Dell Inspiron and dual booting with linux and Windows 7 pro

A question about dual booting on a Dell inspiron.

I am looking at this system:

New Inspiron 15 5000 Series
$399.00 installed with Windows 7 pro

I want to install Linux with the Windows 7 pro in a dual boot environment.

Will that work on this system?

Thanks in advance.

Larry

Larry wrote:

A question about dual booting on a Dell inspiron.

I am looking at this system:

New Inspiron 15 5000 Series
$399.00 installed with Windows 7 pro

I want to install Linux with the Windows 7 pro in a dual boot environment.

Will that work on this system?

Thanks in advance.

Larry

Why the doubt? gpart or whatever the linux partitioner is prepares a MBR and
windows doesn't have much of a say about it.

I did this in 2005 with Inspirons, which still have linux but unused on them.

It's unused because I found Cygwin, which gives you close-enough linux under
windows and I've found it good enough for everything, while still giving you
access to windows apps and drivers.

Not having linux drivers for a new machine would be the major obstacle I found.
--


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

On Saturday, July 18, 2015 at 8:57:37 AM UTC-4, Ron Hardin wrote:
Larry wrote:

A question about dual booting on a Dell inspiron.

I am looking at this system:

New Inspiron 15 5000 Series
$399.00 installed with Windows 7 pro

I want to install Linux with the Windows 7 pro in a dual boot environment.

On Saturday, July 18, 2015 at 6:57:37 AM UTC-6, Ron Hardin wrote:
Larry wrote:

A question about dual booting on a Dell inspiron.

I am looking at this system:

New Inspiron 15 5000 Series
$399.00 installed with Windows 7 pro

I want to install Linux with the Windows 7 pro in a dual boot environment.

Will that work on this system?

Thanks in advance.

Larry

Why the doubt? gpart or whatever the linux partitioner is prepares a MBR and
windows doesn't have much of a say about it.

I did this in 2005 with Inspirons, which still have linux but unused on them.

It's unused because I found Cygwin, which gives you close-enough linux under
windows and I've found it good enough for everything, while still giving you
access to windows apps and drivers.

Not having linux drivers for a new machine would be the major obstacle I found.
--

On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

"Why the doubt?"

I am looking for a replacement for my old XPS m1530 running vista.
I went shopping for a laptop at Best Buy and was told that installing Linux on some laptops will "brick" them. I decided not to buy at that time. After that I went to the dell site to look at an Inspiron laptop.

I went into chat to ask if I could dual boot with linux and windows. The dell "expert" told me that dell systems does not allow for dual boot:

Here is the partial text of the chat:

07/11/2015 11:22:48AM Larry XXXXXXXXX: "I am thinking of a dual boot mode"
07/11/2015 11:24:15AM Agent (XXXXXXX): "Dual boot option will not work on it."
07/11/2015 11:24:44AM Larry XXXXXXXXX: "so only a clean install of linux?"
07/11/2015 11:25:02AM Agent (XXXXXXX): "Yes."
07/11/2015 11:25:24AM Larry XXXXXXXXX: "can you explain why the dual boot will not work?"
07/11/2015 11:28:34AM Agent (XXXXXXX): "Dell systems do not support it."

Hence my question to this group.

I went back to chat with another individual:

07/11/2015 03:03:48PM Agent (XXXXXXX): "you can install Linux after receiving the system"
07/11/2015 03:04:08PM Larry XXXXXXXXX: "in a dual boot mode with windows 7?"
07/11/2015 03:05:15PM Agent (XXXXXXX): "yes you can"
07/11/2015 03:05:20PM Agent (XXXXXXX): "that is correct"

So wondering which agent was correct I posted the question this group wonder if Dell might have recently changed their policy.

Larry

Larry wrote:
So wondering which agent was correct I posted the question this group wonder if Dell might have
recently changed their policy.

Larry


I think they're responding to whether they'll
support it under warranty, not whether it will
work.

You can work around even that by just installing
windows and linux on a new HD, saving the old HD
for the durataion of the warranty in case the
machine craps out. Then you reinstall the old HD
and ship it back.

