Preloading an NVME SSD for laptop with damaged keyboard

I have an older ASUS QU524 laptop running Windows 10 as a Jellyfin movie server across my network. The keyboard is damaged, and external keyboards do not engage until the BIOS/Setup prompt has passed. How can I prepare the laptop's internal NVME (or another I have on hand) with Linux Mint preinstalled so that the laptop will boot into Linux? (The reason is that I can't alter the BIOS setup to load a USB drive).

Question by FlatEarthDisciple on Super User, licensed CC BY-SA. We show a short excerpt and link to the original thread as credit.