I have an older Dell Inspiron 11". I downloaded Mint, verified the download, and tried 3 different USB drives and it still will not boot off the USB. I also changed the boot order in setup.
Do you have the specific model of the Inspiron?
While booting do you see a “splash” to press a certain key to change boot sequence other then the bios? Sometimes it’s just “enter” key, sometimes “esc” key.
Also if this is a tower/desktop, I would suggest using rear ports as well, front ports are “wired” and can be finicky.
Does the Inspiron have a working operating system Linux or Windows installed?
If so, while its up and running, insert USB and check contents(pic).
I have been working with two Dells… as you see the Dell logo on startup hit the f12 key for one time boot options … then you should see if the usb drive is recognized …
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It’s a Dell Inspiron 11z laptop. It does have Windows 10 on it currently and is running. I did notice though that when I used Balena Etcher and it finished with the bootable USB I got an error message that said drive needed to be formatted. ??? I don’t think Windows will show the contents on the USB. I also can’t figure out how to reformat the drives to reinstall Mint. I did use 3 different USB drives. All new.
Balena will use fat32 for the drive formatting so it is fine if you format the drive first(so Windows will recognize it) and then run Balena to create the drive.
See if that route works, or you can try another writer such as Rufus.
After looking at the specs, I would suggest something a little lighter then the Cinnamon DE, maybe Ubuntu Mate, Xubuntu or Lubuntu
Ok. I’ll dl and try the Ubuntu. I appreciate the help!
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