We've done this a few times, though not because of
linux but because we installed XP instead of the
win7 it came with.
--


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

On Monday, July 20, 2015 at 7:57:12 AM UTC-6, Ron Hardin wrote:
Larry wrote:
So wondering which agent was correct I posted the question this group wonder if Dell might have
recently changed their policy.

Larry


I think they're responding to whether they'll
support it under warranty, not whether it will
work.

You can work around even that by just installing
windows and linux on a new HD, saving the old HD
for the durataion of the warranty in case the
machine craps out. Then you reinstall the old HD
and ship it back.

We've done this a few times, though not because of
linux but because we installed XP instead of the
win7 it came with.
--

On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

Saving the old hard drive then reinstalling windows and linux both together on a new hard drive is exactly what I am thinking about doing.

However, I wonder how difficult it is to swap out the internal hard drive on an Inspiron. Now that they are so thin, how much of the machine do you have to take apart to get to the hard drive?

I remember some discussion in this group that you have to remove the mother board to get to the hard drive on an Inspiron. Is that still the case?

Saving the old hard drive then reinstalling windows and linux both together on a new hard
drive is exactly what I am thinking about doing.

However, I wonder how difficult it is to swap out the internal hard drive on an Inspiron. Now
that they are so thin, how much of the machine do
you have to tak

I remember some discussion in this group that you have to remove the mother board to get to the
hard drive on an Inspiron. Is that still the case?

No idea. I'd think they'd know by now not to make
machines hard to replace common components in.

Check youtube for a howto video, or the dell
manual no doubt on their site.
--


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

On Monday, July 20, 2015 at 9:21:45 AM UTC-5, Larry wrote:

Saving the old hard drive then reinstalling windows and linux both together on a new hard drive is exactly what I am thinking about doing.

However, I wonder how difficult it is to swap out the internal hard drive on an Inspiron. Now that they are so thin, how much of the machine do you have to take apart to get to the hard drive?

I remember some discussion in this group that you have to remove the mother board to get to the hard drive on an Inspiron. Is that still the case?

I have the N5050 where it's not the case...but Ben has mentioned some that are that way. You do have to remove the keyb'd and about 12 bottom screws though!

On Monday, July 20, 2015 at 10:21:36 AM UTC-6, Bob_Villa wrote:
On Monday, July 20, 2015 at 9:21:45 AM UTC-5, Larry wrote:

Saving the old hard drive then reinstalling windows and linux both together on a new hard drive is exactly what I am thinking about doing.

However, I wonder how difficult it is to swap out the internal hard drive on an Inspiron. Now that they are so thin, how much of the machine do you have to take apart to get to the hard drive?

I remember some discussion in this group that you have to remove the mother board to get to the hard drive on an Inspiron. Is that still the case?

I have the N5050 where it's not the case...but Ben has mentioned some that are that way. You do have to remove the keyb'd and about 12 bottom screws though!

The one I am looking at is he

http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/in...15-5558-laptop

and a cheaper one he

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellsto...en&s=bsd&cs=04

Going by content of the link above would that be an N5558?

Larry

On Monday, July 20, 2015 at 6:13:24 PM UTC-5, Larry wrote:
On Monday, July 20, 2015 at 10:21:36 AM UTC-6, Bob_Villa wrote:
On Monday, July 20, 2015 at 9:21:45 AM UTC-5, Larry wrote:

Saving the old hard drive then reinstalling windows and linux both together on a new hard drive is exactly what I am thinking about doing.

However, I wonder how difficult it is to swap out the internal hard drive on an Inspiron. Now that they are so thin, how much of the machine do you have to take apart to get to the hard drive?

I remember some discussion in this group that you have to remove the mother board to get to the hard drive on an Inspiron. Is that still the case?

I have the N5050 where it's not the case...but Ben has mentioned some that are that way. You do have to remove the keyb'd and about 12 bottom screws though!

The one I am looking at is he

http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/in...15-5558-laptop

and a cheaper one he

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellsto...en&s=bsd&cs=04

Going by content of the link above would that be an N5558?

Larry

Larry, that would be a crap shoot about HDD access...you'd think they would learn their lesson...but?