convince hardened Windows corporate users to use a novel Ubuntu framework I have developed, so this has been a useful wakeup call.
Thanks to contributors.
POSTSCRIPT. I forgot to mention this tool I found when experimenting with EFI in Windows some time back. The problem is as with Windows products there is a cost but there is a free trial which can be used to gain experience in EFI. https://www.easyuefi.com/
This is the relevant link.
Whether this is OT is for readers to judge. But it helped me to understand EFI terrain.
POSTSCRIPT. Related link seen on secure booting. Streamlining secure boot for 26.10 - #5 by schildbach
And here on pros/cons rEFInd. Beyond Grub - USB stick with rEFInd