I tried installing on my old HP Compaq Presario CQ61 430EC Linux ubuntu ubuntu-20.04.4-desktop-amd64, ubuntu-22.04.1-desktop-amd64, steam os HoloISO_4.0_OfflineInstaller-20221211_1636-x86_64 and windows 10 none of them work and I tried updating the bios and that was no use.
here are the specs:
CPU AMD M880G with ATI mobility Radeon HD 4200
Memory Type PC2-6400 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM
Memory 4GB (Removable)
Max Memory 8GB
Memory Expansion Slots 2 SO-DIMM Slots
PC Card Slots None
USB Ports Three USB 2.0 Compliant Ports
Firewire Ports None
Card Reader 5-in-1 integrated Memory Reader: Secure Digital cards, MultiMedia cards, Memory Sticks, Memory Stick Pro, xD Picture Cards
Original Optical Drives LightScribe SuperMulti 8X DVD-R/RW with Dual Layer Support or Blu-Ray Disc
Original Hard Drive 250GB (I want to install it on a 1tb one)

Welcome to LinuxQuestions.

Are you trying to install using a USB flash drive or DVD? How did you create or "burn" the image? Most recommend Etcher but it depends on the distribution? If using a real CD/DVD did you burn as an image?

While you can install almost any distribution you might find that running a lighter weight desktop works better on older systems. I would try mx linux.

Download Linux Mint Cinnamon 21.2 I see no reason it will not work on your HP...https://distrowatch.com/?newsid=11888

On my cq 61 sitting in storage. Windows had a lot of partitions taking up the drive.

When I had to partition it . I needed something that would give me more than 4 primary partitions.

Is this drive totally wiped or what.

Here is what I used

https://www.partitionwizard.com/part...s-already.html

It took a bit a skill on one of these units. By the way. I did not update the bios.