Format new HP 17-by0062cl to dual boot to Linux and Win 10

[FairwayFatty]

Hello all - I hope this is the correct board for these question.

I just purchased a new  HP 17-by0062cl Laptop from SAMS Club. I would like to format then partition it and setup to dual boot to Linux Mint and my own copy of Windows 10 Pro 64 bit. I currently have my desktop configured in this manner but it is a home built from Newegg components and was not a store bought pre-installed OS PC.

In the past I owned a Toshiba laptop which i successfully partioned and setup a dual boot system but i painfully remember the issues in searching and downloading all of the misceallaneous drivers that Windows (XP at that time) did not have.

So......

Has anyone successfully setup there HP to dual boot and what issues did you run into?

Any Pros or Cons or advice is appreciated. Let me know if additional information is needed.

Thanks! FF

[ieee488]

---

@FairwayFatty wrote:

Hello all - I hope this is the correct board for these question.

I just purchased a new  HP 17-by0062cl Laptop from SAMS Club. I would like to format then partition it and setup to dual boot to Linux Mint and my own copy of Windows 10 Pro 64 bit. I currently have my desktop configured in this manner but it is a home built from Newegg components and was not a store bought pre-installed OS PC.

In the past I owned a Toshiba laptop which i successfully partioned and setup a dual boot system but i painfully remember the issues in searching and downloading all of the misceallaneous drivers that Windows (XP at that time) did not have.

So......

Has anyone successfully setup there HP to dual boot and what issues did you run into?

Any Pros or Cons or advice is appreciated. Let me know if additional information is needed.

Thanks! FF

---

You'll find people with this experience over at the Linux Mint forum.

More than likely there is already more than few tutorials on this.

[WAWood]

@FairwayFatty

You already got sound advice from @ieee488, so I would strongly urge that.

But to add a few comments of my own ...

I would NOT format a new PC and install your own copy of Win10. Why? Because doing that will remove all the HP Win10 drivers and the new install will only load generic drivers from MS.  You need the HP Win10 driver to get full use of the hadware in the laptop. 

But, if you insist on doing that, then at least read this about how to save off the current drivers before doing that:  https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/68426-backup-restore-device-drivers-windows-10-a.html

That way, after the new install, you can insert a USB stick containing the saved drivers and restore them.

Also, as you will learn from the Linux Mint forums, new PCs using UEFI pose a whole new bunch of problems you did not face with the older PCs. You will want to read through those in detail before starting down this road.

[FairwayFatty]

Thanks leee. Is there a Linux Mint forum on HP Community? (I cant seem to find it) Or are you referring me to https://forums.linuxmint.com ? I am a member there and have posted  in the past but not on this topic as I just bought this laptop. I just thought it would be better touching base with other HP owners. I'll post my question there. Thanks. FF

[ieee488]

---

@FairwayFatty wrote:

Thanks leee. Is there a Linux Mint forum on HP Community? (I cant seem to find it) Or are you referring me to https://forums.linuxmint.com ? I am a member there and have posted  in the past but not on this topic as I just bought this laptop. I just thought it would be better touching base with other HP owners. I'll post my question there. Thanks. FF

---

Yes, that is the forum. They will know much more than the folks here.

[FairwayFatty]

Thanks WAW. As mentioned in my initial post I remember all of the nights searching the web for the OEM drivers when I partitioned and dual booted my Toshiba.

Also, thanks for the link as I successfully downloaded (exported) the driver packages to a folder.

I'm not sure I will go through with it and have some more reading to do on the UEFI you pointed out. My desktop that I built which dual boots has legacy bios (probably has UEFI option) and msinfo32 clearly shows Bios Mode as UEFI on the HP.

I've enjoyed PC's since my first 8088 and built quite a few over the years up to my current i5 but Ive never been fond of a pre-loaded OS with all of their bells and whistles. With that said......one more question:

If I do move forward and fail; How can I reinstall the original HP installed Windows 10 Home (no disk came with it)?

Thanks again. FF

[WAWood]

@FairwayFatty

You're smart to think about restore BEFORE attempting this -- most folks just charge ahead and then are devastated when their PC is not easily restorable.

I personally prefer to use third-party Backup solutions as they tend to be both more flexible and more reliable than any built-in solutions.

Macrium Reflect (MR) provides a FREE version that can be used to image and restore partitions or entire drives.

What I recommend is the following:
1) Download and install Macrium Reflect (MR) from here: http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx
2) Run MR and choose the option: "Create an image of the partition(s) required to backup and restore Windows" to write a full backup to an external drive or USB stick
3) Use the option to create a boot USB stick or CD

My experience is that MR, when using the High Compression option, typically can compress the saved image file to about 50% of the USED space in the OS partition. This means if you have an 80GB OS partition, and 40GB is used, MR only needs about 20GB to store the image file.

I use this all the time and it typically takes less than 15 minutes to do the image backup and about the same time or less to do a restore.

NOW, you have the means to restore a full working system from the external drive or USB stick in only a few minutes.

Good Luck