Afraid to shift to beans from pre ground

I’m not an very old or even a very novice coffee enthusiast. But my start was from a pre ground setup which I still use. Since I don’t have high end machine (delonghi ecp 31.21) i’m afraid to switch to whole beans and grinding them. The reason for confusion is also to whether get a ceramic bur or a metallic bur! I hope you all will guide me through this transition.