HP 5320m notebook for Windows and Linux

Author: L.S.Lowe. File: hp5320m. This update: 20120104. Part of Guide to the Local System.

Quick look at the hardware

I have the Intel i5-M480 2.67GHz (2 cores, 2 hyperthreads per core), 4 GB memory, 500 GB disk, no optical drive. System supplied is Windows 7 Professional.

Initial view of the disk

I switched on with an external USB CD/DVD drive connected (not HP-provided), before any Windows system boot, and pressed ESC and then F9 to choose that CD/DVD drive as boot device, and then booted into a Linux installation system (Fedora 15), and did a Ctl-Alt-F2 and an fdisk -lu command (so output is in sectors; option -u is defaulted in F15 anyway), to view the layout of the notebook partitions as supplied; for me I had:
Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *        2048      616447      307200    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2          616448   101279743    50331648    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3       941115392   972572671    15728640    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda4       972572672   976756735     2092032    c  W95 FAT32 (LBA)
Mounting the partitions read-only, I found that sda1 is the boot/bitlocker partition, sda2 the Windows C drive, sda3 a recovery partition, and sda4 a HP Tools partition.

The follow-on model, HP 5330m, shows a similar basic layout: just some differences in the exact sizes of the partitions: for example, 60 GiB in place of the 48 GiB here for the initial sda2. It shows the same initial large gap (around 400GB) between the end of sda2 and beginning of sda3, which is taken-up during the Setup phase of booting Windows for the first time.

Dual boot laptop: preparing partitions to give room for Linux

For my dual-boot 5320m, where I need to allow room for Linux, I used the same preparatory steps as separately written-up for my HP 5330m laptops. For more information, see my HP 5330m write-up, particularly the section Dual boot laptop: preparing partitions to give room for Linux. Because of the slightly different layout sizes, the numbers for the HP 5320m are different from that section, as follows: After the GParted shenanigans, the fdisk -lu output was:
Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *        2048      616447      307200    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2          616448   101279743    50331648    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3       168388608   199845887    15728640    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda4       199845888   976773119   388463616    5  Extended
/dev/sda5       199847936   204031999     2092032    b  W95 FAT32

Booting into Windows for first time

Setup is preparing your computer for first use, setup is checking video performance, chose language, chose localisation, chose userid and computer name, password, accepted EULAs, timezone, skipped wireless, setup will continue after restarting your computer, starting windows, setup is preparing your computer for first use (took around 5 mins), software is being installed (took around 8 minutes), welcome to your new HP computer, deferred registration, skipped updates, declined Norton 60-day trial, skipped network setup, declined Norton again, rebooted. Uninstalled the following: Bing bar, McAfee Total protection service, Microsoft Office 2010 starter edition, Norton Online backup, WinZip trial version.

Installed the following: MS Office 2010 full edition, MS Security Essentials, other bits and bobs. After installing these and all current updates for Windows and Office, the C: drive had 40 GiB free of its 80 GiB.

Dual boot laptop: reviewing the effect of first Windows boot

After the first Windows boot(s), the setup has expanded sda2 to fill the unused space, as can be seen in the fdisk output in the next section.

Dual boot laptop: partitioning for Linux

I booted from a Fedora 15 installation CD, chose installation using the basic video driver (because otherwise I ended up with a blank screen, which is a problem that doesn't occur with the later HP 5330m laptop), and added partitions for a 300 GiB D: drive and for Linux as follows:
Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *        2048      616447      307200    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2          616448   168388607    83886080    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3       168388608   199845887    15728640    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda4       199845888   976773119   388463616    5  Extended
/dev/sda5       199847936   204031999     2092032    c  W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sda6       204034048   833179647   314572800    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda7       833181696   896096255    31457280   83  Linux [system 1]
/dev/sda8       896098304   959012863    31457280   83  Linux [system 2]
/dev/sda9       959014912   975792127     8388608   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda10      975794176   976773119      489472   83  Linux [boot area]

Installing Fedora 15

I chose to install Fedora 15 on the /dev/sda7 partition. This worked OK, but I had to choose Install using basic video driver from the initial menu, otherwise I got a blank / black screen when anaconda started.

Checking through facilities on the notebook:

L.S.Lowe