i really appreciate that you're taking the time to answer my questions. thanks so much!! i do have two more questions, however.
since i will be uploading large files (5-12GB), but only have 4GB of ram on that old PC, how do i configure this properly? or will this scenario not work at all?
I don't think that it will work. You can upload your files using sFTP, or try to come up with a solution that will segment your files while uploading.
As for Debian, try Ubuntu 16.04, it's an LTS version that will get updates until 2021
hm... i definitely don't want to be segmenting these files. but it's possible to transfer them (large files in whole) to the server with sftp?
i ended up getting debian running by downloading an ISO specific to amd64 and LXDE. thank god.
aww man. i've found legacy drivers but none of them seem to be compatible with deb9.1
*actually, the reason it wasn't working, i believe, was because although i was installing grub on the same hard drive i wasn't installing it as a master boot drive? idk i was scared to click 'yes' to that option because i'm dual booting and i bricked an old laptop a while ago via grub? if i remember correctly, or it had something to do with messing with the partitions and booting stuff, when installing arch