I’d give it a perfect 5 out of 7.

Always triple check dd

You should be doing both of those things ASAP.

Check out Jesse Welles (@hellswelles). Kind of a modern Bob Dylan.

Mint Mate will run like fire on that little guy. Plus a full install is less than 4Gb. Using the built in SSD with full disk encryption would give you a really secure laptop, especially since the SSD is not removable.